The premise of High Spirits is irresistible: a man's dead ex-wife returns as a ghost to torment his second marriage. The Encores! production — directed by Jessica Stone with a brassy 29-piece orchestra — gives the rarely revived musical a warm, swinging sheen. The script is tight and genuinely funny. So why does the evening drag?
Because half the songs don't earn their existence. In a good musical, characters sing when emotion demands it — when speech alone can't contain what they're feeling. Here, too often, the plot just... pauses for a pleasant little number. Madame Arcati alone gets "The Bicycle Song," "Go Into Your Trance," and "Something Is Coming to Tea" — all charming, none essential. I'm someone who would have argued there's no such thing as too many charm songs in a musical. High Spirits proved me wrong. I found myself tapping my foot not to the beat but in impatience, which is a rare and unwelcome feeling for me in a theater. At two and a half hours, the show desperately needed trimming.
Phillipa Soo is the standout as Ruth — her "Was She Prettier Than I?" lands with real bite, and she finds unexpected physical comedy in a role that could easily be the thankless straight woman. Rachel Dratch does a lot with criminally little: her name is first on the playbill, but the maid role gives her maybe 20 distinct words to work with. Still, she makes scurrying across the stage saying "Yes, ma'am" funny on the tenth repetition, which is a real gift. Andrea Martin brings her trademark physicality to Madame Arcati, though the role begs for someone to go even bigger and truly devour the stage. Steven Pasquale's tenor occasionally disappeared under the orchestra, and Katrina Lenk's Elvira sometimes suffered the same fate — the band sounded gorgeous, but the balance wasn't always there. The paranormal effects, on the other hand, are simple but surprisingly effective for a bare-bones concert staging where most of the cast is still reading from binders.
The ending is the real missed opportunity: it seemed to be building toward a neat, funny payoff centered on Dratch's Edith, the maid — who turns out to be a natural medium — but then it just... didn't. It's giving Death Becomes Her, another supernatural comedy with forgettable songs — but that one was routinely hilarious with impeccable staging.
High Spirits is a diverting enough night at the theater, but it's a reminder that a great play doesn't always make a great musical.