Encores! High Spirits ★★★★

By The Recs RDC - Randall David Cook 3 weeks ago

‘High Spirits’ Returns, Bouncy and Blithe

When New York City Center Encores! began in the mid-1990s, its mission was to celebrate and preserve the legacy of American musicals that were rarely heard and often overlooked, and it did so in concert-style performances replete with performers having scripts either in hand or on music stands. The explosive success of Chicago in 1996 changed the game, and with that show’s transfer to Broadway, the scripts and stands in successive shows would appear for an opening scene or two, only to be whisked offstage as the productions became less like concerts and more like full-blown showcase productions. Moreover, in recent years, the pretense of doing lesser-known musicals has been fading; no one can state with a serious face that Into the Woods (2022 Encores!) or the upcoming La Cage aux Folles (June 2026) needs to be saved from obscurity.

All of which makes it a delight to report that High Spirits, the first show of this Encores! season, not only returned the series to its mission but also did so in fine form. This revival just closed after its scheduled two-week engagement, and being so firmly of its time, is unlikely to engender talk of a transfer. But hopefully this production — the first in New York since the show’s original, Tony-nominated run in 1964, where it was up against Hello, Dolly! and Funny Girl — will remind artistic directors of theaters large and small that this charming show deserves to be produced

more.

Images by Joan Marcus

High Spirits is a musicalized version of Noël Coward’s beloved Blithe Spirit, a comedy about Charles Condomine, an English novelist having to deal with the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, who is accidentally summoned during a séance. With the full cooperation of Coward, show creators Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray wisely kept all of his best zingers (“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit” drew appreciative murmurs from the audience) as they added a bevy of fantastic songs. Charles and his second wife, Ruth, have two superb duets, “Where Is The Man I Married?” and “If I Gave You,” and both wives get exquisite solos, including Elvira’s “Home Sweet Heaven,” which has much delicious wordplay:

                   It’s very simple

                   No angel choirs

                   But we have stereo and merry open fires

                   Caruso sings there

                   Salome swings there

                   In my home sweet heaven

So far, so good.

Not to be a strict classicist, but it’s when High Spirits departs from Blithe Spirit that the musical’s weaker seams begin to show. Coward’s play never leaves the Condomine house, but the musical does frequently — possibly to justify a chorus and dance numbers — and each time it happens, the show loses a bit of its edge, as the drama derives from Charles being trapped in a house with two spouses, one of whom is seven years dead but has returned to engage in witty banter. Moreover, opportunities for improvement are not taken; Charles and Edith (the maid) are arguably underwritten in Coward’s play, and in Martin and Gray’s take, remain a tad frustratingly thin.

The biggest and most noticeable change the musical makes, however, is the elevation of Madame Arcati from supporting to lead player. Madame Arcati is, like Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest and Shakespeare’s Mistress Quickly, one of the great character parts for mature actresses who want to chew the scenery, so it’s easy to see why the show’s creators were tempted to bump up that role. However, because everything Madame Arcati does of consequence happens in the Condomine house, anytime she’s not there — which is often — her numbers do not push the story forward. 

Not that they’re bad. In fact, they’re highly entertaining, and in this production, with the Broadway treasure that is Andrea Martin as Madame Arcati, they work in the moment if not for the good of the whole. Because, come on: IT’S ANDREA MARTIN. “The Bicycle Song” has Martin and the chorus riding or pretending to ride bikes (the sensationally fun choreography is by Ellenore Scott), “Go Into Your Trance” lets the chorus rip into a fab Fosse-esque routine, and “Talking To You” gives Martin the sublimely silly opportunity to sing a love song to her Ouija board:

 

                   When we’re apart, I get an itch

                   To touch you.

                   My foolish fingers fairly twitch

                   To clutch you.

Encores! is perfect for imperfect musicals, and this frothy revival of High Spirits reminds us why. Director Jessica Stone (the Tony-winning Kimberly Akimbo) cleverly makes the most of the minimal set, Mary-Mitchell Campbell conducts the great-sounding orchestra with aplomb, and everyone in the first-rate cast is splendid. In addition to the marvelous Martin, Katrina Lenk is a ravishing, sassy Elvira; Rachel Dratch wrings out every possible laugh for Edith; Campbell Scott and Jennifer Sánchez make a fine Dr. and Violet Bradman, with the debonair Scott also doubling as Coward himself for narration purposes; and Steven Pasquale is dashing and droll as Charles. Perhaps the biggest revelation is Phillipa Soo, who unexpectedly gets to let loose by tightening up; her prim and proper Ruth steals almost every scene she’s in. Death truly becomes her.

To this buoyant revival of an imperfect gem: Bung-ho!

★★★★ 4 stars

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