Old Vic, 19 February 2013
An impressive production and cast makes the most of this musical, but cannot disguise its damaging indulgences.
The Taming of the Shrew is not the greatest example of
Shakespeare’s genius. But it retains more life than Cole Porter’s work,
which seems dated just 50 years after it was written.
Admittedly, the English dramatist can seem disturbingly misogynistic
in this work, but the key to countering that impression is that Kate is both
superior to Petruccio and in love with him at first sight.
On this view, it is the social imprisonment of women that
the poet exposes, and one problem with updating the scenario as done here is
that even in the 1930s women had much greater rights than in Tudor England.
Thankfully the book by Bella and Sam Spewack retains some of
the sense that women choose beneath them. It also retains the bard’s healthy
disrespect for mere plausibility. And so it is a relatively effective abridgement
of the Shrew.
But the contemporary framing device, far from making
Shakespeare ‘relevant’, is fairly weak. Quarrelling actors are just too cute.
As we know everyone on stage is acting at one or two removes, the distancing
effect is distracting rather than enlightening (post-modernism avant la
letter?)
Worse, sometimes the implausibility is stretched too far by
the updated setting. Not only is there no doubt that Lilli will return to Fred,
but in the event it is so implausibly sentimental that even Trevor Nunn cannot
direct the scene to make it effective.
Some of Porter’s lyrics, and most of his tunes, keep things
deftly afloat.
Even here, there are problems, and I found them the worst
problems in the piece. It is easier to forgive some tuneful additions that
don’t advance the plot, such as Too Darn Hot; the real sins are the indulgent
rhymes of Brush Up on Your Shakespeare and Bianca.
The cast is great, and mostly manage to sound from the
US even if they aren’t (though I prefer actors in their natural accents).
A seemingly endless supply of enthusiastic, energetic and
talented singing actors can be found for London musicals, and as usual everyone
was very good. Perhaps some authentic yankee pep might have been necessary to
lift the drama out of its doldrums. Only Adam Garcia, in a relatively
unimportant role, seemed to possess this quality.
Special mention should go to Hannah Waddingham’s versatile
voice. Her I Hate Men was the lasting highlight in a lively but unaffecting evening.
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