San Diego Theater Review: KISS ME, KATE (Old Globe)

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by Tony Frankel on July 20, 2015

in Theater-Los Angeles,Theater-Regional

A FULL-ON KISS

Everything is so dang perfect about the construction of Kiss Me, Kate that it’s doubly amazing when a revival comes along to match that perfection. With some of the most boffo talent you are likely to encounter on stage, director Darko Tresnjak and choreographer Peggy Hickey (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) return to the Old Globe and light up the stage in a blaze of theatrical fire.

The cast in the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE

Tresnjak takes the slightly revised 1999 revision (with uncredited book changes and doctoring by, supposedly, John Guare) and tightens it even further by excising an added song that always seemed to slow down the second act: “From This Moment On,” cut from Porter’s Out of This World (1950), but performed in the 1953 film version of Kate.

Mike McGowan as Petruchio, Anastasia Barzee as Kate, and the cast in the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE.

He does keep the newly-conceived opening number—which interweaves Robert Russell Bennett’s original 1948 overture (conducted here by Kris Kukul) with “Another Openin’, Another Show”—that presents the cast of the show within the show on their first day of rehearsal (the updated orchestrations, strangely uncredited in the Old Globe program, brought a 2000 Tony award to Don Sebesky).

Jane Papageorge, Megan Sikora, Robin Masella, and Shina Ann Morris in the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE.

There are so many sexual allusions and situations in Cole Porter’s score that it is remarkable the musical premiered in 1948. I surmise the reason that Porter got away with such startling and blatant innuendos was his ability to wrap them up in sophisticated, witty lyrics. Porter’s score, one of the best ever written for Broadway, includes a stirring ballad (“So in Love”), a jazzy number (“Too Darn Hot”), a patter song (“Always True to You in My Fashion”), and pastiches of a Viennese waltz (“Wunderbar”), a tarantella (“We Sing of Love”) and a bowery song (“Brush Up Your Shakespeare”).

Tyler Hanes as Bill Calhoun and Megan Sikora as Lois Lane in the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE.The musical is oft-revived, but not just due to Porter. His songs are wrapped up in an ingenious conceit by Samuel and Bella Spewack. In this Shakespearean-musical-within-a-backstage-musical, Fred Graham is directing and starring in the Baltimore tryout of a musicalized version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, also starring his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. They still love each other, but their relationship is tested by his ego and her temper. Complicating their tempestuous offstage romance are two co-stars: Lois, a sexy chorine in her first big role, and Bill, her gambling, hoofing boyfriend. When Bill signs Fred’s name on a gambling chit, two gangsters arrive to collect just as Lilli is about to bolt from the show. Fred uses the henchmen to his advantage, telling the thugs in essence: “No Lilli. No Show. No Money.” The gangsters don Shakespearean wigs and outfits from the rack and join Lilli in the onstage show, in which the relationship of Petruchio and Kate mirrors that of the stars therein.

Mike McGowan as Petruchio and Anastasia Barzee as Kate in the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE.

Alexander Dodge’s backstage sets (dressing rooms and bare stage) are perfectly suitable, but his hinged-panels Laugh-In-esque set for the “new” musical is inspired; yes, it resembles Mary Blair’s design for Disneyland’s It’s A Small World, but it also offers a terrific palette for Philip S. Rosenberg’s inventive lighting design. Fabio Toblini’s colorful unrestrictive costumes are a successful blend of a 40s MGM musical, Elizabethan, and Victoria’s Secret.

Megan Sikora as Bianca, Barrett Martin as Gremio, Giovanni Bonaventura as Hortensio, and Tyler Hanes as Lucentio in the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE.Playing Fred, Mike McGowan convinces us he is just as successful as an actor and leading man as he is a somewhat underhanded, slightly devious theater director, and who, as Petruchio, is both confident conqueror and comedian. Anastasia Barzee proves that diva Lilli is just as loveable and scary as Shakespeare’s Kate, both scrumptious beauties bursting with so much bumptious behavior that you aren’t sure whether to hug them or get the anti-venom kit. With extraordinarily rich and expressive voices, both actors could easily make their next stop the Met.

Megan Sikora is smashingly adorable as Lois, as is Tyler Hanes as her bad boy beau, Bill, but wait ‘til you see these triple threats in “Tom, Dick or Harry” (aided by Giovanni Bonaventura and Barrett Martin as Bianca’s suitors); Hickey’s choreography, should this show go to Broadway, will definitely win a Tony given that the dance here smacks of 40s athleticism while remaining wholly original. A highlight of this or any other show.

The cast of the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE.

As the stars’ dressers, Aurelia Williams as Hattie and James T. Lane as Paul light up the stage with their affable presences; one opens the first act, the other the second (confusingly, they also appear in the musicalized Shrew). Joel Blum and Brendan Averett add Vaudevillian splendor to refreshingly understated turns as the gangsters.

Joel Blum as First Man, Mike McGowan as Fred Graham, and Brendan Averett as Second Man in the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE.

I’ve lost count of all of the Kisses I’ve seen, and in the last few years, more and more productions simply could not get all of the elements right. This is one Kiss I never wanted to end.

The cast in the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE.

photos by T Charles Erickson

Mike McGowan as Petruchio (center) and the cast of the Hartford Stage-Old Globe co-production of KISS ME, KATE.

Kiss Me, Kate
co-production with the Hartford Stage
Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage
The Old Globe in San Diego
ends on August 9, 2015
for tickets, call 619.234-5623 or visit www.TheOldGlobe.org

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