©The Hartford Courant
May 2, 1994


"Kate" Still Fresh, Funny At Goodspeed
by Malcolm Johnson

Kiss Me, Kate, Cole Porter’s 1948 hit about a battling theater
couple and their singing-dancing The Taming of the Shrew, is
back – again showing its powers as one of the most tuneful, witty
musicals of the American theater.

Having lately suffered at least two inferior productions – a tatty
touring edition at the Bushnell and a dark, poorly cast version at
the Berkshire Theatre Festival – this great show-business musical now
shines again at the Goodspeed Opera House. Even the forthcoming New
York Kevin Kline production seems unlikely to improve significantly
on Ted Pappas’ staging in East Haddam.

The Goodspeed Kate suffers in only three areas. With just one
string player in the pit, the sound, especially in the overture and
entr’act, is underwhelming blatt-and-bleep stuff. James Noone’s scenery,
with its trembling brick walls, sometimes gives the Goodspeed stage a
drab look. And the costumes by Michael Krass do some of the actors no
favor, with the codpieces in the Shrew scenes making the men
especially ridiculous.

Overall, however, this ranks as one of Goodspeed’s better shows with a
generally winning cast displaying the excellence of Porter’s songs and
the still remarkably fresh book by Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack.
Goodspeed has recruited four leads who can act and play comedy as well
as sing and a generally attractive and athletic chorus for Liza
Gennaro’s lively dances.

Leading the ensemble is Steve Barton, best known for creating the role
of Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera and recently tapped to
replace Roger Rees in the lead of the short-lived The Red Shoes.

Here Barton reveals his hidden talents as a Shakespearean and also fills
his actor/manager Fred Graham with all the absurd ego of a prince of
players who lives for his art. His rich expressive baritone and crisp
intelligent delivery calls to mind Alfred Drake in the original production.
But Barton looks like Alfred Lunt, whose backstage wars with his
partner-wife Lynne Fontanne inspired the Spewack’s to write Kiss Me,
Kate at the behest of producer Saint Subber. And from his “I’ve Come To
Wive It Wealthily in Padua” Barton makes a risibly calculating Petruchio.

At first, Marilyn Caskey’s Lilli Vanessi hardly seems a match for Barton’s
commanding, imperious Fred Graham. Her stiff red hair appears to be a bad
wig, and she calls to mind the impossible diva Carlotta in Phantom, which
she played for 4 ˝ years. Yet her gifts for comedy and her vocal powers
soon make it clear that this is a sharply ironic Lilli and an absolutely
implacable Kate. And though her soprano has operatic vibrato, there is much
subtle humor at play in her songs, especially her double tour de force, on “I
Hate Men” and “I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple”

A different sort of soprano humor ripples through the show-stopper “Always
True to You Darling in My Fashion” as performed in various moods of
seductiveness by Leah Hocking as the gold-digging Lois Lane (a modern female
counter point to Petruchio). Hocking, who resembles the young Norma Jean
Baker, manages even to triumph over a scene change during her number.

And the graceful Michael Gruber, as her (Lois) gambling boyfriend Bill
Calhoun and the dancing Lucentio, restores the luster of “Bianca”,
though his voice is too tenory to take over “Too Darn Hot”.

From their first entrance, tall angular Mark Lotito and short, thick-set
Kevin McClarnon make a highly amusing combination as the two thugs who come
to demand a gambling debt from Fred and who remain too ensure the show goes
on with darling Lilli. Their “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” shows Pappas’
direction and Gennaro’s choreography at their most entertaining.

There are no real miracles at work in Kiss Me, Kate. But Pappas
shows a keen understanding of the musical play’s dynamics and works with
equal assurance in the backstage passes and the Shakespearean scenes.

And while Gennaro’s dances seem neither ingenious nor novel, they are
bright and in key with the period of the piece, which is scrupulously
maintained. And while the scenery and costumes could certainly be bettered,
Noone does well by the Italian scenes for Shrew and Krass attires
the chorus girls alluringly. But Lucentio’s electric blue spandex tights must go.

So, perhaps should the barely-under-$30 ticket price. Long Wharf Theatre
has a $34 top price, and the Hartford stage is up to $35. Maybe it is
time to charge a bit more in East Haddam, too, and hire a couple of more
string players for shows that require them – shows like Kiss Me, Kate.

Kiss Me, Kate continues through July 1 at Goodspeed Opera House,
Goodspeed Landing, East Haddam. Performances are Wednesday at 2:300 and
8:00 p.m. , Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p. m. , Saturdays at 4 and 9 p.m.
and Sundays at 2 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $19 to $29.50. Box office: 873-8668


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