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Review – Kiss Me Kate, Barbican Theatre, London, 11th July 2024

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There aren’t many musicals where there isn’t a duff song in the entire score, but Cole Porter’s fantastic Kiss Me Kate is one of them. The very definition of an Evergreen show, the new production at the Barbican features an eye-catching set, a lush orchestra and a quirkily talented cast; and it seemed a perfect opportunity to catch up with the old thing.

It was also an opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with the Barbican Theatre – it’s been an extraordinary 38 years since we were last there! And I’d forgotten what a pleasant experience it is. A huge stage, comfortable seats, terrific sightlines and a plethora of bars, cafes and toilets. I wonder what they did to upset us so much that we had to wait so long for a revisit?!

Porter’s musical retelling of The Taming of the Shrew sees actor/producer Fred Graham trying out the show in Baltimore as Petruchio opposite his starry ex, Lilli Vanessi, as Katherine. Lilli has moved on, and is now being courted by General Harrison Howell, a military bigwig who’ll promise her the earth – for at least three months. But for now, Fred and Lilli have to rub along together as best as they can for the sake of the show. Meanwhile second billing male, Bill Calhoun (Lucentio) is dating second billing female, Lois Lane (Bianca). No sooner does he earn money than he loses it through gambling; and he’s just signed a $10k IOU for one big night’s losses. However, he signed it as Fred Graham; so when two heavy gangsters turn up at the theatre to put pressure on, it’s Fred they target, not Bill. It turns out that these gangsters have an artistic streak; but not enough to prevent them from threatening Lilli when she decides she’s going to walk out of the production. Honestly, if you haven’t seen it before, it’s very easily understood when it’s acted out.

Whilst the story is good fun – although alarmingly misogynistic in some respects, just like Taming of the Shrew is – the prime interest in seeing this show is in the music. It would be unforgivable if the production cut out any of the songs; but as soon as I opened the programme, I saw that not only were we missing Were Thine That Special Face, but to add insult to injury, no From This Moment On! You might try to defend the decision to exclude it on the grounds that was originally written for a different show and was only included in the 1953 film version. But I would parry that with the fact that Could We Start Again Please was not included in the original stage version of Jesus Christ Superstar but written for the film, and woe betide any production that now excludes that song from the show. It’s common practice today to have From This Moment On sung by Harrison and Lilli in the second Act. Definitely an opportunity missed.

Fortunately all the other great numbers are there. The songs in Kiss Me Kate fall into three categories. Those that evolve naturally from the plot – Why Can’t You Behave, Always True To You in My Fashion, Another Op’nin Another Show; those that evolve from the plot of Taming of the Shrew – I’ve Come To Wive it Wealthily in Padua, I Hate Men, Where is the Life that Late I Led; and those that have absolutely nothing to do with anything – Wunderbar, Too Darn Hot, Brush Up Your Shakespeare. If you consider a typical musical theatre show to be a portrait, Kiss Me Kate comes as close as you can to a Picasso, with a dislocated smile in one corner and a nose in the other, all plonked higgledy-piggledy across the canvas. But it works; it’s just one of those amazing shows.

Bartlett Sher’s new production contains some inspired directorial decisions, and the occasional totally bizarre one – for example, in Too Darn Hot, why is nobody, erm, hot? Michael Yeargan’s striking set dominates the Barbican stage, revolving to reveal the dressing rooms and the communal backstage area, as well as the stage of this unnamed theatre in Baltimore. This gives a great opportunity to follow characters from one part of the set into another as they race around the stage in a panic, fury, or simply because they can.

The stage also juts forward to create an apron around the orchestra pit, with the effect that conductor Stephen Ridley’s head pops up in the middle of the stage floor as though he were the next tissue in a packet of Kleenexes. The apron works well as additional acting and dancing space, but the orchestra pit does create a slight distraction, especially as you spend a lot of the time worrying that someone is going to fall into it. However, you have to admit it – Stephen Ridley’s relatively massive stage orchestra sends out a sensational sound, and, from a purely audio perspective, this is about as good as it gets.

