The Kissing Dance, Howard Goodall, and Charles Hart’s musical, based on Oliver Goldsmith’s comedy ‘She Stoops to Conquer’, the musical is a tale of mismatched love, matchmaking, disguise, confusion, and deception, laced with humour and comic misunderstanding.
It is All Fools’ Eve, a night when in the realms of love, the world can be turned upside-down and the lord of Misrule can take control….Mr and Mrs Hardcastle have invited the son of an old friend, Charles Marlow, to their country estate with the intention of pairing him off with their daughter, Kate. Accompanying him is his friend George Hastings, who happens to be the secret beau of Kate’s cousin Constance, who in turn is on an enforced promise to Kate’s half witted half brother Tony Lumpkin. However, the mischievous intervention of Lumpkin results in the pair of visitors thinking the Hardcastle’s estate is actually a country inn, and Mr Hardcastle whom they have never met, is the inn keeper. Mistakes and misunderstandings swiftly ensue.