Theatre / Reviews
Review: WNO: Kiss Me, Kate
It`s a hot and steamy night in 1940s Baltimore and, for one very special song and dance troupe, it’s Another Op’nin, Another Show. The onstage show in question is, of course, Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew – but the hi-jinks going on backstage are gloriously intertwined to make Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate the supreme example of the show within a show.
If there’s any way you can still get a ticket to see this production, it would be worth selling a body part. It’s packed full of wonderful dance numbers, great songs, and is very, very funny. It also comes with an extra helping of saucy raunch that adds more than a little something to routines like It’s Too Darn Hot: a sexiness that Porter’s lyrics could only hint at in his day (although he did always hint pretty heavily).
The two leads of the onstage show – Jeni Bern as Kate and Quirijn de Lang playing Petruchio – are serious opera singers and it shows, particularly when they are performing with a sensational live orchestra as they are here (conducted with a joyful ebullience by James Holmes).
But whilst neither are exactly slouches when it comes to providing plenty of comedy, WNO have enhanced their regular cast with more specialist singers and dancers like Amelia Adams-Pearce as the ditzy Bianca and the extraordinary, rubber-legged dancer Alan Burkitt who has earned his chops in productions like Top Hat, 42nd Street and Singin’ in the Rain. His spectacular, audacious tap routine in Act Two brought the first cheers of the night.
If Kate is queen front of house, her backstage equivalent is Landi Oshinowo – a strong performer but in a non-operatic way. Her paramour (although it’s more ambiguous than him playing an echo of Petruchio) seems to be Adam Tench as Nathaniel. He starts a little geeky – but that’s soon swept away when he starts to dance. He seems to have the ability to jump higher than anyone else and stay up there for longer.
Joseph Shovelton and John Savournin bring the house down as two comedy gangsters performing Brush Up Your Shakespeare – along with I’m Always True To You In My Fashion, the ultimate demonstration of Porter’s wit and knowledge. Both songs are consummate showboating pieces, with verse after verse after verse of hilarious jokes and puns.
Kiss Me, Kate is seriously classy entertainment.
Kiss Me, Kate continues at the Hippodrome until Saturday, 5th October. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.atgtickets.com/shows/kiss-me-kate/bristol-hippodrome
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