Get into London Theatre offer big shows at small prices, I've know about them for a few years now and never actually got round to booking shows through them until this year. Most of the shows do seem to only have tickets available Monday-Friday which is a bit of a pain when you don't live in London but luckily Kiss Me, Kate had some Saturday shows on there and you can't beat a good half price ticket.
Now I'll readily admit that I'm a complete seat snob in theatres and rarely sit up in the gods and I'm trying to get used to it as when I turn 26 I apparently lose all entitlement to being a "young person." So my ticket at just £15 was in the Lilian Baylis circle (as pictured above) and I wonder if this played a part in my enjoyment (or rather lack of) of the show because I just felt so disjointed and far away. The audience's irritating behaviour also did not help, I'll forgive any fidgeting as I probably was just as bad myself with the uncomfortable seats but the constant mutter of comments, crackling of plastic water bottles, noses being blown and my chair being kicked was so distracting.
The show features a show within a show as we see a theatre company putting on a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew but things are complicated when the leads Lilli Vanessi playing Katherine (Hannah Waddingham) and Fred Graham playing Petruchio (Alex Bourne) are ex-lovers. Things take a turn for the worst when Bill (Adam Garcia) racks up a gambling debt of $10,000 and signs a IOU in Fred's name prompting two gangsters to turn up to collect it during the show. Obviously it's an old fashioned musical and has a lot of long talking scenes and with the mixture of being so far away and surrounded by an irritating audience it was hard to keep concentration during them. I also can't say I was too comfortable about the ongoing joke that Fred had beat Lilli so hard that she was in constant pain.
This isn't the first show I've had the pleasure of seeing Hannah Waddingham in and she deservedly stills the limelight yet again. I also enjoyed seeing Adam Garcia on stage again as well as Clive Rowe as one of the gangsters. The ensemble were also wonderful to watch in their big numbers such as "Too Darn Hot." I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this show as much as I was expecting but I didn't hate it either, for me it was just ok.
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