BWW Reviews: HIGH SOCIETY, Birmingham Hippodrome, May 14 2013
Vintage Hollywood graced the Birmingham Hippodrome stage when High Society was in town for one week only. Adapted from the 1956 film, Cole Porter's classic has been turned into a fully staged musical which continues to tour the UK until July.
With many classic musical numbers such as 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire', 'True Love', 'Let's Misbehave' and 'True Love', it's certainly a crowd pleaser. The set by Francis O'Connor is beautiful; with an underlying nautical vibe, it's essentially a revolve with some portable window frames and French doors which are then used to create different pictures. Chris Davey's lighting, although not massively complex, sets the mood competently alongside this.
Anna Linstrum's direction is generally very good; she particularly excels in coordinating the swift and efficient scene changes. No doubt the wonderful Andrew Wright, the Olivier-nominated choreographer, had a hand in organising those which are superb.
Sophie Bould as Tracy Lord is excellent. Having seen her play Liesl in the Sound of Music UK tour a few years ago, it is hard to believe it is the same person. She was brilliant in both but the level of maturity shown in this production is remarkable. She is a very versatile performer and seems to excel in all areas in equal strength. While Daniel Boys was unfortunately off ill, his understudy Matt Corner did a great job as Mike Connor. Other credible performances include the charismatic Michael Praed as Dexter Haven and Katie Lee as Dinah - a star in the making.
Overall, I cannot say that the show bowled me over but it makes a very pleasant evening. In many ways, some of the individual performances are stronger than the book but it is what it is - light entertainment that I'm sure will be enjoyed by many.
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