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NOTE: This is an archived version of this newsletter. Not all shows and offers still apply. Some links may no longer be accessible.

We recently had the chance to meet the starry cast of Blithe Spirit, the Noël Coward comedy about a socialite and novelist named Charles Condomine who is haunted by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira.  After being summoned at a séance, she tries her best to disrupt Charles’s second marriage.  One of Coward’s most popular comedies, Blithe Spirit returns to Broadway in a new production at the Shubert Theatre, with previews beginning later this month. 

Our correspondent Roxanne Rodriguez asked each cast member the following question:
If you could come back as a ghost and visit someone, who would it be?

Angela Lansbury – The four-time Tony Award®-winning actress, also known for her long-running appearance in “Murder, She Wrote,” plays the psychic Madame Arcati.
“I'm so old that it doesn't really apply to me!  No, I'd love to come back to see my grandchildren unbeknownst.  I would love to observe their children and their children's children.”

Rupert Everett – the celebrated British stage and film star (My Best Friend’s Wedding, An Ideal Husband) makes his Broadway debut as Charles Condomine.
“I'd visit Obama and make sure that he was getting everything straight.”

Jayne Atkinson – a past Tony-nominee for Enchanted April and The Rainmaker, and well known for appearances on television's "24."  She plays Charles’s second wife, Ruth.
“I would want to visit my husband and make sure that he was happy...and if he wasn't, I'd find out a way to make him happy.  I'd do funny things like put on the

stereo with our favorite song.  I'd do things only he and I knew about.  I would come back as a ghost so I could make him see me as a ghost and have him finally believe in the spirit world.”

Christine Ebersole – The Tony-winning star of Grey Gardens and 42nd Street plays the ghost Elvira.
“In the spirit of the show, I'd visit Noël Coward.”

Simon Jones – a Broadway veteran and star of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” plays Dr. Bradman.

“I'd like to know my grandparents when they were young.  I never knew my grandfather, and I only knew my grandmother as she was older.  It would be nice to see them as young people.”

Deborah Rush – a past Tony Award-nominee for Noises Off, plays Mrs. Bradman.
“I wouldn’t visit anyone in particular.  I'd project myself into the future rather than the past.  I'd go forward.”

Susan Louise O'Connor – is making her Broadway debut in the role of Edith.
“I would visit Emily Dickinson. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in her house. You'd find out so many things about her that you'd never know otherwise. She was such a private person. I'm thinking about her because she wrote the tag on my tea today."

Get tickets to Blithe Spirit
Visit the official Blithe Spirit website

With President Obama and his family now officially residing in Washington and Presidents’ Day coming up, the White House has been on our minds this month.  Did you know that Broadway and the presidency have a long shared history? Do your civic duty and rack your brain to answer these questions about U. S. Presidents, actual and factual, who have been seen on Broadway.

1.  Which President appears as a character in the musical Annie? (Hint: This was a big – and “new” – deal!) 

2.  Which performer won a Tony Award® for his portrayal of John Wilkes Booth, the actor who shot President Lincoln, in the Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Assassins?

3.  Which recent David Mamet play starring Nathan Lane featured the misadventures of a President preparing to pardon a turkey just before Thanksgiving? 

4.  What Gershwin-scored musical chronicles the presidential campaign of a nominee who runs on the platform of “love”? Hint: it was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

5.  Which Tony Award®-winning actress is currently appearing as the President of the United States in the popular thriller TV show “24”?

6.  In 1776, which future President’s wife sings that she loves him because “He Plays the Violin”?

7.  Leonard Bernstein wrote the music for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a presidential flop that only lasted seven performances.  Which far more successful Bernstein musical returns to Broadway this March?

8.  What recent Tony-nominated Best Play about a former U.S. President and a celebrity interviewer is now both a Hollywood movie

starring its original Broadway star, Frank Langella, and also a national touring stage production starring Stacy Keach?

9.  Which famous presidential wife did Broadway favorite Laura Linney win a Golden Globe for playing in a recent TV miniseries?

10.  Which very recent President is the subject of Will Ferrell’s current Broadway one-man show titled (in part) You’re Welcome, America...?

View Answers

If you're looking for some great Valentine’s Day ideas on Broadway, why not stop by the Broadway Concierge & Ticket Center for some helpful tips on putting together a special night out for your favorite guy or gal?  The friendly and knowledgeable staff at the Center can suggest many romantic evenings.  Here are two examples:

For the Sporty Guy

• Grab dinner at ESPN Zone (1472 Broadway; 212-921-3776)
• Catch The 39 Steps at the Helen Hayes Theatre
• Hit the “lovers’ lanes” at Leisure Time Bowl (Inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 625 8th Avenue; 212-736-2695).

- or -

For the NYC Gal

• Enjoy a custom-made pie at the legendary John’s Pizza (260 West 44th Street; 212-391-7560)
• See In the Heights at the Richard Rodgers Theatre
• Sip mojitos with the locals at Hell’s Kitchen (679 9th Avenue; 212-977-1588).

Q: How do cordless mics work? When are they turned on? Who controls them

and makes sure that they're not on while actors are offstage? Are the mics turned off when the actors are onstage, but don't have any lines or songs?

