★★★★
The Barbican has given Londoners a summer treat for the past couple of years, and 2024 is no exception. Kiss Me Kate opened in a blaze of glory at the Barbican and looks set to be the must-see show of the season.
Adapted Shakespeare Classic
Kiss Me Kate is a musical that has had frequent airings in London and on Broadway over the past 70 years or so since it was first performed and has always proved a crowd-pleaser; now, it has arrived at the Barbican Theatre. Taken from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, it tells the story of a somewhat third-rate theatre troupe putting on their musical version of said play in Baltimore, led by former married couple Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi. Fred has a penchant for chorus girls, and Lilli is engaged to the most boring man in the Pentagon, but wouldn’t you know it, they still clearly love each other. Naturally, they don’t reunite until the finale, but there is tremendous fun to be had until we reach that point.
The elephant in the room is clearly the way women are portrayed. We can firmly lay the blame for that at the Bard’s door. After all, the clue is in the title: a shrew who needs taming. It certainly doesn’t sit well with today’s sensibilities, if, indeed, it ever did. But mercifully, director Bartlett Sher has sidestepped the more overt acts of misogyny and sexism. The notorious end of Act 1 (of both the musical and the play within the play) traditionally saw Petruchio throwing Katherine over his knee to teach her a lesson by spanking her. Now, he is about to carry out this uncomfortable-to-watch scene when the rest of the cast rushes on and gives him a “what the hell do you think you’re doing?” reaction, which stops him in his tracks.
The Second Act
Then, at the opening of Act 2, Fred Graham directly addresses the audience to apologise for the fiasco just before the interval (which also involved guns, more about that later) and says he acknowledges that today’s audiences won’t accept such behaviour – today being 1948. Neat sidestep.
So, talking of Fred Graham/Petruchio, there were surprised murmurings when Adrian Dunbar was announced in the press as making his musical theatre debut. Known to TV audiences as Hastings in Line of Duty, would he be able to cut it? Well simply, the short answer is yes. He sings pleasantly enough – sure, he isn’t going to be signed up to play Valjean or the Phantom, but his charm and easygoing style means the songs come across perfectly acceptably, despite some of the notes being occasionally wide of the mark. He looked a little more ill at ease with some of Anthony Van Laast’s choreography, but thankfully the superb ensemble takes care of that.
Playing opposite him as Lilli Vanessi/Katherine is Broadway royalty Stephanie J. Block. Also making her London debut, she has a raft of New York credits to her name and we can see why she was cast in this production. She exudes class and sass, her comedic timing is perfect, and of course, her singing is faultless. She alone is worth the price of a ticket.
Nigel Lindsay and Hammed Animashaun steal every scene they are in as the gangsters-cum-thespians, whose gun-totin’ antics terrify the theatrical troupe and then bring the house down with the much-loved showstopper Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Peter Davison hams it up gloriously as Lilli’s lecherous beau, relishing his relatively small role and presumably relishing relaxing in his dressing room for all of Act One…
The house is brought down again by Georgina Onuorah as Lois/Bianca when she storms through Always True to You in My Fashion. Her supposed love interest (not that she seems to show much interest in just one man) is Bill Calhoun, played by West End star Charlie Stemp. Sadly, he seems to be somewhat underused here. He has a couple of dance spots that highlight his stupendous talents, but too often he seems to melt into the background, which we are not really used to seeing with this multi-award-winning star. Not his fault, of course; it’s the way the part is written. But after his exhausting triumph in Crazy for You which only ended a few months ago, maybe he’s relieved not to have the whole show resting on his shoulders.
Bona Fide Set & Costumes
The stage design by Michael Yeargan makes ingenious use of the revolve, with the action flowing seamlessly from the Baltimore stage to the wings, to the stage door, and to the dressing rooms in one continuous movement, dispensing with the need to have clumsy scene changes in the traditional manner. Catherine Zuber’s costumes are beautifully realized, particularly on Miss Block, who looks stunning throughout.
The star-studded opening night audience lapped it all up, and I’m pretty sure that audiences will for the next 3 months too.
Kiss Me Kate, The Barbican, until September 14th 2024.
To find out more, visit kissmekatemusical.com
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Imagery courtesy of Johan Persson.