It must be stated before this review starts, that the responses of our party were at odds with the rest of the audience at Chichester's Festival Theatre. They cheered heartily as the cast of this deeply unspectacular musical took its bows. So, here goes:
Kiss Me Kate is basically the
Taming of the Shrew with a thin story tacked around it. That is, the lead actors are formerly husband and wife who are reunited thanks to misunderstandings and a lack of credible alternative options, while taking part in a musical version of Shakespeare's story of a bossy hussy literally smacked into submission by a pompous, patriarchal pillock.
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| Laming of the shrew |
The conceit of a play within a play removes any depth from both the bard's original work, and this reframing of it. The characters have no meaningful back story: they're pen portraits from
Jackie. We have a cross wife, a bad husband and, running alongside and into them, a girl who can't say no and her gambling boyfriend whose debts involve two heavies in the action. The heavies - one of whom is the legendary Clive Rowe - are the best bit.
It's long, it's dated, and there's no chemistry between the couples, but Cole Porter's songs are classics and Stephen Mear's choreography is joyful. Numbers include:
Another Op'ning of Another Show, Why Can't You Behave, True To You In My Fashion. None of them moves the action along. Indeed, they impede it - each a summation of what is happening at that exact moment. So it is that we have a stupendous song and dance routine to
Too Darn Hot at the beginning of the second half, and the weather is never mentioned again.
In conclusion: Hannah Waddington in the lead sings beautifully and Chichester always has amazing costumes and scenery - the cloth origami props are fabulous - but unless you're over 50 or musicals crazy, you may struggle.
References
Chichester Festival Theatre,
tickets
Maxwell Couter review What's On Stage
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