Kiss Me Kate - Barbican / Cinema Release

Or just have Stephanie J Block release an EP of her singing songs from the show as Cher

Saw this tonight on press night and what a dull, tedious evening it is.

Adrian Dunbar gives perhaps the worst performance I’ve ever seen or heard In a musical. An atrocious American accent, which he just abandons 3 lines in, and just plain amateur ‘singing’

Against him- poor lamb, is the glorious Stephanie J Block. Everything he isn’t- she is. In total control of every line, lyric and note. Sounding absolutely glorious (though bizarrely being drowned out by the unbalanced sound levels) often. I truly felt awful for her having to act against a lump of wood.

The rest- serviceable, except Jack Butterworth who’s dancing raises the temperature and manages to make even Charlie Stemp look average.

2 stars (one for Butterworth, one for Block)

Reviews so far:

Daily Fail: A Rave (editor hasn’t assigned stars yet)
Torygraph: 4*
Guardian: 4*
Independent: 4*
Whatsonstage: 4*
Broadway World: 4*
Evening Standard: 3*

People always complain about singing not being up to scratch, but then happily overlook great singers who can't act. Acting is just as important in a musical, in some ways even more so. If you only care about singing see a concert or listen to a recording 🤷‍♂️

I'm amazed at the four stars.

I’m amazed at how they’ve got away with this in the reviews.

Glad the reviews are good for this - Dunbar is nowhere near as bad as some people have said (to me anyway), a little miscast maybe but the rest of the cast are so strong it's sort of fine, and he does have a weird charm that makes it all work.

Can't wait to go again

I had a fantastic evening seeing Kiss Me Kate on Monday, Adrian Dunbar's overall performance more than made up for his three star vocals and I'll be going again at least twice more.

In my usual centre front row seat - booked at almost full price, not rush - and I'm sure the stage was much higher than for previous musicals. Two nearby couples moved at the interval after speaking to an usher.

While I still wouldn't choose to sit anywhere else, front row is not recommended if you want to see everything and should probably carry a restricted view warning. Second and third maybe borderline.

I've not seen this show as yet so am not in a position to comment but I wonder- and this is purely speculation (again, I've not seen the show) but I wonder, is that because, in terms of musicals, Stephanie J Block is a more seasoned and experience stage actor, where as Adrian Dunbar, is an actor who is more in front of a camera?

I have to agree that Dunbar looked visibly uncomfortable - which zapped any charisma he may naturally exude. The rest of the cast are clearly more comfortable and therefore giving better performances.

I think he's a bit of a black hole in the production and shouldn't have been hired. Brian Stokes Mitchell he ain't.

Overall, I found the show to be... fine. I enjoyed myself but the book scenes were sometimes laborious, especially the Shakespeare scenes, and the direction/ musical numbers were paint by the numbers. The show needed a more whimsical director like Stroman to distract the audience from the bad book. I also don't think Sher is the director for a musical comedy. I felt like everyone in the cast had better performances in them.

The role of Fred needs a proper singer, it's a very different role to say Moonface Martin which Adrian Dunbar could easily do with his singing ability.