Kiss Me, Kate review – glorious music, falderol frivolity and Adrian Dunbar
Cole Porter’s musical variation on The Taming of the Shrew gets an exhilarating revival, even if the Line of Duty star’s singing is less than sensational
January 2024
High Society review – a fizzing cocktail of comedy, Cole Porter and emotion
The stage adaptation of the Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra film is brought to life by a full-of-verve cast in Joseph Pitcher’s fine revival
September 2022
Brief letters
Oh, Mr Porter! That’s a terrible portrayal by Kevin Kline
Brief letters: Bad performances | Toilet tales | Monty Pythonesque | Royal barge | Marching to an earworm
October 2021
Sunday with Felicity Kendal: ‘If I don’t stay active, I’ll fossilise’
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Love for Sale review – a fond farewell
September 2021
Alexis Petridis's album of the week
Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett: Love for Sale review – jazz interloper livens up crooner’s swansong
The pop diva and jazz maestro defy the latter’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis and team up once again, this time for a creditable set of Cole Porter covers
August 2021
The week in theatre: Anything Goes; Changing Destiny – review
Anything Goes review – Sutton Foster dazzles in Cole Porter’s fizzing tonic for our times
October 2019
How we made
Julio Iglesias: how we made Begin the Beguine
‘It was a hit with women. I like to flirt. What can I say?’
July 2019
Kiss Me, Kate review – joyfully makes a virtue out of its limitations
A multitalented cast bring gleeful spontaneity and big laughs to Paul Hart’s bold production, with choreography by Oti Mabuse
February 2019
Brief letters
Are Maybot’s speeches due an upgrade?
Brief letters: Oldham Evening Chronicle | Best banned songs | Pearl Harbor | GPT2 | Jam first
December 2018
The Producers; Kiss Me, Kate review – rousing goose-stepping and toe tapping
Kiss Me, Kate review – ferociously funny festive treat leaves a bitter taste
May 2018
Kiss Me Kate review – the pinnacle of song-and-dance Shakespeare
Opera North present a deft revival of the 1949 Cole Porter show mixing The Taming of the Shrew with showbiz shenanigans
February 2018
Music blog
It felt so right: I Kissed a Girl and the problematic lyrics artists attempted to disavow
Katy Perry has expressed regret at the stereotypes peddled on her debut single. She’s not the only artist who has attempted to distance herself from badly aged material
November 2016
Beyond Bob Dylan: authors, poets and musicians pick their favourite songwriter
Dylan’s Nobel prize win sparked a debate about lyrics as literature. Here, Andrew Motion, Carol Ann Duffy, Johnny Marr, Naomi Alderman and others nominate songwriters whose verse has the power of poetry
July 2016
A musical tour of Europe’s great cities: Paris
Magdalena Kožená review – mezzo misbehaves, gently, with Cole Porter
February 2016
French-kiss Me Kate: Parisian theatre embraces Cole Porter
With its series of extravagant and sophisticated shows, the Châtelet in France is casting English actors in American musical classics. The latest aims to match the Hollywood glamour of the 1940s
November 2015
From Broadway to France's boulevards: how Paris fell in love with musicals
Director Jean-Luc Choplin explains how he led an English-language musical comedyrevolution when he took the reins at Paris’s Châtelet theatre