Character Breakdown: HIGH SPIRITS Cast Unpacks Their Roles

Performances have officially begun for the first production of the 2026 Encores! season, High Spirits. Directed by Tony Award nominee Jessica Stone and Encores! Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell with choreography by Ellenore Scott, this rarely revived musical is adapted from Noël Coward’s beloved comedy Blithe Spirit. The spectral Broadway rarity promises haunted hilarity and a brassy, swinging score by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray that hasn’t been heard on Broadway since its 1964 debut. What's it all about?

Coward’s story follows novelist Charles Condomine and his wife Ruth, whose marriage is upended when the eccentric medium Madame Arcati unwittingly conjures the ghost of Charles’s late first wife, Elvira.

Andrea Martin plays Madame Arcati. "There's a little bit of everything with this character. [She] is so beautifully eccentric," Martin explained. "At a certain point with Encores! you really have to say to yourself, 'Listen, whatever happens, happens.' It's clearly not enough time at all to really dig into who these characters are. It really depends so much on your attitude toward the parts and can you have fun? That's what I'm trying to do!"

Watch in this video as the cast unpacks their roles and learn more about the show.