But we’ve got to consider that quirky cast head-on. Leading the team as Fred Graham is Adrian Dunbar, a much loved actor primarily because of Line of Duty but also through many other TV and stage appearances. We saw his Claudius to Cush Jumbo’s Hamlet at the Young Vic a few years ago and found him oddly underwhelming. However, he seems much more at ease as Fred Graham, with his quieter delivery very effectively conveying his sarcastic asides; he very much looks the part, and I appreciated this rather less showy interpretation of the role. He has a thoughtful singing style, in that it conveys a lot of meaning; however, what he doesn’t have is a jazz-hands singing style, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need. He underperformed Wunderbar, and slightly mixed up the lyrics of Where is the Life that Late I Led (even thought that is probably still his best moment in the show).

However, he may well have been distracted, because playing Lilli for our performance was Stephanie J Block’s understudy, Anna McGarahan. Ms McGarahan has a terrific voice, no question; I have no idea how much notice she had that she was to play the role, and one must always admire and appreciate an understudy without whom, basically, the show can’t go ahead. That said, I felt that in many of the scenes she was under-rehearsed – not her fault. This was most obvious in the physical comedy scenes which involved a level of stage combat that was amongst the least convincing I’ve ever seen. Like Mr Dunbar, she gave us a very tentative Wunderbar, and her I Hate Men had – I’m afraid – absolutely no conviction to it at all; we came out at the interval reminiscing about how good Nichola McAuliffe had sung it at the Old Vic in 1987.

This had the effect of unbalancing the performance strength, as the lower you went down the cast list, the more impressive and memorable the performances. Charlie Stemp and Georgina Onuorah are excellent as Bill and Lois, the former’s incredible ability to dance, sing and act at the same time coming to the fore whenever Anthony van Laast’s breathtaking choreography called upon his skills; and Ms Onuorah gives one of many scene-stealing performances with her powerfully and intelligently delivered Always True To You In My Fashion.

Nigel Lindsay and Hammed Animashaun give us possibly the best portrayal of the Gangsters I’ve ever seen, with brilliant characterisation, wonderful physical comedy, and a Brush Up Your Shakespeare that we all sang along to. Jack Butterworth’s Paul completely wows us leading the dance in Too Darn Hot – inviting Mr Stemp to keep up with him in a sequence that is performed to perfection – and Josie Benson as Hattie starts the show with arguably the best vocal performance of the production in Another Op’nin’, Another Show.

I guess that all boils down to the fact that – at our performance at least – it was a rather uneven presentation. However, you simply can’t not love it; and there were so many hugely enjoyable songs, scenes and performances that the temptation to book again is surprisingly strong. Kiss Me Kate continues at the Barbican through the summer until 14th September.

 

 

4-starsFour They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – Kiss Me, Kate, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 5th January 2019

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Every New Year, Mrs Chrisparkle and I treat Lord and Lady Prosecco to a post-Christmas outing: a weekend in Sheffield (bear with me) to stay at the lovely Mercure Hotel, have some scrummy meals and to see both the Crucible’s Christmas musical AND the Lyceum panto – and we’ve not had a duff experience yet. Over the last couple of years, we’ve taken to seeing the panto in the evening – the weight of a few extra wines and a more end-of-term atmosphere always helps. Which left us this matinee with the prospect of seeing Cole Porter’s fantastic, and now grammatically correct, Kiss Me, Kate.

This was one of the Dowager Mrs C’s favourite musicals and I was brought up on a diet of Always True to You Darling in my Fashion and From This Moment On; not a bad way to be brought up, to be honest. But this is only the third time I’ve seen it; once in 1987 at the Old Vic with the redoubtable Nichola McAuliffe, and at Chichester in 2012 where Hannah Waddingham attempted to rule the roost over Alex Bourne. That London production was great; the Chichester one a little disappointing. But I’m going to throw my hat into the ring and say that this new production at Sheffield by Paul Foster tops them both.

