THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Music and lyrics by Cole Porter; book by Sam and Bella Spewack based on The Taming of the Shrew
Barbican Theatre, Silk St, London EC1 until September 14, 2024
With Guys and Dolls still packing 'em in at The Bridge and now Cole Porter's eternal masterpiece Kiss Me, Kate at the Barbican all we need is a production of Gypsy to have a summer festival featuring the triumvirate of American musical theater excellence.
That fusion of sparkling wit, unforgettable songs and exuberant dance numbers, which typified the Broadway musical at its height, is truly the best tonic and here the Barbican has another summer hit on its hands. They've brought over Bartlett Sher, the go-to guy for classy musical revivals on Broadway and he's brought over Stephanie J Block (Tony winner for The Cher Show) to add some sparkle. [Read our interview with Stephanie here]
The decision to cast Adrian Dunbar, who became a household name in the UK as Superintendent Ted Hastings in the TV smash Line of Duty was unorthodox. He might be Irish, and can no doubt keep a good ballad session going, but is he up to Howard Keel standards for the lead in this show? Well, the answer is a resounding, yes!
He has a wonderful light baritone which any crooner would be happy with it and more importantly he brings great comic flair to the lead role here, much needed in a show now nearly 80 years old which in poor hands could resemble a museum piece. Cole Porter based it, of course, on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the sexual politics are, ahem, "problematic", which they neatly, and briefly, tackle at one point here by having Dunbar give a curtain speech to contextualize the sexism.
What's interesting though is how the two female leads, Block (Lilli Vanessi / Katherine) and Georgina Onuorah who plays Lois/Bianca, couldn't actually be more empowered or dynamic. Block hilariously extracts every drop of venom from 'I Hate Men' and has the pristine mezzo-soprano voice to pull it off, while Onuorah's 'Always True to You in My Fashion' is a mini masterpiece in stealing a show. It all makes the decision to sanitize the final number – 'I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple' has become 'I Am Ashamed That People Are So Simple' – rather superfluous.
Cole Porter's blissful, hit-packed score is elevated of course by Bella and Sam Spewack's witty book, in which backstage rivalries and love affairs spill over on stage as a theater company produces an out-of-town musical version of the Bard's play starring divorced but still madly in love Broadway legends Lilli Vanessi (Block) and Fred Graham (Dunbar) as the warring Katherine and Petruchio. The banter is great and the two spar really well.
Nigel Lindsay and Hammed Animashaun who get to sing (and reprise) 'Brush Up Your Shakespeare' are a sheer delight too as the pair of stage-struck gangsters determined to collect a gambling debt wrongly attributed to Fred by young dancer Bill Calhoun.
Bill is played by Charlie Stemp, whose graceful, athletic, dance moves recall a boyish Gene Kelly and who just gets better with each passing show. Here he brings the house down in 'Tom, Dick or Harry' amply supported by top-notch dancers. Jack Butterworth, too, is a stunner on 'Too Darn Hot'.
My only gripe is replacing 'From This Moment On' (remember Ann Miller and Bob Fosse in the movie) with a re-insertion of the much weaker song 'Bianca' which does not allow Stemp to shine, as he could in the former.
The design team Sher has imported (set by Michael Yeargan, Catherine Zuber costumes and Donald Holder lighting design) give it a scale and class typical of Broadway stage. Three giant full sets – for the stage, the dressing rooms and the theater alley – twirl in on a great revolve.
Sher never lets the pace slacken either, even when allowing for a tincture of audience participation. Anthony Van Laast's beautifully detailed choreography perfectly animates the great dance arrangements of Gareth Valentine, and the score is played with gusto by a 17 piece orchestra who make the sly Italian numbers sound simply divine.
It's big and brash and old fashioned, in the best way, and you will leave humming.
