#1
Posted: 5/20/11 at 11:42am
On Sunday I saw the Reprise Theatre Company's production of Kiss Me Kate.
While I thought it was pretty good, I didn't think it was their strongest show. Lesli Margherita was Lilli/Kate, I thought she was stronger as Kate, I felt like she hadn't really developed the role of Lilli as much as she could've. It seemed like she couldn't decide how she wanted to play the role. Tom Hewitt as Fred was excellent, he gave one of the strongest performances in the show. Meg Gillentine was great as Lois/Bianca, her dancing was superb. Sean Martin Hingston was pretty good as Bill, but his speaking voice kind of annoyed me. So to summarize, the cast was pretty good for the most part. But my biggest issue was with the set. They had a giant spinning proscenium, that was the back for backstage, and the front for the theatre. My first issue with it was that the front looked totally inapropriate for the time period, it looked like it belonged more in a vaudeville theatre in the 20/30s then the late 40's. It also looked cheaply made. Another problem I had with it was that because the stage is not the largest when the cast members would spin it, it took over the entire stage which I found very distracting. And lastly, when they were performing "Shrew" they played most of it downstage of the false proscenium, and I understand suspending disbelief in theatre, but not enough to believe that any stage could have an apron that big, but besides my minor issues I pretty much enjoyed myself.
While I thought it was pretty good, I didn't think it was their strongest show. Lesli Margherita was Lilli/Kate, I thought she was stronger as Kate, I felt like she hadn't really developed the role of Lilli as much as she could've. It seemed like she couldn't decide how she wanted to play the role. Tom Hewitt as Fred was excellent, he gave one of the strongest performances in the show. Meg Gillentine was great as Lois/Bianca, her dancing was superb. Sean Martin Hingston was pretty good as Bill, but his speaking voice kind of annoyed me. So to summarize, the cast was pretty good for the most part. But my biggest issue was with the set. They had a giant spinning proscenium, that was the back for backstage, and the front for the theatre. My first issue with it was that the front looked totally inapropriate for the time period, it looked like it belonged more in a vaudeville theatre in the 20/30s then the late 40's. It also looked cheaply made. Another problem I had with it was that because the stage is not the largest when the cast members would spin it, it took over the entire stage which I found very distracting. And lastly, when they were performing "Shrew" they played most of it downstage of the false proscenium, and I understand suspending disbelief in theatre, but not enough to believe that any stage could have an apron that big, but besides my minor issues I pretty much enjoyed myself.
. The only thing that kept it from being God Awful was the acting by Lisa O'Hare who was Gigi. 
