KISS ME KATE’s
opening number, Another Op’nin’, Another Show [in Boston Philly and
Baltimo’] is Cole Porter’s masterful contribution to the show business anthem
collection. All the great musicals of the era had one. In the Longwood Players’
troubled production (running through next weekend), you’re apprehensive way
before the first number, listening to the painful overture. And it doesn’t help
their cause that Porter’s lyrics for the show within the show recount the
cast’s jitters: “Three weeks and it couldn’t be worse” or “at one week you
wonder will it ever be right.” I’m very sorry to say I’m wondering if it will.
When I saw it
opening weekend the orchestra wasn’t ready. If only the violins could play the
whole score in pizzicato. Then they wouldn’t have to worry about the screech. If
only the horn would mute. And the choreography: Alas, it wasn’t anywhere close
to being ready. Many of the performers aren’t dancers so why ask them to
execute leaps they can’t possibly master? And why aim for the lowest common
denominator by having a woman plunge her male dance partner’s head into her
ample bosom. (I’ve never seen that move in dance notation.) Just as cringe
worthy were the transitions in the choreography: Some of the dancers stood
marking time between steps as if someone had said “At ease.”
Except for
Matthew Kossack’s vibrant, polished Too Darn Hot solo, the dance numbers
(especially the clunky Tarantella) weigh the show down. The principle
performers sing well enough but their acting (and you ought to be interpreting
the songs as well as the role) leaves a lot to be desired. My chief complaint
is their incessant mugging to the audience. This is the one show where
mugging is crucial to the story and it belongs only to the mugs. The gangsters
who have arrived to settle a gambling debt and find themselves thrust on stage
during a production of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW get to do the mugging because
they don’t know any better. Nobody else should be waving or winking or pointing
to people in the audience.
Happily, the
thugs not only steal the show, they steal our hearts as well. What a delight to
see a number which works like, well, gangbusters! Andy LeBrun and James
Aitchison resuscitate the musical single-, no, double- handedly with their
hilarious Brush Up Your Shakespeare.
Last but not
least, when you have a solid, proven, veteran performer like Anthony Mullin as
the Southern suitor of the leading lady, why oh why would you cut his song? It
doesn’t make sense. In fact, it’s integral in order for the leading lady to
decide that she doesn’t want to live in Georgia “from this moment on.”
I know sometimes
things go awry. And sometimes things can be fixed. Here’s hoping next weekend
it all comes together.
