Lead actors add
sizzle to 'Kiss Me, Kate'
By Anne Marie Welsh, Theater Critic The San Diego Union Tribune
March 7, 2002
"Kiss
Me, Kate" 7:30 tonight, 8 p.m. tomorrow, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6 p.m. Sunday
Civic Theater, 201 C St. downtown $24-$67 (619) 220-TIXS or (619) 570-1100
The bold juicy revival of "Kiss Me Kate" now at the Civic Theatre buffs to
a dazzling gleam that rusty relic, the road show.
The tour edition of
Cole Porter's only musical to tightly wrap a story around his brilliant music
and lyrics has all the bubbly wit, theatrical momentum and sexy energy of the
Broadway original that nabbed five Tony awards, including one for San Diego-sprung
Brian Stokes Mitchell as Fred C. Graham, the egotistical actor-producer who also
stars in the play's show-within-a-show, a musical version of Shakespeare's "The
Taming of the Shrew."
The English poet W.H. Auden contended that "Kiss Me, Kate" was actually better than the Bard's comedy. You could prove him right with this revival, with this cast starring a shrewd and ebullient Rex Smith as Fred and Rachel York as his glamorous ex-wife, the hammy actress Lilli Vanessi. If anything, there's more chemistry smoldering beneath the surface hostility of this pair than there was between the more vocally gifted Mitchell and his co-star Marin Mazzie in New York. Smith and York ignite the real romance that centers the comedy of the feuding couple whose second courtship parallels the subdue-her-with-cruelty plot of "Shrew" in which they are cast as Petruchio and Katherine.
York
is drop-dead gorgeous, can sing like an angel when she wants to, but shares instead
a repertory of tongue-in-cheek operatic flourishes ("Wunderbar," "From This Moment
On") and vocal variations (growls, purrs, caterwauling, screeches) that culminate
in a show stopping "I Hate Men." During Tuesday's opening, York managed the trick
of remaining in character while the audience succumbed to her Katherine who climaxed
her singing mockery with a painfully extravagant imitation of childbirth. Yet
both York and Smith had their brief moments of pathos as each of them acknowledge
a love their pride kept under wraps.
Director Michael Blakemore and
choreographer Kathleen Marshall infuse the 1948 show with contemporary energy
without warping it out of period. The "Another Op'nin', Another Show" opening
becomes a medley introducing both the stage folk and the musical themes. It sets
the scene for the show's clever contrasts, first between the jazzy "Why Can't
You Behave" for the secondary couple (a terrific Jenny Hill as teasing Lois and
the better-dancer-than-actor Jim Newman as Bill) and the schmaltzy operetta parody
"Wunderbar" for the skeptical Fred and Lilli.
The dance cuts have been
enlarged with David Chase's arrangements allowing the early "Tom, Dick, and Harry"
to expand into a competitive trio for sweet Bianca's three male suitors, and the
"Too Damn Hot" number at the top of Act 2 to become a full-fledged jazz ballet,
led by the blues-singing acrobatic dancer Randy Donaldson as Paul.
In
a sweltering Baltimore alley during intermission of their out-of-town tryout,
the "Shrew" cast lounges about, listens to a ballgame, tosses a ball about, and
imperceptibly begins moving into a full-out production number. Marshall's choreography
is the real thing--musically sensitive, keyed to character and story, always fresh
and interesting in movement terms.
As the rigid, right-thinking general, Chuck Wagner outperformed the real brass and sang like Nelson Eddy. The eyeball rolling reaction of Smith's Fred to all of this proved one more way in which this Blakemore-Porter "Kate" brings artistic honor back to the road.
Music and lyrics: Cole Porter. Book: Sam and Bella Spewack. Director: Michael Blakemore. Choreography: Kathleen Marshall. Musical direction: Paul Gemignani. Set: Robin Wagner. Costumes: Martin Pakledinaz. Lighting: Peter Kaczorowski. Sound: Tony Meola. Orchestrations: Don Sebesky. Dance arrangements: David Chase. Featured cast: Rex Smith, Rachel York, Jenny Hill, Jim Newman, Michael Arkin, Susan Beaubian, Randy Donaldson, Herman Petras, Richard Poe, Chuck Wagner.
Anne Marie Welsh can be reached by phone, (619) 293-1265; fax, (619) 293-2436; e-mail, anne-marie.welsh@uniontrib.com; and mail, P.O. Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112-0191.