If the Reagle Music Theatre sponsored a baseball club, they’d
be two for two. Last month’s GUYS AND DOLLS turned out to be a sure bet and
this month’s hilarious KISS ME KATE (through July 19th) is a must
see for its smart staging and its incomparable performances. One more thing the
two musicals have in common, a floating crap game to move the plot along.
The Porter/Spewack musical based on Shakespeare’s THE TAMING
OF THE SHREW offers an embarrassment of riches in Cole Porter’s glorious songs:
From “Another Op’nin,’ Another Show” (brilliantly jazzed up by Lovely Hoffman)
to leading lady Sarah Pfisterer’s gorgeous “So in Love” to leading man Rick
Hilsabeck’s deliciously naughty “Where is the Life that Late I Led” and so many
more…right down to the star struck thugs (Aaron Dore & Daniel Forest
Sullivan) who run away with the show in their riotous “Brush Up Your
Shakespeare.”
Director Cynthia Thole and music director Dan Rodriguez
reinvigorate both the story and the music and choreographer Susan M.
Chebookjian pays tribute to all the great Broadway choreographers in Darren
Bunch and company’s sizzling “Too Darn Hot.” Every member of the ensemble (or
“pomping folk” as they were known in Shakespeare’s day) makes this production
pop!
