Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The delightfully on-script revival of the tuneful yet bizarre musical HIGH SPIRITS harkens back to the Encores! of old

• By drediman
• February 6, 2026
• No Comments

The 2026 season of New York City Center’s Encores! series commenced this week with the first major New York revival of High Spirits, songwriters Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray’s delightfully tuneful but admittedly bizarre 1964 musical adaptation of Noël Coward’s “Blithe Spirit”, which tells the story of one Charles Condomine, a British novelist who accidentally summons his late first wife Elvira during a séance, in the process causing havoc on his marriage with his current wife Ruth. Although their adaptation of Coward’s classic comedy adheres more or less to that play’s original dialogue, Martin and Gray have also increased the scope of the underlying premise, particularly in order to accommodate the expansion of the role of the kooky medium Madame Arcati, originally played by Beatrice Lillie to great acclaim. Although the additions are at times awkward, they accommodate the inclusion of the big production numbers expected of a splashy Broadway musical.

As a welcome opportunity for musical theater aficionados to sink their teeth into this all-but-forgotten show, this is exactly the kind of programming that makes this beloved City Center series so indispensable. And with its relatively simple staging and heavy reliance on physical scripts, the Jessica Stone-helmed production refreshingly harkens back to the Encores! of old. Unlike the recent close-to-Broadway-ready entries in the series, this revival of High Spirits is delightfully off-the-cuff, trading in polish for on-script shenanigans. Despite leading to the occasional hiccup — which is part of the fun — the resulting performance was deliciously in-the-moment, with most of the time and effort put into the deluxe music-making (Martin is perhaps best known of penning the songs for the 1944 classic movie musical Meet Me in St. Louis). As exuberantly played by a luxurious 29-piece orchestra under the very capable baton of music director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, the songs invariably sparkled, and I found myself unconsciously tapping my toes to songs such as “You’d Better Love Me” and “Home Sweet Heaven”.

For the production, Encores! has assembled a cast of high profile stage veterans. As led by Phillipa Soo (Ruth), Steven Pasquale (Charles), Andrea Martin (Madame Arcati), and Katrina Lenk (Elvira), the performances were already full of character detailing, even despite production’s limited rehearsal time. Indeed, the performances will only get better by the end of the limited run. The real life couple of Soo and Pasquale brought believable squabbling friction to their onstage marital relationship (they also sang like a dream), while Martin and Lenk — both deserved Tony-winners for their highly distinctive brand of acting, if not necessarily their vocal prowess — lit up the stage with their more colorful roles, to whom the more elaborate production numbers have been assigned. Also featured in the company are Jennifer Sánchez, Rachel Dratch, and Campbell Sott, each of whom were just about ideal in their smaller supporting roles. Lastly, the hard-working ensemble was wonderful, bringing pep and personality to Ellenore Scott’s “Rich Man’s Frug”-inspired choreography.

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HIGH SPIRITS
Off-Broadway, Musical
New York City Center
2 hours, 15 minutes (with one intermission)
Through February 15