Thank goodness: this scintillating, toe-tapping, wisecracking Cole Porter musical from 1934 is back to save us from real life once again. Last August, director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall’s production was the first big show to open in London, post-lockdown, without social distancing.
I’ve never felt a theatre so awash with relief and joy. There was also an air of showbiz myth to that night. Sutton Foster, stepping back into the role of Reno Sweeney for which she’d won a Tony award 10 years before, after the originally-cast Megan Mullally had to withdraw, showed London what Broadway razzle-dazzle really looked like. If this revival with a new lead cast can’t conjure precisely the same circumstantial magic, it’s still a delicious, de-lovely delight that wipes out the cares of the world for at least a few hours.
