Kiss Me, Kate Kiss Me, KateGiven the fact that Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate was the runaway hit of the 1948 Broadway season, logging over 1,070 performances, and given that the 1999 revival won five Tony awards, you’d think that the show itself would be a stronger vehicle than it is. But Sam and Bella Spewack’s book, about Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, a former husband and wife acting team reuniting after their stormy divorce to perform in a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew, shows its age, especially in its attitude towards women. Director Michael Blakemore’s attempts to liven it up by cramming in as much slapstick humor as possible and turning nearly every single song into a major production number aren’t always successful. Neither are some of the changes in the original book. Turning Lilli’s boring upper class fiancée Harrsion Howell into a bombastic parody of General Douglas McArthur doesn’t make him any funnier and adding an irrelevant song for him and Lilli —“From This Moment On”, which was also interpolated into the 1953 film version — serves only to slow down the show.
What this revival of Kiss Me, Kate does have going for it are a brilliant and witty score by Cole Porter and energetic, mostly top-notch performances by a talented cast. Rachel York looks great and sings even better as Lilli Vanessi and is an appropriately holy terror as Kate in the Shrew scenes. Jenny Hill is funny and sexy as Lois Lane, the actress who’s always true “in her fashion” to her wastrel boyfriend Bill Clahoun, played with verve and some spectacular dance moves by Jim Newman. Ditto for Randy Donaldson as the dresser Paul, who dances up a storm in the Act II opener “It’s Too Darn Hot”. Richard Poe and Michael Arkin are hilarious as the Runyonesque thugs out to collect a gambling debt and their rendition of “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” is a real treat.
The only real disappointment in the cast is Rex Smith, as Fred Graham and Petruchio. Smith has plenty of physical energy, especially as Petruchio, and a good if not great voice, but his performance struck me as cool and monochromatic, with little emotional range. There should be obvious romantic chemistry between Fred and Lilli and I just didn’t see much of that on opening night.
Ah, but what a great score! Porter probably turned out more enduring hits in this show than in any other: the Viennese parody “Wunderbar”, bluesy numbers like “Why Can’t You Behave?” and “It’s Too Darn Hot”, the witty “Always True to You in My Fashion”, the beautiful “So in Love” and the cleverly mock-Shakespearean numbers for the Taming of the Shrew scenes such as “I Hate Men”, “Were Thine That Special Face” and “Where is the Life That Late I Led?”. It’s a musical feast that more than compensates for the production’s weaknesses and ultimately makes for a lively if rather long evening at the theatre.
Kiss Me, Kate continues through this Sunday [December 16, 2001] at the Fox Theatre. Call 314-534-1111 for ticket information.