Forget ancient sexual politics. The only real problem with the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me Kate might be that it’s just too packed.
Bartlett Sher’s lip-smacking revival, which opened in London last night, starring Line Of Duty’s unlikely heartthrob Adrian Dunbar and Broadway diva Stephanie J Block, is a candy store of great songs, hot dancing, clever jokes and glorious characters.
The show revolves around a 1940s production of Shakespeare’s Italian comedy The Taming Of The Shrew, which goes awry when the onstage sex war spills backstage and stars Fred Graham (Dunbar) and his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi (Block). ) swallows up.
About to go off the rails, the show is saved by some star-struck gangsters who insist the show must go on even though it’s at gunpoint.
Porter’s music and lyrics are displayed tumultuously in the great company dance numbers Another Op’nin, Another Show and the smoldering Too Darn Hot.
Bartlett Sher’s lip-smacking revival, which opened last night in London, starring Line Of Duty’s unlikely heartthrob Adrian Dunbar (right) and Broadway diva Stephanie J Block (left), is a candy store of great songs, hot dancing, clever jokes and glorious characters
The show revolves around a 1940s production of Shakespeare’s Italian comedy The Taming Of The Shrew, which goes awry when the onstage sex war spills backstage and stars Fred Graham (Dunbar) and his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi (Block ) swallows up.
But there is also intimacy: in the duet Wunderbar by the warring protagonists, which gives way to Block’s searing I Hate Men and Dunbar’s sad memories of past conquests, Where Is The Life?
Not to mention the greatest musical comedy number of all time: Brush Up Your Shakespeare (“just recite a few lines from Othella, and they’ll think you’re a great guy…”).
Of course it all depends on the leading pair and in Dunbar and Block they have struck gold.
Luciano Pavarotti, he is not.
But Dunbar’s Fred has a well-resonating baritone, with an Ulster nasality for extra vibrato. And he also has a great sense of comedy, with a playful touch of Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Block is a strawberry mezzo-soprano who gives Fred’s ex Lilli dignity and pride. But she also has delicious comic instincts, shoveling a series of sausages up her cleavage as the fiery Kate in Shakespeare’s comedy.
And she holds all the cards in the backstage story, including an affair with Peter Davison’s entertaining American regimental general.
But there is also intimacy: in the duet Wunderbar by the warring protagonists, which gives way to Block’s searing I Hate Men and Dunbar’s sad memories of past conquests, Where Is The Life?
Saturday night’s show was canceled when the welding cracked on one of the wheels that turn the spin. The metaphorical wheels sound reassuring, though: this is a show that can go on and on
Best of all, she makes the misogyny in Shakespeare’s play seem like self-evident historical nonsense.
Georgina Onuorah has more girl power as resourceful Lois Lane, who brings the house down with her sexy, sassy swagger in Always True To You, while Charlie Stemp is radiant and pliant as her boyfriend, Bill.
But the show will certainly be remembered for Nigel Lindsay’s glorious double act (wadding in the cheeks for Brando-esque pouches) and deadpan Hammed Animashaun as the two New Yoik gangsters.
It would be wrong not to mention the brick edifice of a set that keeps the action moving with a carousel of scenery – backstage in Baltimore and on stage in Padua.
Saturday night’s show was canceled when the welding cracked on one of the wheels that turn the spin. The metaphorical wheels sound reassuring, though: this is a show that can go on and on.
