THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Music and lyrics by Cole Porter; Book by Arthur Kopit; additional lyrics by Susan Birkenhead
Barbican Theatre, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS until July 11, 2026
The much-loved 1956 movie of High Society was a star vehicle for Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly (her last before she went off to become a real princess). There was nothing ‘50s about its sensibility however, it seemed stuck in the 1930s and that eternally urbane and sophisticated world of Cole Porter. It began in the ‘30s as a hit Broadway screwball comedy play The Philadelphia Story (written by Philip Barry), which was quickly made into an Oscar winning film with Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart. Turning it into a musical nearly 20 years later it still resembled a ‘30s Broadway show, in that the book was almost an afterthought, with the focus firmly on the songs (show tunes were the pop music of their era) stuffing as many in as humanly possible. It reminds one that Mamma Mia (‘how can we stitch a thin plot around this collection of hits’) is nothing new.
But oh, what songs! Think of ‘Well Did You Evah!’, ‘Just One of Those Things’, and ‘Let’s Misbehave’ for starters. Porter’s trademark blithe wit infuses them all with lyrics that combined being totally of their time yet still anchored enough in real emotion to make them eternal.
This lavish Barbican production is their third Cole Porter outing after Kiss Me Kate and Anything Goes, and it is just as blissful. Director Rachel Kavanaugh’s challenge of course is how do you follow the original’s star wattage which held up the movie. She’s done it by rustling up some of our greatest musical theater talents – Julian Ovenden, Nigel Lindsay, Carly Mercedes Dyer – and giving them space to shine (Gareth Valentine’s revisions of Larry Blank’s orchestrations are pure class) and adding in two great surprises. We knew Helen George could sing (from The King and I) but she’s an utterly glamorous total triple threat here, bringing a sassiness which Grace never mustered. Then there’s Freddie Fox, vastly experienced across genres, but who knew he could sing so well? He triumphs here in the Sinatra part.
The plot, which needn’t detain you long, is about romantic travails of a Newport Rhode Island socialite Tracy Lord (George) who finds her heart pulled in three directions between steady dull fiancé George (David Seadon-Young) whom she’s about to marry, her ex the effortlessly charming yacht designer CK Dexter Haven (Ovenden) and an undercover tabloid reporter Mike Connor (Fox) who, with colleague Liz (Dyer), has been sent to get the dirt on this society wedding. There’s also Felicity Kendal as Tracy’s mordantly witty mother, Malcolm Sinclair as her urbane father and Nigel Lindsay as Uncle Willie, an old roué, and an impressive Naomi Pacquette as the precocious young teenage daughter - all perfect character parts as if they’ve just stepped out of a Fred ’n’ Ginger movie.
The original just had 9 songs but here – it’s based on the first Broadway staging from 1997 – they’ve shoehorned in another 11. This is too much. It gilds the lily, doesn’t serve the songs properly, and in some cases they just don’t fit at all, such as ‘Be A Clown’.
The film was oddly minimalist (lots in close up) but here the great Anthony van Laast has choreographed some wonderfully elegant dance numbers which add to the overall spectacle. Tom Rogers’ set designs are hefty and wonderfully old fashioned, lovingly recreating those Rhode Island mansions, and Jon Morrell’s costumes are lavish and, well, ‘swellegant’. Even the ensemble casting is great, with people off all shapes and sizes rather than a rigid chorus line.
You can tell the cast are in ecstasy with it all – Ovenden, perfectly loafered, comes into his own, and Lindsay demonstrates yet again his great versatility with a stonking ‘That’s Jazz’ accompanied by an ace 6-piece onstage band borrowed from the huge (in contemporary terms) pit band. Initially I thought Carly Mercedes Dyer was a bit wasted here in the Celeste Holm part but then she’s given ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ and she steals the show. The other scene stealer is the great Felicity Kendal, who knows how to land a gag.
In all, A Swell Party!
