Phillipa Soo and Steven Pasquale to Lead HIGH SPIRITS at Encores!

Tony nominee Phillipa Soo and Steven Pasquale will star in Encores! High Spirits, the first production of the 2026 Encores! Series, running February 4 - 15. The husband-and-wife duo bring their real-life chemistry to the roles of Ruth and Charles in this rarely revived, Tony-nominated musical.

Following their appearance in the 2022 production of Guys and Dolls at the Kennedy Center, this marks Soo and Pasquale’s first time performing together in New York. The pair can also be heard this summer as co-narrators of the hit Audible original romance Rich Girl Summer by Lily Chu. Pasquale’s previous appearances at City Center include the Encores! Off-Center productions of The Wild Party and Assassins.

High Spirits is directed by Tony Award winner Jessica Stone, with Encores! Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell leading The Encores! Orchestra. The production features choreography by Ellenore Scott, known for her vibrant, story-driven work on Broadway and in acclaimed productions across the country. Adapted from Noël Coward’s beloved comedy Blithe Spirit, this rarely revived musical hasn’t been heard on Broadway since its 1964 debut. 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. 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. Chaos ensues as the spectral Elvira proves to be a mischievous—and invisible—rival for Charles’s affections.