I’m sure you know the story – a touring production of The Taming of the Shrew is the vehicle for an on-and-off love story between the two leads, Fred Graham (playing Petruchio, also the producer of the show) and Miss Lilli Vanessi (playing Katherine, the star attraction). Lilli senses that their romance is back on track (they are already divorced at the beginning of the show) but when she discovers that the flowers she received from Fred were actually meant for cabaret starlet Lois (playing Bianca), she gets into a Katherine-type rage and takes it out on him on stage. He, being not entirely a true gentleman, gives as good as he gets, and she spends most of the rest of the show unable to sit down because – well, because, gentle reader, he gave her a damn good spanking. It happens in Shakespeare, so why the hell not here. Only one way to tame a shrew; women respect it. (That was a joke, by the way.)

Lilli’s plans to abandon the rest of the run are brought to an abrupt halt by the persuasions of two gangsters who (erroneously, as it happens) need the show to be a success so that Fred can pay his dues to their Mr. Big. Her new beau Harrison Howell arrives to take her away – but, will she find true love with him, or with Fred? If you don’t know the answer to that by now, you never will.

It’s true; in the current climate, some aspects of this show have dated to become ever so slightly worrying. The physical animosity between Fred and Lilli does border on domestic violence (even though it’s played entirely for laughs) and the subjugation of women’s will to men’s is still as clear as it was in Shakespeare’s day – you have to feel a cringe coming on when Katherine/Lilli sings I Am Ashamed that Women are So Simple. But this is distinctly a period piece, with no attempts (quite right, I think) to update it to the 21st century. Porter’s showtunes are still as 1940s jazz as they can be; the gangsters are still the same Chicago thickos they always were. Porter’s brilliant lyrics anchor the show in his own era; when one of the funniest lines in any of the songs is “he may have hair upon his chest, but, sister so has Lassie”, there’s just no point trying to update it. Provided there are audience members who remember Lassie, the joke works.

We’ve been used over the years at Sheffield to seeing the big choreography routines by Alistair David, who made such a mark in shows like My Fair Lady and Show Boat. For this show, the choreography is by Matt Flint, and I have to say I’ve not come across his work before. But he’s terrific! His style is much more intimate and involved; he sets up scenes with so many varied things happening in different parts of the stage all at the same time, then brings them all together for a big impact. The second Act opens with his fantastic staging of Too Darn Hot, led with immaculate artistry and precision by Layton Williams as Paul; it’s one of those classic dance sequences when you know you’re seeing something special and you never want it to end. As an aside, our performance was captioned – a great innovation, imho – and it was fascinating to read the lyrics to Too Darn Hot (as well all the other songs) – it’s easy to overlook just exactly what this song is all about!

Elsewhere, the show is peppered with memorable moments, mainly involving the big numbers. Paul Foster has concentrated most of his efforts into getting the maximum entertainment out of the songs, so there is no attempt to shorten any of Cole Porter’s mammoth efforts. I guess a downside to that is that if you don’t like the songs much (then why are you here?) you probably won’t enjoy it much. The show opens with (fittingly) Another Op’nin’ Another Show, at first fronted by Lilli’s dresser Hattie (a beautiful, warm-hearted performance by Cindy Belliot) but then it opens out to a wide-ranging musical examination of all the cast and crew arriving at this new theatre, with all the tensions and excitements that can contain – and it’s an exciting and exhilarating start.

Other highlights include Amy Ellen Richardson’s Lois/Bianca teasing routine with the three suitors for Tom Dick or Harry – one of these, Dex Lee, plays Bill/Lucentio and I always admire his brilliant, acrobatic dancing; Rebecca Lock (a brilliant Katherine/Lilli with a stunning voice) throwing herself around in fits of fury during I Hate Men; Edward Baker-Duly (also brilliant as Fred/Petruchio – I loved his ham, and then even hammier, vocal performance as the stagey actor) ripping through the memories of all those women in Where is the Life that Late I Led; Amy Ellen Richardson’s funny and flirtatious performance of Always True To You Darling in my Fashion; and the simple but oh so effective staging of Brush Up Your Shakespeare by Delroy Atkinson and Joel Montague as the two theatrical gangsters, occupying the spotlights – Mr Atkinson in particular gave a brilliantly expressive physically comic performance. I also appreciated the fact that, for much of the performance, James McKeon’s orchestra was hidden at the back of the set, but for the songs that belonged to Taming of the Shrew, it was on view – a very nice touch, I thought.

