The Citizen, 2010-06-24, Page 19THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2010. PAGE 19. ‘Kiss Me Kate’ opens at Stratford Festival
When The Stratford Shakespeare
Festival decided to branch into
musical theatre more than a decade
ago,Kiss Me Kate was one of the
most logical choices. Cole Porter’s
musical take on William
Shakespeare’s The Taming of the
Shrew is one of the big attractions of
the 2010 season.
Full of energy and colour,Kiss Me
Kate offers a showcase for the
talented Stratford company, led by
Monique Lund, Juan Chioran, and
Chilina Kennedy and they make the
most of it with strong singing voices,
a touch of dancing when needed and
ability to hit the comic and dramatic
heights when needed.
The 1948 classic, which
resurrected the career of Porter after
a series of unsuccessful musicals,
features a play within a play, with an
actor-producer Fred Graham
(Chioran) producing a new version
of The Taming of the Shrew and
playing Petruchio himself, opposite
his former wife Lilli Vanessi (Lund)
as Catherine. The couple’s backstage
feuding matches the onstage conflict
between the Shakespearean couple.
Meanwhile Graham has hired his
new love interest Lois Lane
(Kennedy) to play Katherine’s
younger sister Bianca, but Lois is
really in love with a fellow cast
member with a gambling problem.
One of the fascinations of staging
these musicals at Stratford is seeing
how directors adapt a Broadway
musical to the Festival Theatre’s
thrust stage.
Tony Award-winning (for Sweeney
Todd ) British veteran John Doyle
smoothly handles setting up and
dissolving scenes without the help of
a curtain. In fact the limitations lead
to one of the most ingenious and
funny staging moments with Lund
exiting, sliding like a shadow, off the
stage’s front steps and out an exit
under the audience.
Doyle differentiates the on-stage
Shakespearean play by giving it an
exaggerated commedia dell'arte
style that isn’t always successful but
adds lots of colour and fun to the
production. In one case, an actress
becomes a prop Italian fountain with
a hat like a sprinkler and a costume
like a bare-breasted sculpture. In
another, an actor/candelabra
conveniently bends over to be lit.
Doyle also makes use of all the
actors from the backstage, modern
portion of the play, into the onstage
version of Kiss Me Kate. He says in
his program notes this is a tribute to
many of the theatres he worked in
early on where even the stage
doorman ended up onstage to fill out
the company.
But the real highlights are the
performances. Lund and Chioran
have voices to bring out the best in
Porter’s songs like So In Love and
Wunderbar, and Kennedy, the
Festival's new go-to girl for musicals
(she stars in Evita) impresses with
both her singing (Why Can’t You
Behave) and the dance.
From a sheer musical point of
view, the highlight of the show is the
opening number from Act Two when
the actors from the onstage play,
head for the theatre’s roof during the
intermission to escape the heat and
perform Too Darned Hot, a sizzling
combination of music, dancing and
sheer sexiness.
For long-time Blyth Festival fans,
there’s a delight in seeing Cliff
Saunders, a one-time Blyth actor, as
one of two tough guys, sent to
collect a gambling debt, who also
happen to love Shakespeare. Their
duet of Brush Up Your Shakespeare,
which manages to work in the titles
of virtually all of Shakespeare’s
plays, demonstrates the cleverness
of Porter’s music, while providing
one of the comic highlights of the
show.
Whether purists and critics like it
or not, musicals make up a huge
part of the draw to Stratford in
recent years. Kiss Me Kate
promises to keep that trend going
strong.
The 2010 Blyth Festival Young
Company will be off to a good start
with a donation from CIBC.
Through a corporate sponsorship,
CIBC donated $3,000 to the youth
theatre program, which trains Huron
and Perth County teens for futures in
theatrical programs.
“Thanks to contributions like this
from CIBC, the Blyth Festival’s
Young Company has given a
head start to hundreds of local
teens,” said Eric Coates, Artistic
Director of the Blyth Festival.
“Today you will find [previous
Young Company members] working
as artists at the Stratford and Shaw
Festivals.”
Coates also said that the program
helps teens get ready for post-
secondary studies in theatrical, arts,
and dramatic post-secondary studies.
CIBC has been a long-time
supporter of the Blyth Festival,
having donated a total of $39,000 to
the theatre.
Blyth CIBC Branch manager Patty
Sage made an official cheque
presentation to Coates on Thursday,
June 17.
Family fun for everyone!
See last week’s paper for full listing of events
or visit www.strawberrysummerfest.com
June 25
to
June 27
9th Annual Goderich
Children’s Festival presents
Saturday, July 3, 2010
11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Courthouse Park, Goderich
Parade at 10:30 a.m. Activities for all ages. Sing
along with Dan the Music Man plus much more!
Visits with Santa! (bring your camera).
Guide dogs only please.
Buy your Glow Novelties from us at the
Goderich Fireworks. Proceeds to the Festival.
For more info email Lori at
goderichchildrensfesitval@yahoo.com
or call Tourism Goderich 519-524-6600
All
activities
are free!
Happy 90th
Birthday
Ruth Sauve Schade
Come & Celebrate
60 Macdonald St.,
Brussels
June 25th
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Best Wishes Only Please
Come & Go
for
Pearl Mason’s
75th birthday
Sunday, June 27
Londesborough
United Church
basement
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Happy 70th
Birthday
Harvey Snell
You are invited
to an
OPEN HOUSE
at Auburn Hall
Sunday, June 27
2:00-4:00 pm
Best Wishes Only
Happy 80th
Birthday
Carol
Boneschansker
With love forever
from your
family and friends
Friends and Family
are invited to a
Buck and Doe
for
Theresa Oliver
and
Larry Geisel
Saturday, June 26th
Brussels Arena
Doors open 9 pm
• Age of majority • Lunch provided
Tickets $5 in advance, $7 at the door
Contact:
Sherrie 519-887-8027 or
Steph 519-527-2102
Entertainment Leisure&
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen
Company cash
Patty Sage, manager of the Blyth branch of the CIBC,
presents a $3,000 cheque to Blyth Festival Artistic Director
Eric Coates. The funds will go towards the Blyth Festival
Young Company, an educational theatre program. (Denny Scott
photo)
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Young Company receives $3,000