Published in The Guardian
Kiss Me Kate
Pitlochry Festival
3 out of 5
The lights come up on the second half, and the Pitlochry summer ensemble shows its colours. It is time for Too Darn Hot, Cole Porter's slinky, sticky jazz number, and the large cast is out in force. As with the company's first musical, Whisky Galore, nominated in Sunday's Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland, the actors not only prove themselves fine singers, but also spirited musicians, bringing clarinets and saxophones with them on stage. This time, they also dance.
It's an exuberant display, eclipsed in intensity only by Kate Quinnell's rendition of Always True to You in My Fashion, a gutsy solo as tightly choreographed as it is formidably performed. John Durnin's production is confidently sung and slickly staged, but too many of the songs have only a tangential connection to the story of two feuding actors performing a bowdlerised version of The Taming of the Shrew.
This is a weakness of the original – that and its curious failure to challenge the misogyny of Shakespeare's play – but it isn't helped by a production that makes little distinction between the characters' backstage and on-stage personas. In the stage-door scenes, the actors strip the script of its comedy by signalling their reactions. In the on-stage scenes, they give no sense of whether their showbiz troupe is good, bad or indifferent, making it hard to tell where their "real" emotions are showing through.
Martine McMenemy and Graham Vick perform the Katherine and Petruchio roles with zest and authority, but it's hard to care whether or not they are reunited. The music, rather than the romance, carries the show.
In rep until 16 October. Box office: 01796 484626.
© Mark Fisher 2010
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Kiss Me Kate
Pitlochry Festival
3 out of 5
The lights come up on the second half, and the Pitlochry summer ensemble shows its colours. It is time for Too Darn Hot, Cole Porter's slinky, sticky jazz number, and the large cast is out in force. As with the company's first musical, Whisky Galore, nominated in Sunday's Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland, the actors not only prove themselves fine singers, but also spirited musicians, bringing clarinets and saxophones with them on stage. This time, they also dance.
It's an exuberant display, eclipsed in intensity only by Kate Quinnell's rendition of Always True to You in My Fashion, a gutsy solo as tightly choreographed as it is formidably performed. John Durnin's production is confidently sung and slickly staged, but too many of the songs have only a tangential connection to the story of two feuding actors performing a bowdlerised version of The Taming of the Shrew.
This is a weakness of the original – that and its curious failure to challenge the misogyny of Shakespeare's play – but it isn't helped by a production that makes little distinction between the characters' backstage and on-stage personas. In the stage-door scenes, the actors strip the script of its comedy by signalling their reactions. In the on-stage scenes, they give no sense of whether their showbiz troupe is good, bad or indifferent, making it hard to tell where their "real" emotions are showing through.
Martine McMenemy and Graham Vick perform the Katherine and Petruchio roles with zest and authority, but it's hard to care whether or not they are reunited. The music, rather than the romance, carries the show.
In rep until 16 October. Box office: 01796 484626.
© Mark Fisher 2010
More coverage at theatreSCOTLAND.com
Sign up for theatreSCOTLAND updates: http://groups.google.com/group/theatreSCOTLANDupdates
Sign up for theatreSCOTLAND discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/theatrescotland
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