It's hard to watch High Society so soon after Katharine Hepburn's death. Her performance as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story, the musical's source, may not have won her an Oscar, but it was about the finest of her career. She left her stamp all over the role.
At the Open Air Theatre, Annette McLaughlin initially seems no match for the memory of Hepburn. McLaughlin isn't haughty enough, compelling enough, deluded enough for this ice queen who must discover her heart. But as Tracy guzzles glass after glass of champagne, McLaughlin transforms: her drunken gambolling is hilarious, and her delivery of such wonderful lines as, "My God, why didn't you sell tickets?" is captivating.
In fact, all of Ian Talbot's production is far more entertaining in the second half, and not just because almost all the characters are soused by that time. Arthur Kopit's book, a 1997 version of the 1956 film of Philip Barry's 1939 play, melts into the background, allowing Cole Porter's songs - several of which were not used in the original film - to take over.
Let's Misbehave grows progressively naughtier until one of the servants gets his head caught up Tracy's voluminous skirts, while Well, Did You Evah positively fizzes. Dale Rapley, as the conniving ex-husband Dexter Haven, sounds strained on a lovelorn Just One of Those Things. Brian Green, though, brings a devilish twinkle to Say It With Gin.
This is very much an ensemble piece, but the central trio need a little more chemistry to make the savage quips and jibes spark. McLaughlin, Rapley and Hal Fowler as the journalist Mike Connor are too tentative around each other. This allows the supporting cast to steal the show, not least Tracie Bennett as an exquisitely brash Liz Imbrie. She brings just the right lemony sass to the sardonic Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?, and her efforts to escape the drooling attentions of Green's Uncle Willie are laced with camp humour.
Talbot's production is not an ambitious one: Paul Farnsworth's costumes are fun but his set is plain, and the band, led by Catherine Jayes at a tinny-sounding keyboard, could have arrived fresh from a cruise liner. But Porter's songs can survive just about anything, and Barry's love story is irresistible. At the end, you feel yourself watching two things: McLaughlin and Rapley, and the ghosts of Hepburn and Cary Grant. It is, as Tracy might say, a most beautiful thing.
· In rep until September 13. Box office: 020-7486 2431.
