The Kissing Dance or She Stoops to Conquer

Book and lyrics by Charles Hart, music by Howard Goodall Commissioned by the National Youth Music Theatre

Diggory           Paul Street
Bridget           Sophie Smith
Hardcastle        James Hoare
Mrs Hardcastle    Sheridan Smith
Tony Lumpkin      Ian Virgo
Kate              Gina Beck
Constance         Akiya Henry
Bet Bouncer       Emma Jacobs
Mrs Bouncer       Jess Brooks
Charles Marlow    Alexander Hassell
Hastings          Michael Jibson
Sir James Marlow  Kristofer Smith

Music director    Alexander L'Estrange
Directors         Russell Labey and Jeremy James Taylor

National Youth Music Theatre

She Stoops to Conquer is a witty comedy about class, sex and mistaken identity that comes from a time (1778) when the London theatre seemd to have ditched any real interest in music, and opera had become a completely different business. (English opera in the later eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century might not have been as dreadful as it seems, but it probably was.) Charles Hart and Howard Goodall seem to have been inspired by the brilliant transformation that Da Ponte and Mozart worked on
Beaumarchais' somewhat similar Marriage of Figaro. (The Marriage of Figaro also has a denouement in a night-time garden with an upper-class woman disguised as a working girl.) There are a couple of mentions of Hogarth and the odd spot of Mozartian pastiche which suggest that Hart and Goodall
might like the idea that The kissing dance is a latter-day Rake's progress, with a happy ending.

Unfortunately, it's more like Lloyd Webber does Merrie England. The music goes on and on shapelessly and unmemorably, even in numbers like In a garden green that shout their form with stanzas and refrains, and the title song, which is supposed to evoke a dance. The lyrics have  verbal pretensions (repeated "I have a wish"es for example) without any musical support, or even point. "Fill the punchbowl until the punchbowl flows over"? The whole thing is a mixture of musak and naff pastiche on all levels.

A part of the problem is simply that the material is so completely unmusical. The authors have tried to extract musical-number scenes from episodes that develop through allusion and misunderstanding, but also to keep the plot more-or-less in place. So Kate and Constance sing a merry duet about two gentlemen of London who are coming to court them. Constance collapses in misery in the middle because she is to be forced to marry Tony Lumpkin instead, but on the word Courage! returns to the initial jolly theme. Constance also has to do a bit of plot exposition during the opening number of the second act, about how crazy everyone is in the moonlight on the feast of fools. There are too many scenes where the setup and plot twist happened within a number and risked being lost, for example, Tony Lumpkin's description on Nonesuch as a local inn and Kate's decision to dress up as a serving wench to win Charles.

The screwy but basically all right Hardcastles are characterized musically well enough, in "Oliver" style, as are the jollies at the inn. And there is some added low humour ("Small, Dick?", borrowed from Spike Milligan, who also gets homage in the person of Stingo) that works, while the self-conscious bawdy ("softer than badger and sweeter than snuff" stuff) doesn't. But the lovers, particularly Kate and Charles Marlow, don't have the complexity they need to be interesting. Of course, Marlow's Englishman's malady (he can only get it up with working girls) is also not
exactly resonant for a modern audience without some translation that we don't get here, and Kate falling for him because of his reputation doesn't wash at all.

Fortunately, a nifty production and a fine ensemble performance managed to put in enough of what's missing to make a reasonably enjoyable evening. While it was difficult to see what Kate and Charles had going, Alexander Hassell had a facile line in physical comedy, all twisted embarrassment when faced with a respectable woman, and Gina Beck was cute and forthright as Kate. Akiya Henry as Constance was somehow more present, though, coming over as a normal young woman with an amazingly sexy voice. Michael Jibson as Hastings similarly got something substantial out of a nothing-much sidekick role. He has a not-bad voice and an obvious gift for realistic comedy which might end up in a television series if he's not careful.

James Hoare as Hardcastle sustained a fine comic characterization of a theatrical old geezer very effectively. (I thought it was patronizing to include the ages of the cast in the programme, but I did find it amazing that Hoare is only twenty.) Kristofer Smith was also splendidly camp in the smaller role of Charles' father, and Ian Virgo was a not-particularly-stupid Tony who wasn't particularly dangerous either.

Someone one day may claim to have discovered Sheridan Smith, though she is hard to miss. (She was a memorable Little Red Riding Hood in the Donmar Warehouse Into the woods.) Mrs Hardcastle is probably meant to be a sad, bitter old hag, but this one was a prime comic monster. Smith looked far too young, which, as someone said, she will grow out of. But she's got a vivid presence and solid theatrical technique already and might also grow into something much more interesting if she doesn't take the easy route of self-parody.

The choruses and dances went on for far too long, but the ensemble were nearly flawless and at least gave it plenty of welly where required. The sets, made of movable flats in appropriate dark greens and browns, The Linbury Studio, by the way, is part of the Royal Opera House. It is a square auditorium that extends several levels below the Plaza. The stage is open. The entrance is at the top of the auditorium, so you have to go down several flights of stairs to get to the stalls seats. There is a foyer with an unadvertized bar that sells the usual food.

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