Judy Kaye & Christine Andreas to Star in HIGH SPIRITS 60th Anniversary Concert In January
The performance will be held on Monday, January 6, 2025, at 7pm.
54 Below will present High Spirits: The 60th Anniversary Concert of an Improbable Musical Comedy. The Tony Award-nominated 1964 Broadway musical, with music, lyrics and book by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray, based on Noël Coward's classic play Blithe Spirit, will materialize in an intimate immersive concert staging for one performance only on Monday, January 6, 2025, at 7pm. The performance will also be livestreamed.
Starring two-time Tony Award winner and Theatre World Award winner Judy Kaye (Diana The Musical, Nice Work if You Can Get It, Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia!), two-time Tony Award nominee and Theatre World Award winner Christine Andreas (On Your Toes, Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, La Cage aux Folles revival), Joy Franz (Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pippin), Tony Award nominee and Theatre World Award winner Walter Willison (Grand Hotel, Two by Two, Pippin, A Christmas Carol), and more to be announced, with special guest star Adrienne Angel (Peter Pan; Promises, Promises; First Impressions; Show Boat national tour), from the original 1964 Broadway cast of High Spirits, now one of the most prominent singing teachers in New York, whose roster of celebrity students includes Cher and Bernadette Peters, who dubbed her “The best voice teacher in the world!”
The concert is produced, directed, adapted and hosted by Walter Willison, who appeared in the 1965 West Coast Premiere of High Spirits which starred Carolyn Jones, Mary Wickes, Michael Allinson, and concert guest star Adrienne Angel. Music direction is by James Woods (AMAS' Distant Thunder), and costume coordination by Mitchell Bloom (27 Broadway shows, The Metropolitan Opera).
In High Spirits, mystery novelist Charles Condomine gives a séance to debunk the high-spirited medium Madame Arcati, but his plan backfires when, much to the consternation of his current wife, Ruth, the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, shows up, to the tune of “You'd Better Love Me (While You May)”, one of the most recorded and performed songs of the 1960s. Will the happy medium succeed in exorcising Elvira before the mischievous manifestation succeeds in bumping off Charles so they can love happily ever after in her “Home Sweet Heaven”? Not before the cast has performed Martin and Gray's otherworldly score. If you're in the mood for an uplifting evening of mysticism, mayhem and musical merriment, as the songwriters wrote, “Something Tells Me (Tonight is the Night)”!
High Spirits opened on Broadway on April 7, 1964, starring Beatrice Lille, Tammy Grimes, Edward Woodward and Louise Troy, directed by Noël Coward, and received eight Tony Award nominations. In the same season as Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly!, High Spirits garnered nominations for Best Musical, Best Author, Best Composer and Lyricist, Best Direction, Best Actress, Best Featured Actress, Best Choreography, and Best Conductor and Musical Director.
Cover charges are $62 (includes $7 in fees) to $73 (includes $8 in fees). Premiums are $117 (includes $12 in fees) to $122.50 (includes $12.50 in fees). $25 food & beverage minimum. Tickets for the Livestream on January 6 at 7pm are $28.50 (includes $3.50 in fees). Tickets and information are available at 54below.org/events/high-spirits Tickets on the day of performance after 4:00pm are only available by calling (646) 476-3551. 54 Below, Broadway's Living Room, is located at 254 West 54th Street, Cellar, NYC 10019.
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