|
 Kiss Me Kate is commonly considered to be one of Cole Porter's great
masterpieces, and one of the more important works of the American musical
theatre. First run in 1948, the show was revived in 1998 for another
Broadway run, with significant revisions in both script and score. Overall,
the energy level was increased, with faster tempos and jazzier, Swing-style
influences in many of the musical numbers in its quest to portray both the
frenetic nature of the backstage life as well as capitalize on production
innovations in staging Shakespeare since the play was first written. Having
first directed this musical for the Huron Playhouse in 1993, I was invited
back to direct it again, this time in its revised version.
The
conceptual approach to the play focused on its nature as a work of metatheatre,
enhancing the
"play-within-the-play" structure to playfully skirt the boundary
between fantasy and reality, between theatrical pretense and real life. This
is achieved through the two intersecting texts, as actual excerpts
from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew are incorporated into the
script by the authors. In Kiss Me Kate,
producer-actor-director Fred Graham is directing a musical theatre version
of Shakespeare's Shrew at "tryouts" in Baltimore before moving to
Broadway. This production features himself as Petruchio and his ex-wife and
diva Lily Vanessi as Katharina; these two are still in love with each other,
but unable to live with each other. Their interpersonal conflict, aptly
characterized in the script as his ego vs. her temper, influences their
portrayal of Shakespeare's characters and vice-versa: as this war of the
sexes is happily resolved in Shakespeare, so it is in the lives of Lily and
Fred.
Review from the Sandusky register |
