Kiss Me, Kate

A Shakespearean operetta, a hot jazz dance number, a fiery celebrity couple and off-beat underworld fun are currently colliding on the Rockdale Town Hall stage.

Bursting onto the stage in a vibrant, high energy opening ensemble number, “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” - Cole Porter’s song and dance valentine to theatre - The Regals production of Kiss Me, Kate captivates from the outset.

How could you top that opening?

Choreographer Chris Bamford’s steamy, jazz inspired 11-minute “Too Darn Hot” dance tour de force at the top of act 2 raised the bar even higher.

Well done Chris, on crafting such great production numbers, yet again, to sit perfectly on yet another community theatre ensemble.   

Compare those numbers to the ‘show-within-show’ chorus blocking - delightful, OTT parodies of operetta staging cliches, old-fashioned decades before the Kiss Me Kate’s 1948 Broadway debut, and the interpretation of co-directors Mel Hogan and Tim Martin, and choreographer Chris Bamford which will follow is quickly established.

We laugh. Broadway bound, the sequences from the corny, operetta-ish ‘show-within-show’ version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew play like terribly dated musical comedy, under-utilizing the talents of the company we’ve just seen in the opening number of this Kiss Me, Kate. This “Shrew” seems destined to close out of town. The production team totally nails that for us.

Maybe ‘The Shrew’ director / producer / leading man Fred Graham (John Hogan) has been too caught up in re-igniting the flame with his former wife and co-star Lilli Vanessi (Georgia Kokkoris) to realise that his show is behind the times.

Based on a famous, tempestuous real-life celebrity stage couple of the day, Fred and Lilli begin the show in their adjoining dressing rooms, gleefully firing off barbs and banter at one another, though their nostalgic backstage duet “Wunderbar” which follows, a hammy reminiscence of the operetta in which they met, reveals that there’s still shared affection too.

Lilli’s entrancing “So In Love” just moments later, delivered in Kokkoris’ lovely soprano, is tender and reflective, revealing re-kindled passion for Fred. Reprised later in the show by Fred, though, it becomes a poignant song of loss and utter loneliness – not simply a repetition, as such songs so often are, merely a chance to repeat a great earlier number; it’s a heartfelt, touching performance by Hogan after a night of very deliberate ham and ego in both his roles.

In paired romantic subplots, backstage and on-stage, Jasmine Argyropoulos (as ingenue Lois Lane and Bianca Minola) and Benjamin Oliver (as her gambler boyfriend Bill Calhoun, and onstage suitor Lucentio) pair terrifically. Dancing and singing splendidly, she’s delightfully vivacious and flirtatious as the ingenue, while he’s an assured song and dance man with heaps of roguish charm and stage presence.

But it’s soon clear that Lois has become more than a protégé to Fred. Lilli receives flowers, seemingly from Fred, but the note reveals they were intended for Lois. Lilli’s anger boils over into Kate and Petruchio’s onstage antics in ‘The Shrew’, where Kokkoris also reveals her fabulous lower register as Kate, belting out “I Hate Men”.

Perhaps Kate’s projectile throwing needed a rethink, though. Given O.H. & S. considerations, the risk to string players, stage crew and audience members from a misfired goblet or stool has just become too great. A bit timid, it tended to undermine the anger of those scenes; Kokkoris’ acting alone was quite fiery enough. That said though, congratulations to those involved in a tightly choreographed, comic plate throwing scene later in the show.

Is there an ‘elephant in the room’ (or on the stage) in “The Shrew” scenes in Kiss Me, Kate. Kate (or is it really Lilli), slaps Petruchio / Fred on stage, who, in turn, spanks her. There were audible gasps and glances at that moment. Does a strong Lilli, instantly determined to dump Fred and leave the show mid-performance, provides something of a counterbalance?

Two gangsters who had earlier arrived backstage with a gambling IOU for Fred to settle (Bill Calhoun had forged his name), are pressed into service in “The Shrew” to ensure Lilli finishes the show, after she calls on her fiancé General Harrison Howell tocome and rescue her.  Shane Andrews and Veronica Clavijo are deliciously, uncomfortably conspicuous in their Elizabethan outfits, then later, as always, the comical, hoofing gangsters steal the show with their vaudeville turn, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”.

The biggest rewrite in this moderately revised version of the show is the role of Howell. Paul Adderley really nails this far sleezier, two timing misogynist incarnation, making everyone hope Fred and Lilli would sort out their differences.

In a long show like this, though, why interpolate a duet for Lilli and Howell, especially as “From This Moment On” becomes just so much cheesy fluff compared to the other backstage numbers. Such revival interpolations are often a bit clunky

Strong featured performances included Christine Forbes as Hattie, with the lead vocals on “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” and Joshua Harrison as Paul, leading vocals on “Too Darn Hot”, but so many small supporting roles were also carried off very smartly.

In the pit, Musical Director Jonah Eskander capably leads a terrific orchestra, handling Cole Porter’s eclectic score impressively.

And the stage picture throughout was terrific. I particularly liked the set and staging design / concept by Tim Martin and Andrew Yager, in conjunction with Event Engineering. Bare scaffolding and simple props represented the theatre backstage, becoming the superstructure for painted flats, supplemented by picturesque projected ‘backdrops’, for “The Shrew” scenes. Attractive and appropriate costuming by Mel Hogan and Christine Forbes, along with effective lighting design by Micheal Clewes and Tim Martin completed a very visually attractive show.

As The Regals prepare for their 80^th Anniversary season in 2025, this strong production of the classic musical which took out the first ever Tony Award for Best Musical back in 1949 plays until October 20.

Neil Litchfield