"Kiss Me Kate"
Reviewed in Washington, DC
at the John F Kennedy Center
Reviewed July 2001
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Director: Michael Blakemore |
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Music & Lyrics: Cole Porter |
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Book: Sam & Bella Spewack |
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Choreography: Kathleen Marshall |
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Design: Don Sebesky (orchestrations ) Paul Gemignani (Music Direction) Robin Wagner (Set) Peter Kaczorowski (Lights) Martin Pakledinaz (Costumes) Tony Meola (Sound) |
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Cast Reviewed: Rachel York, Rex Smith, Nancy Anderson, Jim Newman, Richard Poe, Michael Arkin, Chuck Wagner |
Once upon a time
Cole Porter and Sam and Bella Spewack made a hell of a show of the shrew .
. . as one of the first lines of dialogue in Kiss
Me, Kate put it. That time was 1948. Quite simply Cole Porter’s best show,
Kiss Me, Kate was the state of the
art at a time when the phrase had nothing to do with technology and everything
to do with art.
Things changed and
the subject of the two most glorious words in the English language (“musical
comedy” – as every 42nd Street fan knows) seems to have evolved beyond the
innocent entertainment that so perfectly captured the popular mood of a country
just emerging victoriously from a world war.
Set in a Baltimore theatre where a Broadway-bound musical version of
“The Taming of the Shrew” is beginning out-of-town tryouts, the mischievous
plot contrasts the battle of the sexes on stage with a matching battle backstage
between the star and his ex-wife who is his co-star.
But in 1999 director
Michael Blakemore assembled quite a team to revive Kate
as a return to the sublime nonsense of half a century before. The results
are still on display at the Martin Beck Theatre on 45th Street
in New York.
Now the producers
of the revival, Roger Berlind and Roger Horchow, have mounted a touring show
and it is making its way around the country. They and their team have done
a thoroughly professional job of it – although it does come off with more
of the feeling of technical competence than of sublime fun.
Rex Smith has
the male lead, which was originated by Alfred Drake and revived by Brian Stokes
Mitchell. Smith knows how to sell a scene and is quite satisfying through
most of the evening but he lacks the glorious sound of his predecessors and
is nowhere near the actor Mitchell is. This is a bit of a problem since Blakemore’s
direction was premised on the lead’s ability to make the reprise of “So In
Love” the dramatic punch of the evening as the lead discovers that he is hopelessly
in love with the woman he has just lost.
That woman was
Patricia Morrison in the 1940s and Marin Mazzie in the 1990s. For the tour
it is Rachel York and she is superb. She smoothly switches from severe to
sexy to shrewish to seductive and carries the audience with her through each
transition. Her introduction of “So In Love” is lovely and her “I Hate Men”
is hilarious. Together York and Smith do a fabulous “Wunderbar.”
The other really bright spot in this cast is Nancy Anderson as “Lois/Bianca” (each character, of course, plays a role in the on-stage musical and the back-stage story.) This is the role that is supposed to stop the show with “Always True to You (In My Fashion)” and stop it she does.
Jim Newman seemed
capable of making the most of the role of the gambling “Bll/Lucentio” but
is deprived of the best part of the part by the resizing of the set for this
traveling version. On Broadway the character athletically scales multiple
stories as he praises his “Bianca” in something akin to gymnastic dancing.
The touring version gives him only three levels on which to gambol – the stage,
a second story balcony and the roof of the structure. This is not enough.
It is the third “vertically challenged” setting of the evening. The second-act
opener “Too Darn Hot” is fabulously danced but almost completely horizontally
since the back wall windows and shed roofs of Broadway didn’t make the trek
for this tour. And poor Chuck Wagner has to end up his big moment at the end
of “From This Moment On” standing on a couch which places his head just above
the ceiling line of the set.
Still, Kiss Me, Kate represents a major milestone in the evolution of musical theatre precisely because it is so solidly constructed and has such a marvelous score that it is a guaranteed entertaining evening. Add the delightful dance arrangements of David Chace, the clarity of the orchestrations of Don Sebesky and the performances of a talented cast and you are guaranteed an enjoyable and memorable evening.
by
Brad Hathaway, Online Broadway Correspondent
broadway@musicalstages.co.uk