CALLUM TAYLOR

MY REVIEW

Trevor Nunn directs the revival of Kiss me Kate at the Old Vic Theatre which proves to be a hit with the oldies. With the musical direction of Gareth Valentine, this show offers laughter and catchy tunes in a musical classic.

Kiss Me Kate is a play within a play and incorporates Shakespeare’s story of ‘Taming of the Shrew’, however Kiss Me Kate shows both offstage and onstage scenes to tell the story. It follows a struggling relationship between two lovers (Villi Vanessi and Fred Graham) who play the main characters in Taming of the Shrew (Katherine Minola and Petruchio).  They bring their personal life on-stage which affects their performance, we can see this through the clever lighting directions and speech, e.g the spotlight will trail off in one direction as Villi, who plays Katherine, storms off in the opposite direction. Their performances stood out the most due to their strong vocal ability and old fashioned acting technique.

Adam Garcia stole the show with a tap routine in the second act gave the musical a lighter feel and lifted the mood of the audience, as the first half was very heavy with Shakespearian dialogue used frequently. His performance was impressive because of the precise footwork and timing.

I enjoyed how old fashioned the book was, it had a vintage musical feel to it. Such as the sentence structures and old American slang. They don’t make musicals like they used to. I felt like the Music was the strong point of Kiss Me Kate, the music left an impression on you with songs such as ‘Too Darn Hot’ and ‘Always True To You’. I also must give credit to the choreographer Stephen Mear as he added extra comedy value to the songs in Taming of The Shrew with the extra arm movements and over exaggerated movements in the dance routines which added to the feel you were watching a Shakespearian play. I thought Trevor Nunn did a brilliant job with the set changes; they were changed quickly and effectively and helped you to understand what/where the scene was. The lighting was very well done too, with flickering lights to show a backstage to suggest a rundown theatre and u.v lights on stage to add a nicer effect than a blackout. I felt that the weakness of the play was the lack of clarity of the Shakespearian speech, to change this I would direct in a different way by making sure the characters faces are clear to show how they are feeling at that moment to represent the story line furthermore, I would make sure the speech is slow so everybody can keep up with what’s happening.

Overall I enjoyed the show but found the majority of the dialogue hard to follow due to the speed of delivery and the Shakespearian language. The intertwined stories became confusing and I found it hard to tell if what was being said in the Taming of the Shrew was going as planned due to the off stage arguments being brought to the stage. Having never seen Kiss Me Kate before I went in with an open mind and did enjoy the musical, the songs were catchy and the comedy was timed correctly, however, it’s not a musical I would rush to see again.