‘Kiss Me, Kate’ @ Stolen Shakespeare Guild
Photos by Bart Stewart
—Jan Farrington
I couldn’t tell you how many versions of the classic Kiss Me, Kate I’ve seen in a lifetime of theater-going. If I’m pushed, I can and will rank them (starting at the top, with Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie’s spiffy 2000 revival on Broadway). But to tell the truth, it’s a show I always find fun, whenever and wherever. The laughs come easy, the great songs and spicy lyrics amaze, and the very un-PC sexiness of this Taming of the Shrew takeoff somehow keeps things from becoming obnoxious.
All of that holds true for Stolen Shakespeare Guild’s lively Kiss Me, Kate. It’s “Too Darn Hot” outside, and this is the perfect show to cool off with inside the Fort Worth Community Arts Center: music theater for music theater fans, full of show-biz tropes and backstage stories. Mix in Cole Porter’s bouncy music and R-rated rhymes (how did he get away with them?) and the very funny dialogue from writers Sam and Bella Spewack…and what’s not to love?
Company co-founders Jason and Lauren Morgan direct, and though the singing ranges from stellar to so-so, it’s strong where it needs to be strong—and not just in the leading roles. It’s fun to play the game of isolating one voice or another from the ensemble…and there are some great voices in there. As the “Kate” of the show (and actress Lilli in the backstage story), Lauren Morgan’s everlastingly lovely soprano works its magic in “So in Love,” and Molly Rose swings it ‘40s-style in “Tom, Dick, or Harry” as Kate’s frisky, mad-to-marry sister Bianca (and her modern counterpart Lois).
The smaller parts and ensembles are fun to watch. Danny Machietto gets laughs as the over-loaded stage manager Ralph, with Jason Suber in much the same head-banging state—for Kate and Bianca’s father Baptista, two daughters are too many. Alfredo Tomayo as Bill Calhoun, Bianca/Lois’ sexiest suitor in both story lines, has good chemistry with Molly Rose in both parts. But among Bianca’s onstage suitors, I might keep an eye on Josh Radde’s Gremio: nattily dressed, light on his feet—a bit older, but very well off. (It’s Radde’s SSG debut.)
In short, there are plenty of good reasons to give SSG’s KMK a shot—and here come a few more, like the extra verses in a Cole Porter song we don’t want to end. You’ll also enjoy….
Kyle Holt as an unexpected Fred/Petruchio (his characters are/were/will be husbands to Lilli/Kate). Not the traditional matinee idol type, he has comic chops to spare, a solid belt for the big finish of a song, and delivers lines and lyrics with a winking wit (and sometimes even a heart under all that ego).
Lauren Morgan’s vivid costume designs, bopping between Shakespeare’s day and Sinatra’s without a blink—and choreographer Jessica Peterson’s dances, which do the same thing—with lots of time-traveling energy from the ensemble in either dance style.
A. Solomon Abah Jr. and Gary Payne as the semi-sweet gangsters who deliver “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” in bawdy poker-faced style—a song that makes you wonder exactly how much the censors made from Cole Porter paying them off in 1948.
Energetic Emily Bailey as Hattie, a standout as lead vocalist in “Too Darn Hot”—and you can tell she’s the anchor in every show she’s in.
Alex Bigus and his cameo as the booming-voiced General Harrison Howell, come to whisk Lilli of to a better (non-theatrical) life. Bigus and Morgan turn “From This Moment On” into a military march love song—too funny.
WHEN: July 12-28, 2024
WHERE: Fort Worth Community Arts Center, 1300 Gendy St., Fort Worth
WEB: stolenshakespeareguild.org
