As winner of the first ever Tony for Best Musical in 1949, Kiss Me Kate firmly lies within the canon of the Golden Age of Broadway. The show riffs off of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, following a theatre company in their performance of the Bard’s work. Whilst the story of Shakespeare’s “Shrew” unfolds within the play-within-a-musical, it is also mirrored in the real life relationships between the cast and crew putting on Shakespeare’s play.

Central to the show is the relationship between actor/productor/egotistical maniac Fred Graham (played by Jude Ashcroft) and his ‘zero-tolerance for crap’ ex-wife Lilli Vanessi (played by April Perrott). Ashcroft and Perrott masterfully portrayed this dynamic on stage, oozing the bitterness of ex-partners whose love for each other grows increasingly obvious. Their vocal pairing was, however, slightly jarring. Both are fantastic singers in their own right (with their multiple solo numbers being some of the strongest in the show), during duets Perrott’s operatic soprano grated against Ashcroft’s powerful baritone.

“Ashcroft and Perrott delivered exquisitely funny portrayals of Petruchio and Kate”

A further credit to the immense talent of Ashcroft and Perrott, one to be shared with the directorial team of Jonathan Black and Gina Stock, was the handling of Shakespeare’s material. As demanded by the premise, substantive sections of The Taming of the Shrew remain in the script. Ashcroft and Perrott delivered deliberately caricatured and exquisitely funny portrayals of Petruchio and Kate. This was a trait notably shared by Lydia Seed (playing Lois/Bianca) and Miles Hitchens (Baptista) who seamlessly moved into Shakespearean dialect with the ease that only a detailed understanding of Shakespeare’s work can permit. Seed also warrants praise for her rendition of Lois’ solo number, ‘Always True to You in My Fashion’, which was vocally magnificent.

Alongside its magnificent vocals, Lois’ solo also brought a scoop of misogyny to the proceedings, a wider issue within the production. As with any musical written in the 1940s, many of the tropes, character dynamics, and lines of dialogue are rooted in misogyny. This is certainly the case with Kiss Me Kate, given its relationship to Shakespeare’s most sexist play. The Directors were clearly aware of these issues — they mention “tackling the misogyny in the script” in their directors note — and for the most part handled this issue well by playing with hyper-masculinity and feminism, and having their strong female leads delivering many tongue-in-cheek remarks. However, there were the occasional moments, such as Lois’ very sexualised choreography, where moments for potential reinterpretation fell back onto the tired trope of the hyper-sexualised young women.

Back to the positives, for there really were no weak performances in this production. Joseph Lucas shone as General Harrison (definitely winning the prize for best American accent) as did Hannah Filer whose portrayal of the overstressed stage manager Ralph was brilliantly anxiety inducing. The criminally undernamed 1st Gangster (Rose McLeish) and 2nd Gangster (Christian Longstaff) were infectiously funny — especially with their rendition of “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” which had the audience in hysterics. Though arguably the standout performance of the show is by Musical Director Drew Sellis and his jaw-dropping 17 (!!!) piece band. Cole Porter’s score was truly done justice by this immensely talented student band.

The Broadway pizzazz factor was exemplified through the performances, but they were not supported by other aspects of the production. The costume design was weak, especially for the ensemble who were dressed in matching plain white t-shirts for much of the production. Though uniformity within ensemble costume can be effective, this decision felt as if an opportunity to characterise members of a touring troupe of actors and crew members was overlooked. Similarly, though the set design was artistic, especially the bright streets of Padua, the over-reliance on flying in flat pieces of sets left the show feeling slightly too two-dimensional.

Whilst the show felt shallow at times in terms of design and the occasional mishandling of the complex issue of misogyny embedded in Bella Spewack’s script, Kiss Me Kate is a Broadway classic and the performances did this justice. You will be well advised to get yourself down to the ADC Theatre before you miss “another op’nin of another show”.

Kiss Me Kate is showing at the ADC Theatre from Wednesday 15th to Saturday 25th March at 7:45pm, with 2:30pm performances on the 18th, 23rd and 25th, and no performances on Sundays.