High Society

Musical comedy should have strong melodies sung well and acting with impeccable timing.  High Society at The Wales Millenium Centre was a show of two halves.  Half the songs are memorable,  some are even classics - ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’, ‘Just one of those things’ and ‘Well did you evah’ (yes, the spelling is correct!).  The other half are best forgotten.  In this production half the cast could both sing and act, unfortunately they were not the lead players.

This is a story of not so everyday folk.  Successful jazz musician Dexter Haven regrets having divorced New England champagne socialite Tracy Lord who is now preparing to get hitched to the bland and boring George Kittredge.  The Hello magazine of the day sends frustrated one-book wonder, Mike Connor, undercover to get the story and Liz Imbrie to get the photos.  Liz hopes they will become an item but Mike’s mind is elsewhere.  Tracy, the divorcee and prospective bride, pretends that her uncle Willy is (for some reason never satisfactorily explained) her anonymous (and two-timing) father.  Tracy’s precocious younger sister, Dinah Lord, plays mind and word games with Tracy and her ex.  Connor falls for Tracy who must now choose between him, her fiancee and her ex.  The ex gets it.

Michael Praed’s Dexter was suave and set a good dress standard for the show but was insubstantial, not a case of style winning out over substance.  Marilyn Cutts playing Margaret Lord was both ubiquitous and largely invisible.  Sophie Bould’s Tracy Lord was animated, particularly in the opening clothes change sequence but was reedy in the upper register.  Teddy Kempner’s Uncle Willy were built for each other, infusing the potentially tawdry innuendo with comic humour.  The part of younger sister, Dinah Lord, played by Katie Lee, was sufficiently  precocious as  to (nearly) irritate.  She got away with playing someone much younger by dint of sustained high octane attack to the end.  The star of the show was Alex Young playing Liz Imbrie who can both act and sing in American and is a plausible drunk.  Her ukulele duet with the predatory Uncle Willy was as improbable as is the current popularity of this instrument but in ‘Don’t look at me that way’ they carried it off beautifully.  Kieran Crook, playing the prospective husband sang well but managed to appear both muscular and without weight.  Craig Pinder playing Tracy’s father Seth was an improbable Lothario and Daniel Boy’s Mike Connor showed unfulfilled promise.  The other stars of the show were the set, which was less wooden than some of the acting, where much good use was made of the turntable: the lighting which brightened the mood and the band who played with gusto.  Good use was made of all of these by a support cast playing domestic servants and doubling up as scene shifters who were well choreographed particularly in the kitchen tap-dancing scene and who sang well and together.  Occasional perambulations across the front of the stage by members of the support cast were, presumably, designed to draw attention from the frequent scene changing behind them and this was partially achieved.  Whilst lechery never goes out of fashion, flaunting wealth is a more sensitive issue these days and booze fuelled bonhomie is never as amusing if you are not taking part and that is the point.  Authenticity requires an engagement with the audience that was sadly lacking with this performance.  A plot this thin needs all the help it can get and can only be redeemed by well cued humour and hummable tunes.  At the end the champagne was flat and my glass was half empty.

Brian Roper