Kiss Me Kate, Barbican Theatre Review
Written by Franco Milazzo for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
Screaming “summer blockbuster” at the top of its lungs, Bartlett Sher’s modernised revival Kiss Me, Kate is the kind of all-singing, all-dancing old school extravaganza that comes with luxury casting, stunning set pieces and problematic politics.
The Taming Of The Shrew is having a moment of sorts. On the very same night that the latest take on Shakespeare’s classic opened at the Globe, the Barbican debuted Cole Porter’s musical nod to it. The play within a play structure sees Line of Duty’s Adrian “Mother of God!” Dunbar joins forces with Broadway star Stephanie J. Block as a divorced couple Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi. They’re in Baltimore with the multi-talented Fred producing, directing and starring as Petrucchio opposite Vanessi’s Kate.
There is talent further down the bill too. Famed dancer Charlie Stemp appears as Bill, an inveterate gambler in a rocky relationship with Lilly (a sultry Georgina Onuorah), a starlet who is also being ardently pursued by Fred. On stage, they are the young lovers Lucentio and Bianca while off it they work out their issues. Joining them are Nigel Lindsay and Hammed Animashaun as a pair of casually erudite gangsters who go from debt collectors to producers and - when Vanessi threatens to jump ship - Fred’s enforcers.
The theatrical shenanigans on stage and off are the backbone of this love letter to the stage. Set in 1948, an era of post-war recovery when the popularity of musicals like this were being eclipsed by movies, Michael Yeargan’s magnificent revolving set allows us to see what the cast and crew get up to before and during the first night and effortlessly shifts from the backlot to the dressing rooms.
The first third is a tad torpid, the exposition and scene setting moving a little too slow to truly keep the attention. The introduction of Lindsay and Animashaun steps up the interest but it is not until the ensemble pieces and the full-scale dance numbers kick in that there is real fizz on display. Fred’s “I've Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua" is the first sign that this is a cast with real alchemy and spring in their step while Block’s pounding “I Hate Men” gloriously announces her ability as a leading lady to those who have yet to experience her in the flesh.
It is only after the interval that the stops are all pulled out thanks to Anthony Van Laast’s scintillating choreography. “Too Darned Hot” lives up to the title, its blazing tour de force noticeably raising the temperature in the room. It features a dance off between Jack Butterworth and Stemp that tears up the stage; think Fred Astaire squared with a cherry on top and you’re halfway there. Later sequences make superb use of a large Barbican stage which is built around the orchestral pit.
It’s a night of mixed fortunes and revelations. Dunbar has acting chops to spare but has a truly terrible accent which meanders from Belfast to Brooklyn and back again without settling in any specific place. He can sing to a decent extent but, in his duets with the far more capable Block, he is on a hiding to nothing. Stemp gets a solo turn later on but - given his star billing - his is a relatively muted performance with his passable singing overshadowed by his more talented colleagues. Lindsay is chillingly brilliant and brings the implicit air of menace he demonstrated in An Enemy Of The People, his every expression and utterance a possible prelude to imminent violence; his duet “Brush Up On Your Shakespeare” with Animashaun is the comedic highlight of the night.
The original book by Bella and Sam Spewack has been brought up to date and tackles directly head on the misogynistic nature of both the Bard’s work and Porter’s adaptation. Fred no longer spanks Kate and he is wryly up front with why Shakespeare treats the women in this play so poorly (things were different back in Elizabethan days). The Americanisms are still left in - audiences might want to brush up on US politics and geography to get the most out of this - but there is a wickedly sly dig at Croydon which every North Londoner will no doubt appreciate.
This is no doubt another major step in the Barbican’s move towards becoming recognised as more than East London’s temple of highbrow art. My Neighbour Totoro was a box office smash and, even if Kiss Me, Kate doesn’t quite reach the high bar set by Anything Goes, it has all the makings of a sensational smash.
At Barbican Theatre until 14 Sept.
★ ★ ★ ★
