On Wednesday the 27th of February we took a trip
to the old Victoria in London’s west end to see ‘Kiss me Kate’. Trevor Nunn’s revival of the musical, based
on Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the shrew’, was spectacular and it was great to see
something completely different that I normally see.
Kiss me Kate is a show within a show and this was made very
clear throughout. Sometimes I found myself feeling so drawn into ‘The taming of
the shrew’ that I would sometimes forget that it wasn’t the main show. This was
done cleverly in regards to lighting. There were dim lights and UV lights for
backstage and then full exciting lights for the ‘Taming of the shrew’. Also for
the scenes that were performed off stage while ‘taming of shrew’ was still
being performed, there was clever lighting that let the audience see that it is
being performed off stage. You could
still hear the play going on in the background and you could see the lights
changing from the tiny slit of light that was coming from the wings of ‘Taming
of the shrew’.
I found the vocals amazing, especially the faultless
accapella start of ‘Another opening, Another show’ building up into a high
energy, all singing, all dancing number. The song was jam packed and there was
always something to look at. It left the audience wanting more, which is
exactly what an opening number should do.
The two lead roles, Hannah Waddingham playing ‘Lilli
Vanessa’ and Alex Bourne playing ‘Fred Graham’, were outstanding and clearly
bounced off each other. Both vocals were immaculate and I couldn’t fault them
in anything they did. In the musical there is a constant love, hate battle
going on both on and off the stage, which is highly amusing for that audience
to watch. One of my favourite parts is when Hannah sings ‘I hate men’. The
lyrics in the song are things that people in the audience can relate to and as
it is sung directly to the audience the audience members feel part of the play
which also leaves them wanting more.
I also enjoyed the songs ‘Too darn hot’ and ‘Brush up your
Shakespeare’. ‘Too darn hot’ was cheesy and full of energy and was a great way
to start the second act. It gets the audience drawn in right from the start.
‘Brush up your Shakespeare’ was hilarious and makes constant referrals to
titles of Shakespeare’s plays which the audience found hilarious. They were
typical old time, dumb American gangsters which made it even funnier to watch
them sing and dance. The fact they could really sing also added to the comedy.
This is also the first musical I have seen where the set
come out of a box. There were little props and scenery, but the scenery and
props that there were had a major effect. In the ‘Taming of the shrew’ the
props were sheets cut into shapes and fixed onto the stage or held up by
string. My favourite one for example was a tree. Each of the branches come out
and filled the stage. It was truly captivating.
Overall I enjoyed the show very much. I think this type of
show is aimed more at an older audience as it was set in the 1930’s. I found
the speech very fast when speaking in Shakespearian which for me found it a
little hard to follow which means I missed some of the humour. Kiss me Kate is
not a show I would normally go and see but I am glad I have seen it. I would go
and see it a second time as maybe I might understand a little more what was
going on.
No comments:
Post a Comment