Kiss Me Kate at Barbican Theatre

With a Tony Award-winning actress and BAFTA-winning actor as the stars of this production, it’s no surprise that Kiss Me Kate at the Barbican Centre wows. In this riotous musical, Broadway icon Stephanie J Block and Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar transform into Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi – quarrelling divorcées attempting to play nicely while starring in a theatre performance of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew together.

Featuring a score (also Tony Award-winning) performed by a full orchestra, extraordinary vocals, lively dance numbers executed with skill, laugh-out-loud humour and just the right dose of earnest emotion, Kiss Me Kate is everything audiences could wish for in a classic musical.

Standout numbers include Lilli’s initial rendition of So in Love, sung gorgeously by Block, the witty Always True to You in My Fashion by Georgina Onuorah’s Lois Lane and the classic Too Darn Hot, notable not only for its vocal strength but also its impressive accompanying dance choreography, led by Jack Butterworth’s Paul. The well-known Brush Up Your Shakespeare is a principal example of the show’s humour, with brilliant turns by Hammed Animashaun and Nigel Lindsay as the well-read gangsters who double as theatre aficionados.

The set – designed by Michael Yeargan – is perfectly constructed to transition between the characters’ “real world” and their performance world, with a rotating wall depicting the backstage area in a Baltimore theatre on one side and a stage set as Padua on the other. The characters’ Shakespearean real lives, dynamics, and quarrels are echoed in their adaptation of the classic Shakespearean play, as Fred and Lilli re-enact their own relationship struggles in their roles as the initially unhappily betrothed Katherine (Kate) and Petruchio.

Despite the plot hinging around various forms of conflict, Kiss Me Kate remains a joyous event. The vivacious performance of each and every member of cast makes this an entirely engaging production, allowing you to fully invest in the characters and the storyline unfolding before you. Even at a lengthy run-time of two hours and 40 minutes, the Barbican Centre’s Kiss Me Kate will leave audiences wanting more.

Madison Sotos
Images: Johan Persson

Kiss Me Kate is at Barbican Theatre from 4^th June until 14^th September 2024. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Watch the trailer for Kiss Me Kate here: