In the game of life, what matters most? According to Dinah (the only child in this story, played with Puckish glee by Katlo), “being in love”. Arthur Kopit’s 1998 stage version of the 1956 film musical High Society (starring Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter) keeps the sparkling lightness of the film but adds depth to the characters, opening up their inner lives by introducing additional Porter numbers imported from other musicals (with extra lyrics from Susan Birkenhead).
Director Joseph Pitcher and his creative team (including Jaye Elster, choreographer; Nic Farman and Hector Murray, lights; Chris Whybrow, sound) cleverly play off the contrasts between brittle facades of social pretence and the messy realities of the characters’ inner lives through a fluid staging that combines light, sound and movement playfully and feelingly (for instance, by using tonal differences in lighting to isolate a character within a scene, turning their musical number into an internal monologue contrasting with the action continuing around them).
