IF not kisses, then certainly a fair-sized pat on the back is earned by this warm-hearted and lavish Cole Porter crowd-pleaser which hauls the town's ambitious amateur society within sight of the £100,000-a-show mark.

The key to success is the recruitment of easy-on-the-eye Clark Adamson from the Gateshead area to take on the tricky comedy role of actor/director Fred Graham who has agreed to stage a musical version of The Taming Of The Shrew co-starring his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi (Samantha Currie). Currie and Adamson act out some of the slapstick associated with Katherine and Petruchio with such venom that the sound of a face-slap seems to reverberate off the back wall. Currie has a real crack at the song I Hate Men and still raises a laugh with the 1948-era joke "an athlete has hair upon his chest, but sister so has Lassie".

Director/choreographer Ray Jeffrey uses a sumptuous series of costumes and nearly-new sets and backdrops to such effect that the stage is almost at bursting point with colour and cast members. It's more like the taming of the crew as more than 30 dancer-singers delight the audience with their efforts at any one time. Jeffrey has wisely cast old hands Arthur Ellis and Michael Walker as the gangsters who demand $40,000, with amusing menaces, from Graham. Ellis and Walker perform the legendary four-part Brush Up Your Shakespeare with panache to rival Zoe Kent's performance as dumb blonde Lois singing Always True To You In My Fashion.

This is probably the most entertaining £70,000 spent in Darlington in ages.

Viv Hardwick

Kiss Me Kate runs until Saturday, November 8. Box Office: (01325) 467017 or (01325) 486555.

Published: 31/10/2003