John Savournin, Stephanie Corley and Joseph Shovelton in Kiss Me, Kate at the Grand Theatre, Leeds and Touring. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Kiss Me, Kate at the Grand Theatre, Leeds. The Opera North production plays four performances at the Alighieri Theatre in Ravenna, Italy before returning to the UK to play the London Coliseum from 20-30 June 2018. The show will then head for the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh from 4-7 July.
Star rating: five stars ★★★★★
Reviewing Opera North’s Kiss Me, Katein these columns in 2015, I expressed some doubts about the production itself and the morality of Shakespeare’s original.
How far we have come in the last three years. Kate’s submission scene is not now merely discomfiting; in the age of #MeToo,there is a whiff of sulphur in the air.
On the other hand, my concerns about the production have been comprehensively dismissed.
Quirijn de Lang swaggers through the Fred Graham/Petruchio role with great brio. His accent is spot on, he looks the part in leather and, of course, his singing is first rate. He demonstrated some of these qualities in Trouble in Tahiti, but here the skills can be deployed over a full evening of theatre.
Opposite him is Stephanie Corley as Lilli Vanessi/Kate. Although an operatic soprano, she is at her most thrilling when singing in her lower register. Listening to ‘So in Love’, I became convinced that this is one of the greatest of all torch songs.
As in so many musicals of this era, Cole Porter opted for second leads to carry the weight of the comic sub-plot. Zoë Rainey as Lois Lane/Bianca may have been a little breathless with the pace of ‘Always True to You in My Fashion’, but she has a fine stage presence and plays the gold-digger/ingenue with style.
Going eyeball-to-eyeball with Bianca is Alan Burkitt playing the feckless Bill Calhoun/Lucentio. His performance is everything you would expect of a man who performed as a tap soloist at the Stephen Sondheim 75th birthday celebration.
And so to the two show-stealing minor roles: Stephane Anelli as de Lang’s dresser, Paul, is in the ensemble pieces such as ‘Another Op’nin, Another Show’, but takes centre-stage as an athletic dancer for ‘Too Darn Hot’. What a performance! He almost had the Leeds Grand audience on its feet when he took his bow.
The second is, of course, ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’ with the magnificent Gunman 1 and 2, played by John Savournin and Joseph Shovelton. The show as a whole is the work of a master of the genre, but the lyrics for this number, performed with a knowing wink to the audience, are the product of genius: “Just declaim a few lines from Othella; And they’ll think you’re a hell of a fella.”
Revival director Ed Goggin sensibly retained the additional comic effect of a tall, thin character paired with a short, squat one. The reference to Laurel and Hardy is unmistakable.
The end of Act II reverts to Taming of the Shrew with a mise en scene worthy of a Zeffirelli film. The set for Baptista’s house (and costumes by Colin Richmond) is a feast of colour and light (Ben Cracknell). With the excellent Chorus of Opera North on stage, reprising some of the songs, we have a fitting ending to a splendid evening in the theatre.
Mike Tilling
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