With a score filled with so many Cole Porter tunes that you’re fairly drunk with delight after hearing them, the expert direction and choreography of musical theatre aficionado Kate Adams-Johnson, and a cast of extraordinarily gifted performers breathing vigorous life into the time-honored text, the new production of Kiss Me, Kate at The Keeton Theatre should be atop your list of must-see theatrical events in this very busy month of February. Sam and Bella Spewack’s witty, sparkling script is brought to life with flourish, proving this period piece—which was named winner of the very first Tony Award for best musical—to be, in fact, a timeless classic, a musical theatre masterpiece that deserves to be seen over and over again.
Adams-Johnson directs the show with respect for its place in musical theater history, yet it’s not reverential. She doesn’t approach it as a museum installation; rather, with The Keeton’s Kiss Me, Kate she directs it as a vital part of contemporary musical theatre, while retaining its deserved place among the very best in the history of the business. Adams-Johnson’s choreography enlivens the stage proceedings with stylish aplomb and a palpable energy that makes the script seem all the more current, while her vision for the musical ensures an evening of theater that is fun, exciting and altogether memorable. In fact, if you find yourself leaving the theatre without Porter’s wonderful score reverberating through your heart, you should probably seek professional help.
The songs come at you, one after another, as examples of the very best show tunes ever written: “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” (which set the bar high for opening numbers that followed in its tuneful wake), “Always True to You Darling, In My Fashion” (a wonderful example of Porter’s incisive wit and joyous melodies), “Wunderbar” (the master’s salute to operetta that remains as captivating today as it must have been in 1948), “So In Love” (as lovely a love song as you could ever hope to hear), “Too Darn Hot” (saucy and impudent, sexy and raucously fun), “From This Moment On” (a soaring ballad that continues flight long after it’s been sung) and the wonderfully droll “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” (which represents the very best of theatrical in-jokes). It’s like opening a treasure chest brimming over with musical theater classics, each one more amazing than the last, yet all of them exquisitely written and superbly musical. They represent Porter’s talents at their zenith, just as Kiss Me, Kate provided him his comeback in 1948, some ten years after a horseback riding accident left him in near-constant pain.
Adam-Johnson’s confident, sure-footed direction provides the structure for the evening—along with the music direction of Ginger Newman, whose five-member band play Porter’s score skillfully—while the performances of her troupe of actors supply the necessary fireworks to lift the show beyond its stagebound confines.Structured as a play-within-a-play, Kiss Me, Kate follows the efforts of a theatrical company to mount a musical version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, with all manner of backstage intrigue and romantic complications providing the fodder for the uproarious action that follows, replete with post-World War II politics, shady gangsters roaming the backstage area and a generous helping of hot-blooded chorus boys and girls. In short, everything needed to ensure musical theater success.
First and foremost among her cast is Janette Bruce, a new-to-Nashville actress, who delivers a performance of Lilli Vanessi/Katharine that is certain to delight and to entertain. It’s as if, quite simply put, the Spewacks and Porter created the role of Lilli for Bruce, so seamlessly does she slip into the role, showing off her impressive vocal prowess with effortless ease and giving an acting performance that is staggeringly good. In fact—Marin Mazzie and Rachel York notwithstanding (and everyone knows how I feel about those two women)—Bruce’s Lilli might be the best I’ve ever seen. That’s how I felt immediately following the second night curtain and I woke up the following morning feeling the same way, so there must really be something very special about her beautifully crafted, brilliantly presented characterization. Her performance of “So In Love” is genuinely moving and passionate, her duet on “Wunderbar” (with co-star David Arnold as FrEd Graham) nicely over the top, and her duet on “From This Moment On” (with Terry McLemore as the General) is a beautifully sung comic masterpiece. Bruce’s performance is fresh and frank, without being too “real,” retaining the role’s showy theatricality that is based in reality, however heightened it might be.
