New staging of Kiss Me, Kate

Posted on July 31, 2015

A new production of Cole Porter’s classic musical comedy, Kiss Me, Kate, an Opera North co-production with Welsh National Opera, promises to heat up stages across England from September 2015.

The perfect way to “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”, Kiss Me, Kate opens at Leeds Grand Theatre in September, before touring to Theatre Royal Newcastle, The Lowry Salford, and Theatre Royal Nottingham.

Set both on and off stage during the production of a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew, Kiss Me, Kate revolves around the tempestuous love lives of actor-manager Fred Graham and his leading lady and ex-wife, Lilli Vanessi.

A charming homage to the sparkling wit of Shakespeare and an irresistible celebration of the joy and madness of working in theatre, Cole Porter’s witty, jazz-inflected score features hits “Another Op’nin’ Another Show”, “So in Love”, “Always True to You in My Fashion” and “Too Darn Hot”.

This new production is conducted by David Charles Abell and directed by Jo Davies, with new choreography by Will Tuckett, whose recent shows include West Side Story (Sage Gateshead). Tuckett has worked as movement and puppet director for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe, and his many works for the Royal Ballet include The Crucible, The Seven Deadly Sins and The Turn of the Screw. In the 2013/14 season his children’s ballet The Wind in the Willows, created for the Linbury Studio Theatre in 2002, became the Royal Opera House’s first West End transfer.

Casting brings together top talent from the worlds of both opera and the West End, headed by Jeni Bern as Lilli Vanessi/Katherine and Quirijn de Lang as Fred Graham/Petruchio. They are joined by Tiffany Graves as Lois Lane/Bianca.

Tickets are now on sale. www.kissmekatethemusical.co.uk

Photograph: Richard Moran

Nicola Rayner

Nicola Rayner was editor of Dance Today from 2010 to 2015. She has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, The Independent and Time Out Buenos Aires, where she cut her teeth as a dance journalist working on the tango section. Today she continues to dance everything from ballroom to breakdance, with varying degrees of success. Her debut novel, The Girl Before You, is out in May 2019.