Call Me Madam

Synopsis

Miss Sally Adams, the hostess with the mostest, is appointed Ambassador to Lichtenburg. The Lichtenburg government wants a loan from the USA, and Sally is instructed to turn down this request "coldly, but diplomatically". Sally, however, is not so cold and diplomatic when romance complicates the situation.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 8 October 2012

There's no better set of songs on the London stage than Irving Berlin's for Call Me Madam, a 1950 musical written for Ethel Merman in the wake of a coarse-grained Washington DC party-giver, Perle Mesta, being appointed American ambassador to Luxembourg.

The second act contrapuntal duet for Sally Adams, “the hostess with the mostest,” a wealthy Texan heiress, and her diplomatic sidekick, Kenneth Gibson, who’s fallen for the Lichtenburg princess, is a complete blast.

In fact, “You’re Just In Love,” with its brilliantly entwined melodies of rhapsody and critical reassurance, is one of my all-time favourite musical theatre items; it’s performed here with bewitching pezazz and glazed charm by Lucy Williamson and Leo Miles, understandably thunderstruck by Natalie Lipin’s Idina Menzel-like princess.

Michael Strassen’s production is a model of small-scale tact and invention, set on a bar...

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Latest User Review

Terry Taylor - 30 October 2012:

We saw this in a sold out Saturday matinee and thought it was terrific. OK the story is a bit corny but the songs, dancing and Lucy Williamson and the whole cast were great. You have to wonder how such magic can be achieved in such a small space....

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