Acadia Repertory’s sagging ‘Blithe Spirit’ should improve

Somewhere in the middle of the first act of “Blithe Spirit,” which opened earlier this week at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville, my mind wandered. I suspect this was because, from time to time, Cheryl Maher, as Ruth, spoke too slowly. Robert Libbey, as Charles, clunked over his lines. Kate Kenney, as the servant, was overwrought. And Alison Cox, as the mystical Madame Arcati, reminded me of my grandmother reciting parlor poetry: charming but stilted.

This was neither the blithe nor the spirited Noel Coward I wanted. Granted, Coward’s 1941 comedy, which he twiggily wrote in seven days, is a spitfire misogynistic tract on how to make your wife disappear. Many find this play an outdated, outmoded and downright disastrous view of the sexes. And they are right.

But excuse me if I like a little musicality with my politically incorrect British repartee.

So there I was marveling at Ken Stack’s lucidly elegant set design and costumer Timothy Tucker’s luscious silk and satin gowns when – boom – the play began to click. No, the pacing never consistently zipped along, and only in pockets did the actors really sing. But there was a story there, and they told it with that cozy kind of suspense and warmth that are the exclusive domain of summer stock theaters.

Which is an accomplishment when you consider Coward’s thin plot line. True, this is one of his most popular plays – especially in regional theaters. But there’s not much to it. The novelist Charles Condomine hires Madame Arcati, a medium, to help him with research. During a seance, the ghost of his deceased wife, Elvira, gets mysteriously summoned, throwing him into a dash of nostalgia, which in turn pits him against his living wife, Ruth. There’s a twist at the end, but the upshot is: Isn’t it great to be a free man?

So what’s to like?

It comes down to this: Coward’s language is deliciously hedonistic and flippant in that post-World War I way. As much as you hate what he says, you’ve got to love the eloquence with which he says it.

Director Wayne Loui stages this production with a fine-tuned sense of entrances, which the actors carry off to greater or lesser degrees. The cast is evenly put together and so it follows that on opening night the actors were also evenly bumpy. But you can see them nearing the heart of this whimsical comedy. By the end of the show, I must admit, I was won over – not so much by Coward’s messages, which, if looked at closely, are rather dark and bleary, but by the fun this cast means to have with the show. Simply put, it’s a night of amusement – bubbly like champagne, light like a cucumber sandwich.

The experience will improve when Cheryl Maher, who is perfectly demure, gets her lines out on time, and Robert Libbey, in a role that gives him plenty of opportunity for his unique brand of jest, gets his momentum. Then there’s Catherine LeClair, as the visiting dead wife, looking strangely like Barbra Streisand with seasonal affective disorder. Couldn’t LeClair be languid and sensual without striking a pose? This is the early part of the 20th century after all, and while she livens the scenes she haunts, she’s better than the 1990s sitcom style she occasionally employs.

Alan Gallant makes a brief and respectable appearance as Dr. Bradman. Jennifer M. Wall, as his wife, is a lovely flash in the show, too, and wears the evening’s most glorious period outfit – a black dress leafed with gold.

In that same department, it’s worth mentioning Timothy Tucker’s costumes one more time. They nudge Ken Stack’s set out of the way for the greatest appearance of the night. While Tucker reworked most of the pieces from the Acadia Rep’s closets, he constructed two ethereal gowns expressly for this show. I gasped more than once at the lovely flow and grace of the women’s costumes and how perfectly they fit both the era and the performers.

This is a three-hour night of theater, and finally it’s fun theater, the likes of which give summer stock its quaint and quirky place in the stars. Nevertheless, here’s a tip: Wait a week, then go.

Acadia Repertory Theatre will perform “Blithe Spirit” 8:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through Aug. 5, and 2 p.m. Aug. 6 at the Masonic Hall in Somesville. For information or reservations, call 244-7260.