Book: Arthur Kopit
Music & Lyrics: Cole Porter
Director: Rachel Kavanaugh
High Society as a stage musical has a pedigree as long as any wealthy New England family, having been adapted from a classic film musical which was itself adapted from a film and a play. Its latest iteration is a lavish spectacle with strong leads and some great ensemble numbers, as sparkly as the champagne that fuels much of the romantic chaos that ensues.
Tracy Samantha Lord, a beautiful divorcee and socialite, is due to marry dull-but-dependable George Kittredge, but the pre-wedding celebrations at her parents’ mansion are thrown into confusion with the arrival of a pair of undercover journalists, and Tracy’s ex-husband Dexter. As a long night of jazz and dancing wears on, Tracy realises that George will never be the man of her dreams – but will she end up back with Dexter, or with frisky journalist Mike? Class and money are fundamental drivers in the characters’ lives and relationships. This gilded society is initially satirised by the outsider journalists, but in the end, everyone is drawn into its Gatsby-like excesses. True Love triumphs in the end, of course.
Although the 1956 film featured a classic Cole Porter score, the stage musical is augmented with yet more songs borrowed from other shows. Some of these feel a bit superfluous, others work well: I’ve Got You Under My Skin, for example, is a great solo showpiece for Carly Mercedes Dyer as Liz Imbrie. In this opening performance at the Playhouse, both Tracy and Dexter were played by understudies: Isabel Snaas has real star quality as Tracy, switching easily from ice maiden to spoilt child to tipsy reveller. She has a playfulness and abandon that really comes into its own in the second act, when a giant fairy-lit tree provides a backdrop for a Midsummer Night’s Dream of partner-swapping and romantic pursuits. Andrew Coshan, standing in as Dexter, also seemed very much at home in the spotlight, his ease and charm contrasting with the goofy Mike (Freddie Fox) in their showstopping duet Well, Did You Evah? In the senior echelons of the Lord dynasty, Josefina Gabrielle gives Mother Lord some beautifully timed comic asides, and Nigel Lindsay is a roguish Uncle Willie.
The set, by Tom Rogers, provides a series of swiftly changing, elegantly lit locations in and around the house, and its staircases and doors are used to great effect in Rachel Kavanaugh’s direction. An on-stage jazz band really gets the party started, and the more uninhibited dance sequences sat well with the style. In contrast, the uniformed ‘staff’ (a layer of this class system so unacknowledged as to be virtually invisible) delivers slickly synchronised scene changes.
What the stage musical lacks, especially in a large auditorium, is the intimacy of film close-ups where the chemistry between characters really shines. But the high spirits are irresistible, and it’s a swell party indeed.
Runs until 12 September 2026 | Image: Pamela Raith
