#1
Posted: 8/25/10 at 2:23am
Just got back from seeing the Stratford production of KISS ME KATE.
I grew up listening to the OBCR, have seen the movie many times and rank the score second only to ANYTHING GOES as among Porter's best.
What I saw on stage was, frankly, disappointing and unsettling. John Doyle does not seem to trust that material at all and prefers to hoke it up with gimmicks,
Gimmicks like....
1. Not allowing the "book" songs to end and get applause but always segueing back to dialogue. (This frustrates the audience who wants to applaud classic songs like "Why Can't You Behave" and "So in Love.")
2. Performing the "show within a show" as if it is being played by rank amateurs who have never even seen the script before. (The musical Taming of the Shrew is supposedly in Baltimore on a pre Broadway tryout. At first it should play professionally and only start to fall apart when Lilli/Kate begins acting up on stage.)
3. Costuming the "show" performers with what appear to be remnants from a bus & truck tour of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ( I kid you not, right down to a Lumiere!)
4. Playing the whole thing like an extended movie parody like we used to see on The Carol Burnett Show and hHaving performers scream their lines as if volume will make them funnier.
KMK has a very funny script to start with. It also has a classic score. The show doesn't need to be forced to be funny. Also, what is wrong with the original script? Start the show with the Overture, which Fred interrupts, followed by the first scene then leading into "Another Op'nin' Another Show." The 1999 revision makes too many needless changes. The interpolated "From This Moment On" doesn't work and fails to give the second act the needed lift. It also puts too many songs into this this part of the show.
Starting the show with the song undercuts the number, but more curiously in the finale ("Kiss Me Kate") the song doesn't end. Fred and Lilli walk upstage, their voices fading, the stage is cleared but for the lone actor who began the evening with the opening lines of "Another Op'nin.." as if to suggest it was all his dream, or more properly a nightmare.
Some elements do work but only "Too Darn Hot" has the kind of pizazz this production needs. And that's a serious problem!
I grew up listening to the OBCR, have seen the movie many times and rank the score second only to ANYTHING GOES as among Porter's best.
What I saw on stage was, frankly, disappointing and unsettling. John Doyle does not seem to trust that material at all and prefers to hoke it up with gimmicks,
Gimmicks like....
1. Not allowing the "book" songs to end and get applause but always segueing back to dialogue. (This frustrates the audience who wants to applaud classic songs like "Why Can't You Behave" and "So in Love.")
2. Performing the "show within a show" as if it is being played by rank amateurs who have never even seen the script before. (The musical Taming of the Shrew is supposedly in Baltimore on a pre Broadway tryout. At first it should play professionally and only start to fall apart when Lilli/Kate begins acting up on stage.)
3. Costuming the "show" performers with what appear to be remnants from a bus & truck tour of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ( I kid you not, right down to a Lumiere!)
4. Playing the whole thing like an extended movie parody like we used to see on The Carol Burnett Show and hHaving performers scream their lines as if volume will make them funnier.
KMK has a very funny script to start with. It also has a classic score. The show doesn't need to be forced to be funny. Also, what is wrong with the original script? Start the show with the Overture, which Fred interrupts, followed by the first scene then leading into "Another Op'nin' Another Show." The 1999 revision makes too many needless changes. The interpolated "From This Moment On" doesn't work and fails to give the second act the needed lift. It also puts too many songs into this this part of the show.
Starting the show with the song undercuts the number, but more curiously in the finale ("Kiss Me Kate") the song doesn't end. Fred and Lilli walk upstage, their voices fading, the stage is cleared but for the lone actor who began the evening with the opening lines of "Another Op'nin.." as if to suggest it was all his dream, or more properly a nightmare.
Some elements do work but only "Too Darn Hot" has the kind of pizazz this production needs. And that's a serious problem!
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
