Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
Book by Arthur Kopit
High Society was originally the musical adaptation for the screen of Phillip Barry’s play, The Philadelphia Story. The 1956 movie was nominated for three Oscars including Best Motion Picture Story and featured a stellar cast in Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. In 1987 the first major stage version of the movie was presented at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre. It then opened on Broadway in 1998 at the St James Theatre.
The Production Company’s 2004 production of High Society starred Simon Burke (Chicago, Les Miserables) as C K Dexter Haven, Tamsin Carroll (Bye Bye Birdie) as Tracy Lord, Marty Fields (South Pacific) as Mike Connor and Christen O’Leary (Urinetown) as Liz Imbrie.
Tracy Lord, society darling and ecstatic bride-to-be, is about to marry the dullest man on earth, George Kittredge, when her despised first husband Dexter reappears on the eve of her wedding, at her family waterfront estate. He has sailed in on the ‘True Love’, the boat they sailed on their honeymoon cruise. Two reporters from sandal magazine Spy, Mike Connor and Liz Imbrie, are rumoured to attend Tracy’s wedding masquerading as guests. The bride starts to guzzle champagne – a drink she’s sworn off as the insistence of her husband-to-be – and things begin to unravel in an hysterical fashion.
High Society is a glamorous, fun-filled evening of some of Cole Porter’s greatest hits. From the comedy of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and “Well, Did You Evah?”, to the romance of “True Love”, “You’re Sensational” and standards like “It’s Alright With Me”, “I Love Paris”, “It was Just One of Those Things” and “Little One”.
Director: Adam Cook
Musical Director: Conrad Helfrich
Choreographer: Christopher Horsey