Kiss Me Kate - Barbican / Cinema Release

I agree with all of this, exactly how I felt. Adrian's performance was so placed, it felt like he was thinking about his next line constantly and the songs had no life. 

TBF the wig is only for the scenes where he's playing Bill as Lucentio, SJB's wig when she's playing Lilli as Kate is equally not good.

Let’s hope the pensioners step up and save the day/ticket sales.

Very enjoyable if lacking the sparkle of the Blakemore London revival. There is obviously a problem with our leading man's vocal ability; he looks so uncomfortable during the numbers (please cut the reprise of So In Love as Where Thine That Special Face has been) but I thought his ironic, throw away acting style was engaging and funny. SJB takes a while to warm up but ultimately delivers well. I thought she lacked a little poise and agree that her "Kate" wig did her no favours at all and found the faux Dior costumes underwhelming. Not sure why Charlie was shoe-horned into Too Darn Hot other than to give him something else to do but he gives his usual charming performance. I didn't feel the Lois Lane well cast but she nailed her big Act 2 number. The gangsters were great. It was being filmed last night which was very slightly irritating. Perhaps they plan to air on Sky! A fun night. 4 stars.

I'll post my thoughts later, this is for the people who were asking how the book has been edited. I'm not an expert on KMK, so I'm not sure if some of these changes have already appeared in recent revivals.

* The cast rushes on stage before Fred/Petruchio spanks Lilli/Kate, so she never gets spanked
* After "Too Darn Hot", Fred has a little awkward speech in which he addresses the audience (the actual audience and the audience of the show) and talks about The Taming of the Shrew being an early modern play, with different sensibilities etc. Very clunky
* In "Always True To You" they replaced "When you know baby I'm your slave" with something like "when you know you're the one I crave".
* Like in the latest Broadway revival, Bill's colleagues act horrified when he sings "You'd better answer yes or Poppa spanka", and then the chorus girls prevent him from repeating the line when he tries to reprise it.
* They kept the original lyrics of "I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple" (the latest Broadway revival replaced "Women" with "People") but turned it into a conciliatory duet, which works nicely.

Does SJB stage door after this? Lots of barriers near the stage door for crowds

Can anyone tell me how much Josie Benson is in it?

Oh that’s a shame. Do you know if she’s understudying anybody?

Saw this tonight for a tenner in row C so despite my misgivings about Dunbar's casting based on the clips of him singing I had to take the opportunity at a price like that. And it was quite possibly the best seat in the house - slap bang in the centre of the row, great leg room, and as close as you can get without any restriction in view. And I have lots of good things to say about the show too - it's a pretty faultless production. That is, until Adrian starts singing.

I'm most familiar with the 1999 Broadway revival cast recording of this show with the soaring Marin Mazzie and the sumptuous Brian Stokes Mitchell, so it would be difficult for any performance of this material to stack up. But when you sound like Dunbar it's especially glaring.

Frustratingly, Dunbar is actually pretty good in the book scenes. He and Block have great chemistry and timing. But when he starts singing it's like he goes dead behind the eyes. All of his movement becomes stilted and unsure. His singing is just about on key but his tone is so mushy like he's eating his vowels or something. He just doesn't have the technique to make what should be a brilliant baritone role a real showstopper. The great shame is that the rest of the cast are fantastic, Block especially, so he'd look bad on the best of days but when up against a group this talented he's really climbing an uphill battle.

They also cut Were Thine that Special Face which is one of my favourites from the score but perhaps that's for the best because I'm not sure I'd want to hear him butcher it. It's just sad because outside of this and a few issues I had with the book (some that I'm sure are intrinsic to the show, others that have clearly been added to paper over the more problematic elements of the story), it was such a wonderful time. He just sticks out like a sore thumb. Though I didn't hear any complaints from the other audience members and the response was rapturous with a standing o (and I did stand for Ms Block at the end) so I guess it's not a problem for a lot of people.

Sorry this is basically just a rant about how bad Dunbar's singing is, they just came so close to getting everything right and then they fell at the last hurdle (and when that hurdle is the casting of your co-lead it's a pretty devastating hurdle to fall at).

How, where please?

I’m presuming she’s covering SJB, as the only other actress of age is Jaqui Jameson in the Ensemble and she’s covering Benson’s role.

Under 25s ticket!