One of the big draws for me was that Howard Goodall had composed the music and I had fallen utterly in love with his score for Love Story last year. His music for The Kissing Dance was equally charming and I think showcases one of his real talents – matching the style of the music so perfectly to the style, tone and era of the story. He is well matched with Charles Hart, who provides very witty lyrics to his music. I suspect with more exposure, the score might also have provided several ear worms – though as it stood, I would struggle to hum any of the songs right now.
I really loved the decision to produce the piece with actor-musicians. It’s the first time I’ve seen this done live (though I am familiar with the production of Company that did the same). It made this a very intimate and personal piece (helped by the Jermyn Street Theatre’s small size of course) and also added to some lovely comedy moments – especially Beating the Knave which featured the cast battering Tony Lumpkin with a variety of instruments. It was also, memorably, the first time I’d seen an accordion played with menace. Plus it was hard not to be impressed with the array of musical talent on display, with the bell ringing in Liberty Hall emerging as a personal favourite.
Another strength of the piece is that they have stuck relatively closely to the original source, the play She Stoops To Conquer – meaning that the book was more than a match for the score, clever and very funny. This is not always true for musicals, where the in-between talking sections can sometimes feel like they’re dragging. The cast brought out this strength perfectly, with strong comic performances all round. All the young lovers were excellent, with Jack Shalloo as Tony Lumpkin and Lauren Storer as Bet Bouncer, who managed to be both very funny and very sweet. I also thought Gina Beck was ridiculously delightful as Kate Hardcastle and well matched with Ian Virgo as Charles Marlowe, with their initial meeting standing out as one of the comic highlights of the show. No-one though, could quite match up to the comic tour de force that was Beverley Klein’s superb Mrs Hardcastle. It was impossible to restrain my laughter every time she was onstage.
I also really loved the sections with the servants, they set the tone, I think, for the romantic shenanigans upstairs, which with all the games and deceptions could have come across as a little shallow and short-lived. Here instead we had much simpler love stories, which felt more genuine and added credibility to their wealthier counterparts. It also may have helped that all four of them reminded me of characters in Downton Abbey (bizarrely they were even paired up with the right counterparts).
A charming evening from start to finish, almost up there with Salad Days for leaving me with a silly grin for days.
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