High Spirits (1964)

Music, Lyrics, and Book by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray

Directed by Greg MacKellan
Musical Director: Michael Horsley
Choreography: Douglas Graham
Additional Choreography: Isadora Stando

Playbill Notes

The composer-lyricist team of Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray started writing The Blithe Spirit Musical in the early 1950's. Following various delays that took up the better part of a decade, they presented the piece to Coward for his approval. Much to his surprise, Coward found the piece - as he later wrote in his diary - "quite brilliant. The music is melodic and delightful, the lyrics really witty, and they have done a complete book outline, keeping to my original play and yet making it effective as a musical. I really am not only relieved but delighted." Coward promptly gave his approval and plans were underway for a production to be directed by Bob Fosse and starring Gwen Verdon as Elvira, Keith Mitchell as Charles, Celeste Holm as Ruth, and Kay Thompson as Madame Arcati.

Although none of the original casting worked out, Coward was happy enough with the replacement choices that he agreed to direct the show himself. Unfortunately, the try-out period was a notoriously troubled one. Beatrice Lillie, at 70 a legendary star in New York and London, had begun exhibiting signs of what was most likely Alzheimer's disease. Her inability to retain direction and remember her lines led to serious health problems for Coward, and Gower Champion - hot off Hello, Dolly! - was brought in (uncredited) to guide the show to New York. In spite of the problems, Lillie and company managed to deliver a smash, and a long run was predicted. Perhaps because of high-powered competition (1964 was the year of Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl, and Fiddler on the Roof) High Spirits closed after a year's run of 375 performances. A London production starring Cicely Courtneidge as Acarti was not successful, and there has to date been no major New York or London revival.

-- Greg MacKellan

Plot Summary

Writer Charles Condomine hosts a séance conducted by medium Madame Arcati in the hope that he'll learn her tricks so he can use the information in his new novel. His assumption that she is a fake is proven wrong when she falls into a trance and unwittingly conjures the spirit of his late wife Elvira, although he alone can see her. His present wife Ruth believes that Charles is joking until Elvira moves into the Condomine household and proves her presence by performing poltergeist-type pranks. Elvira's plan to kill Charles so he can join her in the beyond backfires when she accidentally disposes of Ruth instead, and before long the two female apparitions are disrupting their former husband's life with their constant nagging and bickering.

Press Release

SAN FRANCISCO (25 JUNE 1997) -A man's second marriage is comically disrupted by the spectral appearance of his playful first wife in High Spirits, the 1964 musicalization of Noel Coward's comedy Blithe Spirit, to be presented in concert version by 42nd Street Moon August 7 through August 24 (preview August 6). A sophisticated score by Timothy Grey and Hugh Martin highlights this witty tale; songs include "Something is Coming to Tea" "Forever and a Day," "I Know your Heart," and "Home Sweet Heaven."

High Spirits was adapted from Noel Coward's 1941 comedy, Blithe Spirit, and was directed by Coward himself at its premiere in New York City in April, 1964, starring Edward Woodward, Beatrice Lillie, Tammy Grimes and Louise Troy. Despite myriad problems in both development and rehearsal, the show was successful, being called "a surefire musical smash" by Associated Press and "the best musical show of the season" by United Press International. High Spirits ran for a year despite competition from higher-powered musicals such as Hello, Dolly and Funny Girl, and toured for another year and a half.

In classic Noel Coward style, the dialogue of High Spirits is witty, sophisticated jibes at the British upper class and their prejudices and entertainments. Gray and Martin highlighted this style by providing a suave musical score rich in literate humor, including such lyrics as:

She was never so fierce before
She raves and rants
And wears the pants
Where is the girl I married?"

The development of the musical entailed nearly a dozen years of delay and discord. In 1952, a mutual admiration between Noel Coward and the Martin-Gray team had suggested the development of a musicalization of Blithe Spirit. At the time, the play - which been written in a creative burst in less than a week in 1940 - had performed successfully in London and New York, had been filmed in 1944 with Rex Harrison and Margaret Rutherford, and produced for the still-infant medium of television in 1946. (In 1956, two years after the writing of High Spirits began but still eight years before its premiere, a new television production starring Lauren Bacall, Claudette Colbert and Noel Coward himself would appear on CBS-TV's Four Star Jubilee.)

Martin and Gray, who between them had multiple writing, composing, and performance credits including vocal arrangements for The Boys from Syracuse and material written for Tallulah Bankhead, Peggy Lee and Mickey Rooney, began the project enthusiastically; but Martin's ideas for the musicalization startled Coward so much that he revoked the rights. Nevertheless, the composers forged ahead, hoping to win Coward over with the irresistible charm of the music. When the two finally presented the score to a skeptical Coward, he pronounced it "brilliant ... the music is melodic and delightful, the lyrics really witty... I really am not only relieved but delighted."

Once staged, the production was somewhat hampered by the erratic behavior of acclaimed comic actress Beatrice Lillie as Madame Arcati. Although she became the play's greatest attraction and received superlative praise from critics, she exhibited during rehearsals what might have been signs of Alzheimer's disease: repeatedly forgetting lines, staging, and comic bits. At the end of the first week, the entire staff voted to fire her; and it was only due to Coward's fortunate intervention that she stayed, earning critical bouquets for her triumphant final Broadway appearance.

The cast of 42nd Street Moon's High Spirits includes Kelly Ground as the wife, Ruth; Stephanie Rhoads as the mischievous deceased wife, Elvira; Joseph Lustig as Charles Condomine, the razzled husband and inadvertent bigamist; and Winifred Freedman as Madame Arcati, the eccentric medium who proves the catalyst to the hilariously disastrous unfolding.