I was really hoping to like the Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate at Studio 54. Unfortunately, even though most of the parts were good, and some excellent, they still didn't add up to a satisfying whole because I just do not like that show. I was surrounded by a theatre full of people laughing and applauding but I was bored for much of the two hours and 35 minutes.
Even as a child, I didn't like a lot silliness and physical comedy and this production, under the direction of Scott Ellis, is filled with them. Silliness was pretty typical of musicals of the 1940s and Ellis has embraced this madcap style of humor. Book writers Sam and Bella Spewack have improved the show by eliminating most of the sexism that made this such a distasteful musical for many of us. Best of all in this regard, they axed the hateful spanking scene. Now the warring couple kick each other, repeatedly, until both are black and blue and neither able to sit comfortably the next day. As with all farce, this is overdone. It's too repetitive for my liking.
These warriors are Lilli Vanessi (Kelli O'Hara), a tempestuous actress of stage and screen, and her ex-husband, Fred Graham (Will Chase), a vane actor. Both are thrown together in a Baltimore theatre as leads in a Broadway-bound musical comedy version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Far too much of the action of Kiss Me, Kate takes place in this play-within-a-play, which becomes tedious.
But, as I said, the show has many good elements, so let's start with the songs. Cole Porter wrote the words and lyrics to the show's nearly two dozen songs, which range from romantic -- "So in Love," "From This Moment On" -- to playful -- "We Open in Venice," "I Hate Men," "Always True to You in My Fashion," "Bianca," "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" -- to big ensemble numbers that dazzle -- "Another Op'nin, Another Show" "Too Darn Hot." I adore Porter's wordplay, “I would gladly give up coffee for Sanka, Even Sanka, Bianca, for you.” Composer/lyricist Amanda Green tweaked the 1948 score for a contemporary audience.
For the most part, this is a cast that can do justice to such sublime music. With a vocally exquisite high soprano, O'Hara is also a brilliant comic actress. I wasn't thrilled with Chase, who seemed removed from his character, but the featured actors were a delight. Stephanie Styles as Lois Lane plays the dizzy broad role for fun but without overdoing it and Corbin Bleu as Bill Calhoun is charming as her exasperated but ever-hopeful suitor.
And can they dance! Styles puts a folding ladder to wildly unexpected uses as she sings "Always True to You" and Bleu can tap like a house afire -- watch him work his way up a staircase, then a railing and finally upside down on the ceiling of a staircase landing. I love tap and James T. Lane also thrills in this as he lets loose in "Too Darn Hot." Warren Carlyle's choreography is sensational throughout.
Jeff Mahshie also scores a hit with his costume designs, which range from the stylish 40s to the colorful Renaissance. O'Hara makes a knockout entrance in a gray suit with a full, ankle-length skirt and fitted jacket and the black wide-brimmed hat the late Marin Mazzie wore in the 1999 revival.
Kiss Me, Kate, presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company, is lovely to look at and listen to, it's just too long and with too much slapstick for me. Its run has been extended until June 30.
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