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High Spirits (musical)
Encyclopedia
High Spirits is a musical
with a book, lyrics, and music by Hugh Martin
and Timothy Gray
, based on the play Blithe Spirit
by Noël Coward
, about a man's problems caused by the spirit of his dead wife.
Martin and Gray adhered closely to Coward's original text, although they expanded the medium
's character to make it the star role. The playwright
was delighted with their adaptation, then entitled Faster Than Sound, and agreed to direct it himself. The cast included Edward Woodward
as Charles, Tammy Grimes
as Elvira, Louise Troy
as Ruth, and Beatrice Lillie
as Madame Arcati.
as Charles, Gwen Verdon
as Elvira, Celeste Holm
as Ruth, and Kay Thompson
as Madame Arcati, with Danny Daniels
as choreographer. Coward's dream cast failed to materialize, but he continued with the project. After fourteen previews, the Broadway
production opened on April 7, 1964 at the Alvin Theatre
, where it ran for 375 performances. Gower Champion
aided Coward in directing the musical. Christopher Walken
, billed as "Ronnie Walken" was in the chorus. The production was nominated for eight Tony Awards but did not win any. Other major musical nominees that same year (1964) were Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly!
and most major Tony wins went to the latter. An original cast recording was released on the ABC Paramount label and the subsequent CD by MCA
.
Coward also directed the West End
production, which opened in November 1964 at the Savoy Theatre
, where it ran for 93 performances. The cast included Denis Quilley
as Charles, Marti Stevens as Elvira, Jan Waters
as Ruth, and Cicely Courtneidge
as Madame Arcati. A London cast album was released by Pye Records
, for whom Coward himself also recorded four numbers from the show, "Something Tells Me"; "If I Gave You"; "Forever and a Day"; and "Home Sweet Heaven".
42nd Street Moon theatre company of San Francisco, California, presented a concert version of the musical in March - April 2009.
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.
Act II
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
with a book, lyrics, and music by Hugh Martin
Hugh Martin
Hugh Martin was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He is best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me In St...
and Timothy Gray
Timothy Gray
Not to be confused with the Editor-in-Chief of Variety Timothy M. Gray, or American football player Tim Gray.Timothy Gray was an American songwriter, author, singer and director, remembered for his partnership with Hugh Martin which produced High Spirits, a musical based on Noel Coward's play,...
, based on the play Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit (play)
Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to...
by Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
, about a man's problems caused by the spirit of his dead wife.
Martin and Gray adhered closely to Coward's original text, although they expanded the medium
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
's character to make it the star role. The playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
was delighted with their adaptation, then entitled Faster Than Sound, and agreed to direct it himself. The cast included Edward Woodward
Edward Woodward
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE was an English stage and screen actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , Woodward began his career on stage, and throughout his career he appeared in productions in both the West End in London and on Broadway in New York...
as Charles, Tammy Grimes
Tammy Grimes
-Early life:Grimes was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eola Willard , a naturalist and spiritualist, and Nicholas Luther Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended high school at the then-all girls school, Beaver Country Day School, in Chestnut Hill,...
as Elvira, Louise Troy
Louise Troy
Louise Troy was an American actress of stage and screen. She is best known for her performances in Tovarich and Walking Happy , both of which she was nominated for a Tony Award...
as Ruth, and Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...
as Madame Arcati.
Productions
Originally, Coward hoped to cast Keith MichellKeith Michell
Keith Michell is an Australian actor, particularly noted for his television and film performances as King Henry VIII of England.- Early life :He was born in Adelaide and brought up in Warnertown, near Port Pirie...
as Charles, Gwen Verdon
Gwen Verdon
Gwenyth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon was an actress and dancer who won four Tony awards for her musical comedy performances. With flaming red hair and an endearing quaver in her voice, Verdon was a critically acclaimed dancer on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s...
as Elvira, Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm is an American stage, film, and television actress, known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman's Agreement , as well as for her Oscar-nominated performances in Come to the Stable and All About Eve...
as Ruth, and Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson was an American author, composer, musician, actress and singer. She is best known as the creator of the Eloise children's books.-Background:Catherine Louise Fink was born in St...
as Madame Arcati, with Danny Daniels
Danny Daniels
Danny Daniels is an American choreographer, tap dancer, and teacher.Daniels was a featured dancer in several 1940s Broadway musicals, including Billion Dollar Baby, Street Scene, and Kiss Me, Kate; although he continued performing during the 1950s and after, including a tour with the Agnes de Mille...
as choreographer. Coward's dream cast failed to materialize, but he continued with the project. After fourteen previews, the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production opened on April 7, 1964 at the Alvin Theatre
Neil Simon Theatre
The Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway venue built in 1927 and located at 250 West 52nd Street in midtown-Manhattan....
