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Theatre: Kiss Me Kate

A new production of a Cole Porter musical classic is ideal fare to banish the post-festive blues, says MICHAEL STEWART

Kiss Me Kate

Upstairs At The Gatehouse
London N6

4 Stars

Ovation's production of Kiss Me Kate is packed with gemlike numbers such as Wunderbar, From This Moment On and Always True To You in My Fashion, along with show-stoppers It's Too Darn Hot and Brush Up Your Shakespeare.

And they are done full justice on the Gatehouse's tiny traverse stage, which pounds with the frenzied energy of a talented cast in a production which does not let up from start to finish.

Though director John Plews has had to reduce the normal West End cast of around 30 down to 14 performers and make do with five musicians, the production's in-yer-face, "let's do the show right here" feel overcomes those obstacles and works in its favour.

The marriage of Cole Porter's music and lyrics with Sam and Bella Spewack's book tells the tale of egotistical actor Fred Graham (Gavin Keenan) and his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi (Sabrina Carter), who are staging a musical version of Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew in a US provincial theatre.

As the protagonists Katharine and Petruchio, their offstage/onstage bitching and feuding mirror the conflict of Shakespeare's play and there are some great gags, as when Vanessi reminds Keenan that at the last theatre they awarded him a gigantic ham for his efforts.

Those familiar with Howard Keel's uber-butch Graham in the famous MGM musical, all macho swagger, may wonder at Keenan's portrayal which is so camp you wonder how he got anywhere near his wife in the first place.

But it does gives her rendition of I Hate Men added clout. Though that interpretation may be off-putting at first, by the end of the first act you buy into it, perhaps because it is a sly reference to Cole Porter's own marriage of convenience where his spouse acted as a "beard" for his homosexuality.

The two leads attack Porter's songs with a superb gusto and the rest of the cast can't be faulted. A special delight is Ryan-Lee Sager's choreography, all sinuous, writhing limbs and sexy attitude, which is showcased to perfection during It's Too Darn Hot.

I felt exhausted afterwards. But 20 years younger.

Runs until January 26. Box office: (020) 8340-3488.

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