- HIGH SPIRITS
Music book and lyrics by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray, based
on Noel Coward's play Blithe Spirit
Original London cast: Cicely Courtneidge, Marti Stevens, Denis
Quilley, Jan Waters md Michael Moores.
Was She Prettier Than I?; The Bicycle Song; You'd Better Love
Me; Where Is The Man I Married?; Go Into Your Trance; Forever
And A Day; Something Tells Me; I Know Your Heart; Faster Than
Sound; If I Gave You; Talking To You; Home Sweet Heaven; Something
Is Coming To Tea; What In The World Did You Want?
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- In the mid-1960s, there was a marked revival of interest
in the works of the Master, with a National Theatre production
of Hay Fever attracting good reviews, despite Edith Evans having
problems remembering the lines. It seemed as if anything to do
with Coward might again be in fashion. One can only feel sorry
for the writers of High Spirits, which did not much raise those
of critics or patrons when it opened at the Savoy Theatre in
November 1964, not because High Spirits was not the best musical
of the decade (it
wasn't) but because they suffered from Cowardism. Having moulded
their show from Coward's classic play, they (and directors Gray
and Graham Payn) had to suffer the ignominy of having the whole
thing 'supervised by Noel Coward'. Cicely Courtneidge, as Madame
Arcati making her final appearance in a West End musical, was
bitterly unhappy with him, finding him cruel.
-
- He, of course, was initially over the moon about her and
then (true to form) not at all happy with her. He had already
been driven to distraction by the antics of Beatrice Lillie playing
Arcati in the earlier Broadway production, although those antics
had been a major reason for the show becoming a solid hit. Still,
Martin and Gray had constructed a jolly enough evening, with
a pretty and workmanlike if undistinguished score: its
highlight was undoubtedly its 'list' love song 'If I Gave You',
reminiscent of the old favourite 'The Keys Of Heaven', but no
worse for that when sung here by Jan Waters (an excellent Ruth)
and reliable Denis Quilley as haunted Charles Condomine. They
do everything that could be done for the material at hand. Coward
found the originally cast Elvira, Fenella Fielding, impossible
to work with, and replaced her with an American chum Marti Stevens.
-
- She made a convincingly spooky Elvira, bewitching her ex-husband
with the alluring 'You'd Better Love Me (While You May)', a song
that somehow just failed to establish itself. Dame Cicely had
a wonderfully busy and noisy arrival on stage, pedalling into
view with the madly enthusiastic chorus to 'The Bicycle Song',
one of the highlights of the show that transfers excellently
to record, but her other numbers are not up too much. And there
isn't too much for posterity to worry about in the rest of the
score, with a suspicion that the songs are paying service to
the libretto. Ever present is one of the loudest and most proficient
orchestras imaginable under Michael Moores, working up a marvellous
frenzy in the energetic first act finale, 'Faster Than Sound'.
Despite its all too brief run of 93 performances, the London
recording, in a first class production by Tony Hatch and Allan
Freeman, is preferable to the original Broadway version (whose
cast included the gravel-voiced Tammy Grimes as Elvira and, as
Charles, Edward Woodward).
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