HEIDI DINE

MY REVIEW

On the 27^th February, I went to see the musical Kiss Me Kate which was performed at The Old Vic in London, directed by Trevor Nun, music and lyrics by Cole Porter and choreography by Stephen Mear.

 I thoroughly enjoyed the performance, as I had never seen anything like it before. I loved the fact that ‘Kiss Me Kate’ is a play within a play not a traditional musical. The main reason being that it was quite an old fashioned musical not like the modern musicals e.g. Matilda, Blood Brothers or Spring Awakenings. Everything fitted so well into the 50’s era; the costumes, the music even the language was accurate. I think this also affected the target audience, as the original film was released in 1953 the main bulk of the audience was quite elderly. At some moments in the show the older part of the audience would laugh but the younger generation wouldn’t get the joke much like Pantomimes with their innuendos (They tell me the Prince’s balls get bigger every year). I thought that the overall show was highly entertaining, there was good energy from the entire cast in the dances especially ‘Too Darn Hot’ and ‘Tom Dick or Harry’. Each scene was delivered with a clear and meaningful performance. For example, at the beginning of the show ‘Wundabar’, performed by Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, showed that they still loved each other even though only moments before they had mentioned how happy the couple were now that their divorce was final. This all happened within one of the opening scenes. I believe it is important to have romance as a theme in musicals as it has always been a main factor and it has always worked well. It’s something that everyone can relate to or something that people dream about, it keeps the audience interested.

At moments the plot was easy to follow, but at times it was quite difficult to understand the language. Mr. Graham’s wedding flowers were sent to the wrong girl, this caused anger and frustration in Miss Vanessi. This was visible throughout the performance of the Shakespeare play ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. She would go off script but still remain in character, still speaking in old English. I thought this was very clever and very comical especially when Lilli would be heard of stage screaming “YOU BASTARD!”. I also found it funny when Mr. Graham had had enough of Lilli’s misbehaving and quickly came out of  his Shakespearian character warning her of how he would give Lilli the biggest ‘pounding’ of her life on stage and he did by repeatedly slapping her on the bottom like a child over his knee. But at moments the plot was hard to follow as at some points I and many of the younger generation struggled to understand the language, as most of the performance was in Old English but I managed to understand the gist of the scene by watching the actor’s body language. I also noticed that when the actors would took off their wigs that the language would change back to the 50’s style dialect. This was helpful to me as I knew when the characters would return to their original dialect making their conversation’s easier to understand.

 I found the two gangsters very funny; how they appeared on the stage wearing an ill fitted costume with their suits still visible underneath and when one of the gangsters still had his sunglasses on the whole audience laughed. I thought these two characters were very good comic relief from the quite confusing old English language which was spoken throughout the majority of the play. Their song ‘Brush up your Shakespeare’ was comical because the audience thought the song had finished but the characters kept reappearing and singing another verse or chorus. 

I thought that the aesthetics were very clever and imaginative. When the actors were on stage the lights would be on them like a normal performance but when the actors were backstage looking through the curtain the lights were set so that it looked like the small amounts of light were coming though the curtains. At some points, the lights would even be facing the audience. This made the play within a play format authentic. I also liked when Lilli Vanessi was throwing a tantrum and she was not stood where she was set to stand so the spotlight was not on her person but on her set position. She then had to hint to the lighting to move and follow her as she was obviously not staying to the script.

I thought that the set was very impressive, the dressing rooms next door to each other, the dressing tables on the same piece of furniture just opposite, how when the taming of the shrew was being performed the set was very medieval and always colourless it would be black and white, very simple but very effective. The set played an important part in the show  as it showed the audience when “The Taming of the Shrew” was performed or when the actual show was performed.

My favourite part of the show was the song ‘Tom,Dick or Harry’ because it had the whole cast performing a tap routine including parting the stage and doing different phrases at the same time but then later performing it all in unison it was such a feel good number. But I later found out that this dance was performed to a click track, which I was slightly disappointed with. However, when I found out the reasons that companies use click tracks, I was much more understanding. If the cast are doing up to 8 shows a week, then they are going to be tired and some of the taps might not come out as anticipated or missed. It’s also used to keep a steady beat, as the orchestra have to keep up with the performers so it saves them chasing. But overall, I thought the score was very good. The music would change to fit the mood of the scene or song but also to the era. On every set change during the play medieval music would play to refer back to the time period.

Overall I really enjoyed the performance and I would definitely go back to watch it again, it had all the basic ingredients of a musical; songs, dances but with a very clever twist. I feel that the only piece of criticism I have is that I thought the ending was rushed. Lilli Vanessi went away with her fiancé to Washington but then suddenly returned within 5 minutes and kissed Fred.  But it was very entertaining and clever how ‘Kiss me Kate’ was a play within a play. The ensemble came on stage and started setting up for the performance before the actual show had started. They started to drift onto stage whilst the audience were taking their seats. The pianist was setting up his sheet music and the cleaner was dusting the floor. It made the audience feel involved with the production as the house lights were only dimmed and not turned off. The choreography was brilliant, ‘Too Darn Hot’ was a very jazzy number whereas ‘We Open in Venice’ was a Shakespearian number and you could really see the contrast. If I could change one thing about the show it would be to use less Shakespearian language, by doing this it would make it more accessible to the younger members of the audience as it would be easier to understand. Overall, it was a pleasure to watch and I really enjoyed the performance.