Kiss Me Kate
Louise Gold starred as Lilli Vanessi/Kate in The New
Shakespeare Company Production, at Regents Park Open Air Theatre from 24 July
to 1 September 1997
Cast:
Fred Graham/Petruchio - Andrew C Wadsworth
Harry Trevor/Baptista - John Griffiths
Lilli Vanessi/Kate - Louise Gold
Hattie - Debby Bishop
Stage Doorman - Tony Whittle
Paul - Gary Bryden
Bill Calhoun.Lucentio - Graeme Henderson
First Gangster - Gavin Muir
Second Gangster - Rob Edwards
Harrison Howell - Jonathan Elsom
Gremio - Paul Bentley
Ralph/Hortensio - Paul Thornley
Haberdasher - Oliver Jackson
Cab Driver - Jonathan Elsom
Petruchio's Servants: Adam Sims, Ian
Sanders, Tony Whittle, Rebecca Hartley, Alexandra Sumner
and Lucy Quick
Messengers: Oliver Jackson and Simon Penman
Chauffer - Ian Sanders
Other parts played by members of the company.
Production Team
Music/Lyrics - Cole Porter
Book - Bella and Samuel Spewack
Based on "The Taming Of The Shrew" by William Shakespeare
Original Production – 30 December 1948, New
Director - Ian Talbot
Designer - Paul Farnsworth
Musical Director - Catherine Jayes
Choreographer - Lisa Kent
Lighting Designer - Jason Taylor
Sound Designer - Simon Whitehorn
Dialect Coach - Charmian Hoare
Assistant Director - Pete Harris
Music Arranged by - Steve Edis and Catherine Jayes
Sound System -Orbital
For a full review please click here.
For "Another
Opening…" - a light-hearted collection of facts, observations and comments about the
production, please click here.
6 years after starring in The Boys
From Syracuse and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and
immediately after a spell in The Royal Shakespeare Company, Louise
Gold returned to The New Shakespeare Company at The Regents Park Open Air
Theatre, to star in Kiss Me Kate.
Kiss Me Kate was presented in
repertory with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Alls Well That
Ends Well, the actual dates of the performances were: Previews from 22
and 23 July 1997. Performances (scheduled): 24 to 29 July, 7 to 14 August, and
26 August to 1 September 1997.
Five years later Issy Van Randwyck, Paul
Bentley, Graeme Henderson, and, Paul Thornley reprised their
performance of Tom Dick And Harry, while Andrew C Wardsworth
reprised his performance of Where Is The Life That Late I Lead in
Regents Park 70th Anniversary
Gala This occasion also featured: Louise Gold, Rebecca Hartley,
Lucy Quick, and, Ian Talbot, with musical direction by Catherine
Jayes, and contributions from Steven Edis and Lisa Kent.
Designer Paul Farnsworth had previously
designed Calamity Jane at The Leicester
Haymarket. He also designed A Midsummer Night's Dream 6 years
earlier for the NSC. Certainly for the two NSC shows (and quite possibly
Calamity Jane too) he managed to make his programme sketch drawing of Louise's
character look uncannily like the actress herself.
Louise Gold and Issy Van Randyck
had previously appeared together in the Lost Musicals productions of Love Life and By Jupiter.
Louise Gold and Ian Sanders had previously appeared in The
Lost Musical’s production of Cole
Porter’s Panama Hattie.
Issy Van Randwyck, and various other
members of the cast, including Louise Gold, appeared in the charity show
Hot ‘n’ Spicy 2
Issy Van Randwyck’s recording credits
include: Encore The Very
Best From The Musicals , Cole
Porter - Night And Day, The
History Of The Musical, and, The Great
Musicals – Laughter And Tears.
Louise Gold has appeared in quite a number
of Cole Porter musicals, besides Kiss Me Kate, she has
also appeared in the Ethel Merman quintet of shows: Anything Goes, Red
Hot & Blue, Du Barry Was A Lady (see: Du Barry Was A Lady (1993 Production)
and Du Barry Was A Lady (2001 Production)),
Panama Hattie, and, Something For The Boys, she has also
appeared in Noel/Cole: Let’s Do It.
However, she has made all too few recordings, the only albums of her singing Cole
Porter are Noel/Cole: Let’s Do
It (Recording), and the JAY/TER studio cast album of Anything
Goes (recording) - Website Recommended Album.
Unfortunately the opening night was rained off, for
only the second time in this Open Air theatre's entire 43 year history.
The Show received 3 Olivier Nominations, but did not
win any, they were: The Show itself for Best Musical Revival, Andrew C
Wadsworth for Best Actor In A Musical, and, Issy Van Randwyck for
Best Supporting Actress In A Musical. But the leading lady was left out.
Five years later Louise Gold performed her own
act cabaret “Louise Gold Sings Some
Nice Songs” at the Hampstead & Highgate Arts
Festival Cabaret Special, as a last minute replacement for Issy Van
Randwyck.
Louise Gold and Paul Bentley
had previous appeared together in Assassins, they
went on to appear on the radio on Ned Sherrin’s
Review Of Revue.
Louise Gold and Paul Bentley
have also gone on to appear together in Follies ,
which was also designed by Paul Fransworth
Issy Van Randwyck went on to appear at Dress Circle Grand Reopening
Orbital went on to do the sound systems for Noises Off, Side By
Side By Sondheim 30th Anniversary Gala, and, A Love Letter To Dan.
Rob Edwards went on to appear on
television in A Week In The West End,
where he was shown performing in The Lion King.
Ian Talbot had previously
directed Dear Ralph.