The only thing that slightly disappointed me was the staging of one of my favourite songs from the show, From This Moment On. It’s a difficult one. The song was never written for Kiss Me Kate; Porter wrote it for another show from which it was dropped at the last minute, but it was obviously too good to waste, and Cole Porter was an expert musical recycler. From This Moment On appears in the film version of Kiss Me Kate, where it works perfectly as a number between Bianca and her three suitors; but the dramatic usefulness of that has already been taken by Tom Dick or Harry. So nowadays the custom is to have it sung by Harrison Howell and Lilli before he sweeps her away to the magicless life of a military wife – or not. Structurally, it makes perfect sense to have it there; but in practice the characters are too old and the situation too cynical (ouch! Sorry!) for the song to work properly. It’s a young person’s song – a starting out in life song – filled with genuinely great expectations, and I’d prefer to give the song back to Lois and Bill. In characterisation and acting, Dafydd Emyr made an imposing Howell, but, for me, it just didn’t work.

But this is one small quibble in an otherwise excellent show that thrilled us all, and we continued to talk about it later that evening and all through the next. One of those productions to savour and recall with happiness for years to come. It’s on until Saturday 12th January. Would be a crime to miss it!

Review – Kiss Me Kate, Festival Theatre, Chichester, 21st July 2012

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Still on our annual Chichester visit, we survived dinner and made our way back to the theatre with the amassing throngs of people wanting a good night out. Trevor Nunn directing a new version of Kiss Me Kate? Obviously a prospect just too delicious to resist, so it was with eager anticipation that we took our Saturday night seats at the packed Festival Theatre on what must have been the first beautiful summer’s evening we’ve had this year.

The set is satisfyingly designed by Robert Jones and features a nice proscenium arch stuck at a jaunty angle, cleverly suggestive of a traditional show portrayed in a wacky way. The backstage scenes look suitably unglamorous; and the scene changes that take place within the “Taming of the Shrew” show are realised by unfurling flimsy fabric backdrop sheets out of a travelling trunk, which is a clever and appropriate idea, and would indeed be very useful for the Venice, Verona, Cremona, Parma, Mantua, Padua tour; although in reality they do come across a little tawdry to look at.

Of all the old Hollywood versions of stage musicals Kiss Me Kate is one of my top favourites. In this Chichester production I found it very hard not to compare the performers with others we’ve seen in the roles before. Comparisons are odious, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t come up with a little odiousness in this review. The last time we saw Kiss Me Kate was at the Savoy Theatre in 1988 with Nichola McAuliffe playing Lilli/Katharine. It was a crowning glory of a performance and she has been a particular favourite of Mrs Chrisparkle ever since. Ms McAuliffe’s “I Hate Men” is as strong a reference point as Dame Edith Evans’ “A Handbag?” So any future Lilli/Katharine has a big task ahead of her in Mrs C’s eyes.

But we had high hopes for Hannah Waddingham, whom we last saw turn in a devastatingly brilliant performance in the Menier’s devastatingly brilliant A Little Night Music a few years ago. And I’m delighted to say Ms Waddingham is every bit as good in this show as you would expect her to be. She breathes charming life into that old plodder “Wunderbar”, is very tender with “So in Love”; and does all the comic business as a furious on-stage Lilli getting revenge on Fred in a genuinely funny way. For Mrs C and me, her “I Hate Men” was a little over-controlled. She really didn’t hate men as much as Nichola McAuliffe. But she makes a good shrew and is a great singer and I think definitely gave the best performance of the night.

