Kiss 'n' Tell
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GANGSTERS RON MARCHAL AND EARL SCIONEAUX JR. INTIMIDATE THE HERO, PLAYED BY STEPHEN RUSHING.
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So taunt me and hurt me, deceive me, desert me ... so in love with you am I."
That's the key love song from Kiss Me, Kate, which just received a
thoroughly enjoyable revival at Jefferson Performing Arts Society (JPAS). Like
they say, they don't write 'em like they used to. Not with quite that sizzling,
seductive blend of romance, eros and masochism. Of course, masochism is
strictly out of favor nowadays. Or rather it has been diverted into less
interesting channels: body piercing, for instance. But there is something
solipsistic and defiant about body piercing that misses the
point. The masochism of Tin Pan Alley romance wasn't meant for the
rebellious few. It was at the heart and soul of sex: surrender. Unavoidable,
total eclipse in the presence of the other. Everyone knew what that meant: shop
girls, society dames, even Ninotchka, the Soviet commissarina. Cupid's arrow
with its poisoned point.
Certainly, Cole Porter knew it. And he seems to have felt that that
insane and life-giving magnetism was the central moving force in The Taming
of the Shrew. Somewhere inside her, Katharine, the shrew, is dying to
surrender and at the same time, she loathes the idea of surrender. So she is in
a fury against man and God.
To the urbane Porter, the idea that
Petruchio decided to woo her from such low, unvarnished motives ("I've come to
wife it wealthily in Padua"), just adds to the Olympian irony of love: for he
and Kate turn out to be a perfect couple. They are a case of coup de
foudre ("lightening bolt" love, as the French call "love at first sight")
albeit, with an emphasis on the foudre.
And so we see a comic spectacle of amatory conquest -- where it's
hard to tell who is actually enjoying themselves more, the victor or the
vanquished. The spanker or the spanked.
The common problem we are supposed to have with the play lies in
its benighted attitude toward women, but perhaps there is a deeper problem we
react to, but don't want to face. And that has to do with the loss of self in
erotic love. "Taunt me and hurt me, deceive me, desert me ... ." After all,
Porter gave the song to his heroine, but had it reprised by his hero as well.
The emotion is not limited by gender.
The production team at JPAS was first class. William McCrary's
direction had assurance, clarity and a good sense of fun. Stephen Thurber's set
was attractive, as were Julie Winn's costumes. Michelle Pietri's choreography
was tasteful and inventive. The music and singing, under Dennis Assaf's musical
direction, were a delight.
Of course, the show succeeds or fails depending on whether we buy
into the central conflict between actor-director Fred Graham (who also is
playing Petruchio) and his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi (who also is playing
Katharine). The idea for this life-mimicking-art theme, by the way, apparently
arose from a production of The Taming of the Shrew, starring the
tempestuous duo Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine, in which the dressing room
dramas nearly overshadowed Shakespeare.
In any case, Stephen Rushing and Nancy Ross not only sang
beautifully, they embodied their characters with deft comic flair. Their
shouted accusations about the cause of the divorce ("could have been your
temper!" "could have been your ego!") are as plausible as the mutual unspoken
desire to patch things up.
In the secondary romance, Kelly Hirling (as Lois Lane/Bianca) and
March Fouchi (as Bill Calhoun/Lucentio) capture the charm and mischief of these
two capricious lovebirds. Ron Marchal and Earl Scioneaux Jr., as the zany
gangster interlopers, manage to hold their own during the somewhat tenuous
scenes they must play, only to stop the show with a lovely light touch in the
wholly incongruous and wholly winning "Brush Up on Your Shakespeare."
Sarah Segrest, Peter Gabb, Steve Coenen, Michael Atwater and Eric
Pellegrin were effective in supporting roles.
When Kiss Me, Kate premiered in 1948, Cole Porter was almost
considered a has-been. He had had two big flops in a row. Apparently, it was
difficult to even raise the money for the show. It seems that very pressure
produced a gem.
Watching Kate, I could not help thinking about similar
difficulties and strivings that beset JPAS itself over the years. It wasn't so
very long ago, after all, when the odds against putting together a satisfying,
professional level production in the high school auditorium seemed almost
insurmountable. But there is no question that Maestro Assaf's struggle, like
Porter's, has paid off handsomely. Kiss Me, Kate was an excellent
evening of musical theater from every point of view.
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