A: We passed on your questions to Scott Lehrer, the sound designer of South Pacific.  He won the first-ever Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Musical for that show in 2008:

Cordless mics (or RF mics, as in “radio frequency”) are small lavalier mics, like you see on TV newscasters’ lapels, wired to miniature battery-powered radio transmitters that broadcast on an otherwise unused UHF television frequency. An offstage receiver

picks up the signal, and that receiver is wired to the audio mixing console in the back of the theatre. Through careful frequency coordination we can often use 30 or 40 RF mics in a show.

When the crew comes in at show call, our backstage audio people "battery up" and test the RF mics. From that point on the mics are not shut off until the show is over. The sound people distribute the mics and receivers, and the actors (with the help of costumers and hair people) hide them in their costumes and hair before going out on stage.

Each actor has their own channel on the mixing console. It is the responsibility of the mix engineer in the house to bring up those channels only when the actors have line cues, are singing, or are doing stage business that the audience should hear. If too many mics are left on, the overall sonic impression for the audience is hollow, and it’s difficult to understand the actors' speech. The engineer must balance the mics musically and hit their cues with pinpoint timing.  Mixing a show is truly one of the most demanding and unheralded creative jobs in musical theatre.

Of course everybody has stories that vary from hilarious to horrifying of wireless mics being mistakenly left up when actors go off stage. After that's happened to you (and the actor) once, you try your hardest to make sure it never happens again!

If you have a question for the Broadway Concierge, please e-mail us at fanclub@broadway.org and we will answer it in an upcoming issue of the Broadway Fan Club Newsletter.  Don’t forget to include your name and city!

This program now takes place monthly, with March and April tickets now available in New York.  KNOB events take place in other cities too.

Kids also have the chance to eat dinner with the stars by participating in The Kids Table.  KNOB National Ambassador Rosie O’Donnell will host the first Kids Table event in March.  Kids’ Night also involves many educational programs, as well as parking and restaurant deals. Visit KidsNightonBroadway.com for info.

Here are some shots from the 2009 KNOB kick-off events in February.

Jane Fonda is Blogging
Now you can follow the day-to-day activities of this two-time Oscar-winner, currently starring in Broadway’s 33 Variations.  Fonda plays a mother coming to terns with her daughter in this new American play by Moisés Kaufman set in present-day New York and 19th-century Austria.  More…

Chicago is Blogging – from Thailand
The national tour of the musical Chicago has flown across the Pacific – razzle-dazzling audiences in Bangkok. Two of the show’s leading ladies, Roz Ryan (“Matron Mama Morton”) and Terra MacLeod (“Velma Kelly”) are blogging about their adventure here. Next stateside stop, in late February: the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in Chicago, Il.

Going the Distance with Grease
“American Idol” veteran Taylor Hicks, who is currently starring as the Teen Idol in the national tour of Grease, has been busy in the recording studio.  Last month he released “What’s Right Is Right,” a new single of off his upcoming new album, The Distance. The album will be available March 10.  Grease visits Baltimore, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in the next two months.

Norman Conquers Broadway
The first Broadway revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman

Conquests, a comic trilogy of plays, arrives on Broadway this spring after a sold-out run in London. The three plays, each of which takes place simultaneously in one room of a country house in England, will rotate performances throughout the week.  Previews begin April 7 at Circle in the Square.

LuPone Rocks Television
Having won a 2008 Tony Award® for her performance in Gypsy, Patti LuPone’s next acting gig will be as a guest star on hit NBC sitcom “30 Rock.” She will be playing the mother of Judah Freilander’s slacker staff writer character Frank. Playing a TV mom should be no stretch for LuPone, as she also recently guest starred on ABC’s “Ugly Betty” as the mother of Michael Urie’s flamboyant character, Marc.  Speaking of “Ugly Betty,” Broadway heartthrob Cheyenne Jackson has just signed on for a guest-starring role in that series.

San Francisco Goes Green for Wicked
Last week major San Francisco monuments were bathed in green light in the evening to celebrate the return of Wicked.  The smash Broadway hit had a tryout in the city by the bay in 2003. The show is now back at the Orpheum Theatre in an open-ended run.

Rent on Tour and DVD
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway on Blu-ray Disc and DVD.  Both disks feature a film of the final Broadway performance in September, plus numerous original featurettes.  Meanwhile, the national tour Rent starring original Broadway cast members Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal is coming soon to a city near you. 

Bear Market for Broadway
Broadway’s cuddliest friends kick off a new year with the 12th annual Broadway Bears auction on Sunday, February 15, at the B.B. King Blues Club & Grill.  These 40 one-of-a-kind Broadway Bears – each dressed in original, handmade costumes representing some of the theatre’s most legendary performers and/or performances – will be sold at auction to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. For more info, and to preview the collection, visit BroadwayCares.org.

Welcome Back!

This spring Broadway welcomes a number of stars who have been absent from the Great White Way for many years, in some cases, decades.  Here are a few examples, along with the number of years since their last Broadway opening night, and their current Broadway show:

Quiz Answers
1.  Franklin D. Roosevelt
2.  Michael Cerveris
3.  November
4.  Of Thee I Sing
5.  Cherry Jones
6.  Thomas Jefferson
7.  West Side Story
8.  Frost/Nixon by Peter Morgan
9.  Abigail Adams
10.  George W. Bush