SOME of you may remember Katherine Hepburn, an actress of great style and ability who is probably best remembered today for her role in the film The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart.

However, in the 1930s she had a successful stage career and an author, Philip Barry, brought her an idea he had for a comedy about an upper crust American girl whose former husband disrupts her wedding to a boring businessman and wins her for himself again.

Hepburn was delighted with the idea and commissioned him to write it for her – which he did, incorporating in the heroine, Tracy Lord, a lot of the characteristics of his putative leading lady; her desire for privacy; her dislike and distrust of the press and her love of sports, especially swimming.

The most telling, but probably least recognisable for the general public, was the dilemma shared by Tracy Lord and Miss Hepburn of an equivocal approach to marriage.

He threw in, for good measure, a reporter and his lady photographer, a wayward father and a forgiving mother, a drunken uncle, plus an irrepressible younger sister who wants Tracy to return to her first husband.

The net result was The Philadelphia Story, a comedy which has stood the test of time and was successfully revived a year or so ago by Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic.

Hepburn cannily retained the screen rights and forced MGM to star her in the film version, which successfully revitalised her flagging film career and led to the series of marvellous comedy films she subsequently made with Spencer Tracy.

MGM, who knew a good thing if it saw one, decided in 1956 to turn it into a musical and, with a mediocre score by Cole Porter and Grace Kelly in the lead, it became High Society.

High Society, the stage musical, has had a chequered history. A version, with additional Porter numbers, was produced by the Noel Gay Organisation at Leicester in 1987; directed by Richard Eyre, it featured Natasha Richardson as Tracy.

A second version, with different Porter interpolations, was produced in Sheffield in 1996 which was subsequently seen at the Victoria Palace with an aptly named Tracy Childs as Tracy.

A third version, with a new book by Arthur Kopit, was produced in San Francisco in 1997, which moved to Broadway in 1998; this time, the interpolated additional Porter songs had some of their lyrics re-written by Susan Birkenhead and it’s basically this version, originally produced in London at The Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park in 2003, that is now to be seen at Putney, produced by the stylish Amateur Dramatic Company – Swanbank.

The basic Philip Barry plot is retained, if vulgarised, by Mr Kopit, but the original film score has two numbers, Now You Has Jazz and Mind If I Make Love To You, excised plus an 11 additional Porter numbers added.

It is never fair to equate Am Dram productions with professional ones, since in some cases the amateur is more pronounced than the dramatic, although not, I am happy to say, here!

Emma Cartwright emphasises the comedic rather than the glamorous aspects of Tracy Lord, although she retains sufficient of her unpleasant traits to make her father’s complaints as to her lack of humanity seem thoroughly justified.

Dexter Haven is a somewhat enigmatic character and one feels his efforts to re-win Tracy may be more out of pique than love. Certainly, as played by Mick Pardoe, he is going through the dramatic rather than the romantic motions in his pursuit of her and one suspects that the happy ending is likely to be somewhat ephemeral.

The two reporters who gatecrash the wedding come over with much more definition, as played by Lee Power and Mary-Elizabeth White, and their cynical approach to the whole affair is very amusing and more in keeping with the spirit of the original play.

Jim Trimmer and Martin Chapple keep their end up as Tracy’s father and uncle respectively, although the latter did not seem very happy with some of the more intricate Porter numbers he had to sing.

This is something I have noticed before in Am Dram productions of Porter shows; the casts never really give the lyrics their full value, failing to appreciate that there is more to a Porter song than merely words and music.

This was sadly too apparent with Leo Kandler, as George Kittredge, the putative bridegroom who is delineated in the plot as inept and inappropriate but he needn’t have been so downright awful as played.

There were no redeeming features in either the character or the performance and Mr Kandler’s destruction of one of Porter’s loveliest ballads, I Worship You, verged on the sacrilegious.

The surprise and delight of the evening was Laura Fitzgerald as Dinah Lord, Tracy’s sister. This was a performance assured and highly professional and one which would have graced the professional stage. I understand she is still at school, so she has a long and, if this performance is anything to go by, successful career ahead of her.

Last of the principals, but by no means least, is Billie Stephens’ sympathetic and glamorous portrayal of Tracy’s put-upon and forgiving mother; a small part but in Miss Stephens’ capable hands effective and eye-catching.

I wish her duet with her errant husband had been preserved from the earlier version as the role, as it now is written, deprives us of all but too few chances of hearing her lovely voice.

The chorus of servants wittily and productively underscored the shenanigans of the principals and showed up to full value the choreography of Tasmyn Salter, all of which added to the gaiety of the production.

They were as hard working as the maids and menservants they portrayed and one sympathised with their complaints of overwork.

In short, this production was, under the direction of Gigi Robarts, another worthy effort by Swanbank and one on which they are to be congratulated

High Society, book by Arthur Kopit (based on the play The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry).
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter (additional lyrics by Susan Birkenhead).
Directed by Gigi Robarts.
Choreographer – Tamsyn Salter.
Music Director – Ian Wallington.
Produced by Swanbank Music.

Putney Arts Theatre.
Wed, November 5 –Sunday, November 9, 2008.

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