, where it ran for 375 performances. Gower Champion
Gower Champion
Gower Carlyle Champion was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.-Early years:Champion was born in Geneva, Illinois, the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School...
aided Coward in directing the musical. Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
, billed as "Ronnie Walken" was in the chorus. The production was nominated for eight Tony Awards but did not win any. Other major musical nominees that same year (1964) were Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly!
Hello, Dolly! (musical)
Hello, Dolly! is a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955....
and most major Tony wins went to the latter. An original cast recording was released on the ABC Paramount label and the subsequent CD by MCA
Music Corporation of America
MCA, Inc. was an American talent agency. Initially starting in the music business, they would next become a dominant force in the film business, and later expanded into the television business...
.
Coward also directed the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production, which opened in November 1964 at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
, where it ran for 93 performances. The cast included Denis Quilley
Denis Quilley
Denis Clifford Quilley OBE was an English theatre, television and film actor who was long associated with the Royal National Theatre....
as Charles, Marti Stevens as Elvira, Jan Waters
Jan Waters
Jan Waters is an English actress of the theatre, television, and film. She was particularly active in the London theatre scene during the 1960s and 1970s, notably appearing in the original West End productions of Jule Styne's Do Re Mi and Noel Coward's High Spirits...
as Ruth, and Cicely Courtneidge
Cicely Courtneidge
Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge DBE was an English actress and comedienne. The daughter of the producer Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End, by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.After the...
as Madame Arcati. A London cast album was released by Pye Records
Pye Records
Pye Records was a British record label. In its first incarnation, perhaps Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan , Petula Clark , The Searchers , The Kinks , Sandie Shaw and Brotherhood of Man...
, for whom Coward himself also recorded four numbers from the show, "Something Tells Me"; "If I Gave You"; "Forever and a Day"; and "Home Sweet Heaven".
42nd Street Moon theatre company of San Francisco, California, presented a concert version of the musical in March - April 2009.
Synopsis
Writer Charles Condomine hosts a séanceSéance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
conducted by medium
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
Madame Arcati in the hope that he'll learn her tricks so he can use the information in his new novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
. 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
Poltergeist
A poltergeist is a paranormal phenomenon which consists of events alluding to the manifestation of an imperceptible entity. Such manifestation typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, sentient noises and, on some occasions, physical attacks on those witnessing the...
-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.
Song list
Act I- Was She Prettier Than I? -Ruth
- The Bicycle Song -Arcati and ensemble
- You'd Better Love Me - Elvira
- Where Is the Girl I Married? - Charles and Ruth
- The Sandwich Man -Instrumental
- Go Into Your Trance - Arcati and Beatniks
- Where Is the Man I Married? (Reprise)- Charles and Ruth
- Forever and a Day - Charles
- Something Tells Me - Elvira
- I Know Your Heart - Elvira and Charles
- Faster Than Sound - Elvira and Ensemnble
Act II
- If I Gave You -Ruth and Charles
- Talking to You - Arcati
- Home Sweet Heaven -Elvira
- Something Is Coming to Tea -Arcati and Beatniks
- The Exorcism -Instrumental
- What In the World Did You Want? - Charles, Ruth and Elvira
- Faster Than Sound (Reprise) - the company
Tony Award nominations
- Best Musical
- Best Composer and Lyricist
- Best Author of a Musical
- Best Actress in a Musical (Beatrice Lillie)
- Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Louise Troy)
- Best Choreography
- Best Direction of a Musical (Noel CowardNoël CowardSir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
) - Best Conductor and Musical Director