Review: High Society
[Barbican Theatre || May 19th to July 11th 2026 || 2h 30m]
The Barbican seems to have developed something of a quasi-tradition of staging a summer Cole Porter musical. Since the pandemic, they’ve given us productions of Anything Goes and Kiss Me, Kate, and now it’s the turn of High Society, an adaptation of Charles Walters’ 1956 film of the same name, itself a musical adaptation of George Cukor’s 1939 film The Philadelphia Story which, in turn, was an adaptation of a stage play from the same year written by Philip Barry… I hope you're following this. Initially premiering in 1998, the stage version of High Society adopts songs from a number of Porter’s works, such as “I Love Paris”, first used in the 1953 show Can-Can, and “Ridin’ High”, which featured in 1936’s Red, Hot and Blue, which perhaps speaks to the relative dearth of hits in the original film.
The manner in which Kopit embeds and manouevres these other songs into the book does sometimes feel a little clunky, as though what he really wanted to do was write a tribute to Porter’s life and work and has instead become stuck trying to navigate a path through a light, airy but ultimately flimsy story about the shenanigans of the filthy rich. Nonetheless, there is a fuzzy charm and self-aware sense of humour to the book, and very specifically to director Rachel Kavanaugh’s production of it here, that makes it work, albeit sometimes in spite of itself. The songs, almost all of which are recognisable and catchy, contribute to the overall warmth of the piece, and there’s an infectious breezy quality to it, as though Kavanaugh knows that the source material isn’t great and has thus decided to just have some fun with it instead.
This is also apparent in the plot, which is simple and frivolous in ways both good and bad. Set at an opulent wedding party on the East Coast, where socialite Tracy Lord, once divorced, is marrying dull accountant George Kittredge, it follows the characters, including Tracy’s frightfully posh mother, her younger sister Dinah and her Uncle Willy, who is described as having discovered a “fondness for gin” (same), as they try to contend with the presence of two reporters and the arrival of both Tracy’s ex-husband, who still has feelings for her, and her father, who is being blackmailed by the press over an affair he had with a dancer. Silliness and chaos soon ensue as all of the various pieces are thrown around the arena of play until all of the predictable happy endings and resolutions hone into view.
The ensemble is solid and everybody on stage is adept at traversing the fine line between camp and pantomime. Felicity Kendal operates on a hitherto unseen plane of kitsch, stumbling around and shrieking like some demented old harridan and bringing the laughs with every line she delivers, while Freddie Fox, who hasn’t done much musical work before, does a stellar job with the vocals. Helen George, who became indisposed during the performance I saw and was replaced by an understudy at the interval, is cheerily entertaining, while Nigel Lindsay and Carly Mercedes Dyer are likeable and consistently on form. It is Ovenden who steals the show, however, with his gorgeous voice and effortless charisma. He imbues the character of Dexter, Tracy’s ex-husband, with an irresistible allure that makes the (admittedly rushed) ending feel well-earned.
On a stage as large as the Barbican’s, however, High Society still feels undernourished. There’s a strange lack of vivacity to some of the musical numbers, in part because the choreography occasionally thuds and stumbles but more pertinently because the ensemble isn’t big enough. There is so much empty space on the stage, which means that party scenes and big dance sequences don’t quite convince or captivate the way they should. Kavanaugh, as director, does what she can to breathe life and energy into the piece, and the stage design is impressive, but it sometimes sags, which stalls the momentum and highlights the hollowness of the book.
Nevertheless, this is a fun production of a silly story, and it is elevated by the main players, particularly Ovenden, Fox and Kendal. Maybe it isn’t possible to stage a masterful adaptation of this musical because there isn’t much to it beneath the surface but everyone involved does what they can to entertain the audience and sweep us up in the ridiculousness of these characters and their tribulations for a couple of hours. Enjoy it with a cocktail or six and let the fun wash over you and this is a perfectly decent production of an otherwise mediocre musical.
Tickets for High Society are available here.