Paul
Bentley and Louise
Gold have gone on to appear together in Mary Poppins.
Critics Comments
"Her
Lilli threw in some splendid adlibs, cussing the rain rather than the heat as
she struggled into costume in her aquatic dressing room." Kate
Bassett, DAILY TELEGRAPH, 26 July 1997
"As
the commanding shrew, Louise Gold has the roar of a wounded dragon"
"Louise
Gold is outstanding as Lilli Vanessi, the actress who plays Katherine: as good
at the mock-operatic bits as the fierce indictment of men" Robert
Butler, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, 3 August 1997
"Louise
Gold as Lilli Vanessi/Katherine was beautifully disdainful - and golden voiced
in 'So In Love Am I' " Susannah Clapp, OBSERVER, 27 July 1997
"Louise Gold and Andrew C Wadsworth,-
strike an ideal balance between surface bravura and emotional warmth" Michael Coveney, DAILY MAIL, 1
August 1997
"Andrew
C Wadsworth plays- Fred Graham and Louise Gold Lilli Vanessi. - the acrimonious
chemistry between the two works well. - Gold meanwhile is excellent, pouring
feeling into So In Love and comic venom into I Hate Men. - The comic Laurels
are stolen by
"Louise
Gold, as his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi, sings more than sweetly and invests a good
deal of spirited playing in the role" Michael Darvell, WHAT'S ON,
13 August 1997
"Cole
Porter is on sensational form and gets a cast to match. Louise Gold rises
gamely to his challenge of the egotistical star Lilli." Robert
Gore-Langton, EXPRESS, 31 July 1997
"Louise
Gold had given a powerful rendition of So In Love Am I, and in conjunction with
Andrew C Wadsworth, a hilarious one of Wunderbar." John Gross,
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 27 July 1997
"We
saw and heard enough of Ms Gold, who sings beautifully, Andres C Wadsworth the
suave leading man, and the bubbly Issy Van Randwyck, to know it will take
thunder, lightning and probably a snowstorm to sink Ian Talbot's sunny
production" Bill Hagerty, NEWS OF THE WORLD, 27 July 1997
"Louise
Gold is his staturesque Katherine, who brings the house down with I Hate
Men" Robert Hewison, SUNDAY TIMES, 3 August 1997
"Andrew
C Wadsworth as Fred/Petruchio and Louise Gold as Lilli/Katherine led the cast
with well-timed comic performances, - she conveying contemptuous dislike and
searing lust in one look. Both are old hands at putting a good song
across." Jane Holly, MUSICAL STAGES, Autumn 1997
"Good
voices coupled with good acting are the two boons of this production. - Feisty
Katherine (Louise Gold) goes from winsomely romantic in So In Love Am I to
elegantly snarling fury in I Hate Men." Sam Jones,
"Louise
Gold's Kate is magnificently full-blooded and affectedly feline." Patrick
Marmion, TIME OUT, 30 July 1997
"Louise
Gold and Andrew C Wadsworth could tighten up their comic timing, but they
regularly shine in their solo numbers." Lisa Martland, THE STAGE,
Louise
Gold is a wonderfully feisty Kate" Sheridan Morley, SPECTATOR, 2
August 1997
"Louise
Gold, as Kate/Lilli, can act, is handsome and sings wonderfully well;"
David Nathan, JEWISH CHRONICLE, 15 August 1997
"On
swaggered Gold in her role as Katherine, looking and sounding
tremendous…." Benedict Nightingale, THE TIMES, 26 July 1997
“Gold is a suitably icy and formidable
Lilli.” Terri Paddock, Whatsonestage.com, July 1997
"Louise
Gold is a comically commanding figure - outdoing herself in campy gorge-rising
revulsion and contentious, drop-dead postures on each successive verse of
"I Hate Men". This is one of the most brilliant Broadway scores ever
written and it is delivered here by performers who really know how to pace the
song. - They can quote me" Paul Taylor, INDEPENDENT, 31 July 1997
"Gold
gets raucous vocal support from the women in the audience in her venomous
performance of "I Hate Men". There was also more sparky dueling
between the majestic Ms Gold and the bouncy Issy Van Randwyck." Anthony
Thorncroft, FINANCIAL TIMES, 1 August 1997
"I
do not think there has been a better and funnier rendition of I Hate Men - then
that of Louise Gold who ha all the passion of Kate and yet manages to retain
the sweetness and humour without which the character could not be borne. Ms
Gold, in danger of being known as The English Ethel Merman, has added a new
dimension to her work, learning to control her powerful voice and revealing a
soprano range which is precise and electrifying: sensual in So In Love and
operatic in the comic number Wunderbar" Aline Waites PLAYS AND
PLAYERS, October 1997
Links about Kiss Me
Kate
Muppet Central/Tibby's Bowl Interview with Louise Gold http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/interviews/gold.shtml
Review from The International Herald Tribune, by
Summary Review
Extracts on Abermule: http://www.albemarle-london.com/news-august.html
More Extracts from Abermule: http://www.albemarle-london.com/kissmekate97.html
Whatsonestage.com review:
http://www.whatsonstage.com/dl/page.php?page=greenroom&chan=wos&story=E0504428207
Dress Circle Interview with Issy Van Randwyck: http://www.dresscircle.co.uk/sectionitemdetails.asp?ContentID=226&SectionID=5
Comments in Musical Mole’s Bullietin Burrow: http://www.musicalstages.co.uk/news/bulletin_burrow_responses.htm on the matter
of unfairness in the Oliver Awards, and overlooked actresses
Ian Sander’s Homepage: http://www.iansanders.co.uk/
lists the show and his part in it.
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