COLE Porter’s musical retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is a joy to behold. At Ilkley Playhouse until June 17, this is a lively, feisty, laugh-out-loud show with great songs, dances, slapstick comedy and a lot of fun. The now established team of David Kirk, Cathy Sweet and Ted Oxley-Kirk as director, musical director and choreographer, have pulled out all the stops to make this production a rare treat.

The show opens as the show opens – this is a play within a play – a travelling theatre company is putting on a production of The Taming of the Shrew and they burst onto the stage with a rousing ‘Another opening, another show!’ At the same time the life of the actors is imitating the art; the leading actors playing Petruchio and Katherine, are the still-warring divorcees Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi. There are wonderful performances from Rob Edwards and Susan Wilcock in these parts, who have to perform two roles concurrently and manage to spar, snap and sneer at each other whilst still subtly conveying a deeper love. Lilli Vanessi’s barbed song ‘I Hate Men,’ which Susan Wilcock sings with tangible venom, is a real highlight of the evening

Around this central relationship there is a vast supporting cast of characters. Off stage and on there is a host of men vying with each other for the affections of sassy and flirtatious Bianca/Lois Lane, played coquettishly by Amy Jagger, which evolves into a wonderful trio with Joseph Button, Ted Oxley-Kirk and Declan O’Keeffe all trying to sing and dance their way into her affections.

There are some wonderful cameo parts – Colin Waterman is delightful as the overly attentive dresser, Joanna Clark belts out that it’s ‘Too Darn Hot’ in the second half opener, which is suddenly reminiscent of ‘Cabaret’. Mervyn Button and Damien O’Keeffe as the debt-collecting gangsters Hands O’Hagan and Joe Ambrosio, provide lovely moments of high comedy when in disguise in big frocks and later in the show stopping number ‘Brush up your Shakespeare’.

The stage is frequently packed with performers making it colourful and exciting to watch – the costumes are beautiful – and the chorus singing rings mellifluously. This show will also form Ilkley Playhouse’s offering at The Minack Theatre in Cornwall during the last week of July – tickets are selling very well at both venues – see it in Ilkley and save yourselves a rather long drive!

by Becky Carter