Kiss Me Kate at Chichester Festival Theatre

Cole Porter collides with William Shakespeare for Chichester Festival Theatre’s big summer musical
Kiss Me, Kate

Setting the Bard to music, plenty have done it; Verdi did Othello; Ralph Vaughan Williams had a go at The Tempest and Leonard Bernstein famously transformed Romeo and Juliet into West Side Story – but he only thought of that in 1949, the year after Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate opened on Broadway and took the world of musical theatre by storm.

It was on 30 December of that year and Kiss Me, Kate ran for over 1,000 performances, and the following year it won the first ever Tony Award presented for a musical. Is it any surprise then that Bernstein started to brush up his Shakespeare?

It was around that time that the musical theatre was changing, and changing fast. For years stage musicals were plays with song, songs that were an addition to the whole rather than an integrated part helping to progress the narrative element. Rodgers and Hammerstein were doing this, so Cole Porter had to do it too.
Thank heavens he did. In Kiss Me, Kate, his musical invention based on The Taming of the Shrew, Porter penned some of his greatest songs, 18 all told and amongst them ‘Another Op’nin’, Another Show’, ‘Wunderbar’, ‘I Hate Men’, ‘Too Darn Hot’, ‘So In Love’, ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’ and ‘Always True To You In My Fashion’…

The format of Kiss Me, Kate follows the time honoured tradition of backstage dramas and plays within plays. Fred Graham is the producer, director and star of a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew. His ex-wife, a Hollywood ‘Movie Star’, is Lilli Vanessi (playing Katharine) opposite him. He has an ego the size of Texas and she is a first class pain in the arras…well this is Shakespeare you know.

Add to this a subplot that includes gangsters and you have a recipe for madness, mayhem and musical genius.
Cole Porter was and perhaps still is the lyricist’s lyricist. He could pluck rhyme from nowhere, conjure up complex internal rhyming schemes that could trip the deftest tongue, and imbue a sense of sauciness into the most innocent of phrases – or at times not so innocent;
‘If she says your behaviour is heinous,Kick her right in the Coriolanus.’

Cole Porter was no doubt the wittiest songwriter of a generation. Now Chichester Festival Theatre has gained a reputation for being the greatest producers of musical theatre revivals for this generation. For the last few years their stunning new productions of classics have gained massive critical acclaim, many of them moving into the West End for successful runs and then touring. Right now last year’s production of Singin’ In The Rain is running to busy houses and national press plaudits at the Palace Theatre and Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton are still wowing audiences with Sweeney Todd.

Alex Bourne and Hannah Waddingham will appear with Adam Garcia for this exciting new production. Alex Bourne will play Fred Graham/Petruchio. He has recently appeared in the West End productions of We Will Rock You, Chicago, Grease, Beauty and the Beast and Only The Lonely. Hannah Waddingham will play Lilli/Kate. Her credits include the West End production of The Wizard of Oz for which she received the 2012 Whatsonstage Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Into The Woods, for which she received a Whatsonstage Award nomination, A Little Night Music and Spamalot, receiving Olivier Award nominations for both productions. Adam Garcia plays Bill Calhoun/Lucentio. His theatre credits include West End productions of Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Wicked and Tap Dogs.

Kiss Me, Kate is directed by Trevor Nunn. Nunn needs no introduction, his list of theatrical successes is immense, The National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and of course Chichester…and he is no stranger to musicals having directed the international success Les Misérables.

Choreography comes from Stephen Mear who has recently emerged as one of the theatre world’s leading dance talents with successes on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Chichester Festival Theatre are taking a legendary hit, employing a five star cast and a five star production team and will no doubt be giving it their full, five star treatment”

Chichester Festival Theatre’s reputation for delivering five star musical hits has become legend. This year they are taking a smash hit, employing a five star cast and a five star production team and will no doubt be giving it their full, five star treatment.

Festival Theatre
Until 1 Sep 2012
To book, go to cft.org.uk or contact the Box Office on 01243 781312