High Society: A Sassy Summer Spectacle!

High Society - Barbican Theatre, London 

Rating: Four out of five stars 

What a swellegant, elegant party this is!

The lyrics of Cole Porter's joyful song Well Did You Evah? epitomise this year's big summer musical at the Barbican. 

It's another in a line of giddy, fizzy, sassy hits for the London theatre.

The bar has been set very high, with the 2021 revival of Anything Goes starring , the most spectacular musical staging I've ever seen.

But Rachel Kavanaugh's production of High Society packs pleasures of its own, led by a sparkling .

The musical was first seen on Broadway in 1998, based on the film, which was itself inspired by the 1939 Broadway play The Philadelphia Story.

As Long Island socialite Tracy Lord (played by Grace Kelly in the 1956 film), Ms George combines the blonde bombshell style of Marilyn Monroe with the vocal wattage of Shirley Bassey.

Call The Midwife star Ms George is joined by Julian Ovenden and Freddie Fox (Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra on screen). 

Ovenden is Dexter Haven, her silver-fox ex, who rocks up on the eve of her wedding to accountant George (David Seadon-Young).

Fox – making his musical theatre debut – plays tabloid hack Mike Connor (alongside Carly Mercedes Dyer as his photographer Liz Imrie), sneaking in to what's expected to be the society event of the year.

Felicity Kendal, who made her own musical theatre debut on this stage in Anything Goes, plays Tracy's scathing mama (Mother Lord). Of her daughter's nuptials, she quips: 'We all make mistakes, but this one's making her happy.'

As for the wedding arrangements, she assures Tracy that 'Uncle Willie has got it all in hand'. That would be Nigel Lindsay, whose frisky old soak has plenty of zingers.

Tracy and company, in colourful 1950s frocks, kick us off with a swirling rendition of the title number on Tom Roger's stage design of a sun-drenched terrace.

Ovenden's broody Dexter puts the brakes on with a smoochy song for Tracy (You Do Something To Me), before Fox and Ms Dyer get things going again with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. And there's suavity thanks to Tracy's I Love Paris and Uncle Willie's That's Jazz.

But what really fires up the stage in Anthony Van Laast's choreography is the spinning taffeta kaleidoscope in Let's Misbehave.

A slight problem with the story is that in the first half, Tracy and Dexter are forced to rein it in. 

She is drawing a line under her wild past by settling down with gormless George. He is giving up the booze that he believes led to their breakup. So we're seeing them at 50 per cent.

That changes when Tracy hits the bottle and goes skinny-dipping hours before her wedding. Thanks to her childhood training with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, plus her Strictly stint, Ms George is a nimble-toed nymph.

Ovenden croons with a mellifluous tenor. He's dressed like a pin-up from a mail order catalogue for over-50s (although someone needs to pop some weights into his leather grip, which keeps rolling around the stage).

As Dexter's love rival Mike, the floppy-haired Fox has a fine pair of lungs and is even an upgrade on the film's Sinatra.

And Ms Dyer's brassy yet soulful rendition of I've Got You Under My Skin is a highlight of the evening.

In between cracking jokes, Ms Kendal, 79, gets to shake a leg and croak a note with Seth Lord (Malcolm Sinclair) in You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To.

Spare a thought for Seadon-Young's George, forced to churn out lame gags before being cut loose by Tracy – though he wins a sympathetic sigh from the audience.

Next year, it's Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande in Stephen Sondheim's Sunday In The Park With George. The Barbican's summer hits go on!

- High Society runs until July 11.