Alex Bourne plays Fred/Petruchio, and he’s very good throughout. He portrayed the arrogance of both characters very well, and also his discomfort and wheedling around Lilli when he realises the flowers have gone to the wrong actress is very funny. However, being briefly odious, he’s no Howard Keel. He has some great numbers to deliver, and I was particularly looking forward to “Where is the life that late I led” with its mixture of humour and pathos; a song that must be a complete thrill for a confident performer to smash it (in the common parlance). He really played it for laughs – which he certainly got – but musically I felt it was a slight let down.

For me, the best two set pieces came as a surprise – the two TDH numbers. I was very impressed with the whole performance of Tom Dick or Harry, which got the absolute best out of Holly Dale Spencer as nightclub singer Lois, and supported by Adam Garcia as Bill/Lucentio, Kevin Brewis as Hortensio and Samuel Holmes as Gremio. It had great lightness of touch, entertaining choreography and was thoroughly spirit-lifting. The other officially fabulous number – even more so in fact – was the second act opener Too Darn Hot, fronted by Jason Pennycooke as Fred’s dresser Paul; a terrifically well danced routine, full of life and humour, cheekiness and joie de vivre. This is the second time we’ve seen Mr Pennycooke, and I can tell you he is one talented chap.

As Lois/Bianca, Holly Dale Spencer certainly gives a new meaning to the phrase “wide-eyed”, with, for me, her portrayal occasionally teetering on the edge of credibility. There have been some criticisms of her performance of “Always True To You In My Fashion” – a wonderful song – and I have to say I too found it disappointing. Not because she performed it badly – not at all, in many ways it was a remarkably skilful performance; but one that completely misrepresented the essential meaning of the song and its insight into Lois’ character. IMHO, this funny song should make you think that she is indeed, primarily, always true to Bill; but she might be gently naughty with someone else if it will get her a Paris Hat. This sassy Lois cavorts with the raunchiest of moves to a sleazy arrangement so that you feel all she is lacking is the pole to dance around. I’m guessing this is Trevor Nunn and Stephen Mears’ interpretation of the role, and, personally, I thought it was wrong. And yes, with apologies for my odiousness, I did think fondly of Ann Miller.

David Burt and Clive Rowe were an excellent couple of gangsters, ominously muscling in on Katharine on stage to prevent her from making a bolt for the wings, and did a great job of being over the top whilst strangely keeping it real too. The audience loved their Brush Up Your Shakespeare, which was simply staged and brought out Cole Porter’s wordplay with great clarity. I always forget that in the stage show the great “From This Moment On” is not sung by Lois and her suitors, but by Lilli and her General beau. Whilst Ms Waddingham and Mark Heenehan as the General gave a very good performance, I think the number is much better “Hollywooded” up as it is in the film. But then, the stage presentation of Too Darn Hot is probably better than the film. You pay your money, you etc, etc. The minor roles are all played with huge energy and pizzazz by a very likeable company.

The audience adored it. Many people were up on their feet at the end, which is something I don’t think I’ve seen before with the rather polite and – let’s be honest – elderly Chichester crowd. It is a very entertaining production and certainly worth seeing, with some brilliant moments and outstanding routines, which do well to make up for the lapses. I think it will enjoy a lot of success at the Old Vic.

P.S. After a comfortable night in the central, cheap but a bit Spartan Travelodge, we embarked on our usual quest to find a decent gluten-free breakfast that Mrs C would be able to enjoy. Fortunately for us, the Wetherspoons was so incredibly busy that we would have run out of car park time before we’d get served. Instead we found a little place called Spires on Crane Street. Essentially an old fashioned bakery and tea rooms, with tables outside in the welcoming sunshine. We plonked ourselves down and I went to order.A traditional English breakfast for me; then I explained to the nice lady behind the counter that one of the meals had to be gluten-free. She surprised me by suggesting gluten-free toast and gluten-free homemade bubble and squeak, along with the usual baked beans, tomato, bacon and egg. My breakfast was super; and Mrs C was in her element with a decent cooked breakfast that knocked her socks off. Well done Spires!