The company of Kiss Me, Kate. Picture: Johan Persson
Kiss Me, Kate movie preview at The Chiswick Cinema, London.
Lovers of Cole Porter’s classic musical Kiss Me, Kate who missed the Barbican revival this summer can play catch-up when the filmed version hits 500 cinemas in the UK and Ireland on Sunday (17 November) – and those who did see it on stage will undoubtedly want to hear its magical score and wallow in its ravishing colours again.
Seeing the 160-minute film – a 15-minute “comfort break” is included – at a press preview at the gorgeously comfortable Chiswick Cinema confirmed the five-star rating from the Musical Theatre Review critic back at the start of its 13-week Barbican run in June. It crackles with wit, excruciating puns (who else but Porter would rhyme “Padua”with “What a cad you are” and “heinous” with “Coriolanus”?) and some of the greatest show tunes ever written.
The novelty value of Line of Duty TV actor Adrian Dunbar in a singing role will attract a new audience and he’s a revelation while leaving most of the heavy duty stuff to Broadway star Stephanie J Block, making a sensational London debut at the age of 51 as ‘I Hate Men’ Katherine/Lilli Vanessi. A beautiful performance.
In the Q&A which preceded the screening, Dunbar made no secret of the satisfaction he took from “proving the sceptics wrong” when his casting as Fred Graham had some critics questioning his singing credentials. “I’ve done singing before so I don’t know what all the fuss was about. It was a big box ticked for me,” he added, saying he was proud to have missed only one performance in the demanding eight-shows-a-week schedule.
Choreographer Anthony Van Laast, also on the panel along with actors Charlie Stemp and Georgina Onuorah, said how much easier his job had been with the great Stemp and Jack Butterworth doing the dancing. Butterworth’s steamy ‘Too Darn Hot’, with acrobatic help from Stemp, lived up to its name while Onuorah’s flirtatious ‘Always True to You in My Fashion’ in big-screen close-up was quite something.
With Nigel Lindsay and Hammed Animashaun as the two gun-toting, theatre-loving gangsters mopping up all the laughs from ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’ and Peter Davison as Lilli’s pompous suitor General Harrison Howell, this was a show rich in talent all the way through to the cameo roles, the 16-strong orchestra under Stephen Ridley and the hard-working ensemble under director Bartlett Sher. Top marks too to Michael Yeargan’s clever revolve and Catherine Zuber’s sumptuous costumes.
The actors asked if they had to change their performance in any way for the film and the answer was an emphatic ‘No, change nothing, we’re not making a film, we’re making a film of a show’. It has turned out larger than life and just dandy.
The cinema release is presented by by Trafalgar Releasing and Trafalgar Entertainment in association with Steam Motion and Sound. Directed for the screen by Brett Sullivan. Book by Sam and Bella Spewack.
Jeremy Chapman
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