Kiss Me, Kate

It was a personal and welcome return to The Rose Theatre and to watch and listen to the Cole Porter classic of ‘Kiss Me, Kate’. The story revolves around the divorced Broadway stars Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, who remain at odds arguing during their rehearsal for a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. Meanwhile Lilli, playing the ‘Shrew’ Katherine, is jealous of the young actress Lois Lane, playing Bianca, whom Fred appears to be pursuing.

These are the main characters of the piece and all three were convincingly portrayed; Michelle Free (Lilli), Julian Richards (Fred) and Kathryn Painter (Lois) all had strong voices and totally held the stage. Michelle’s rendition of ‘I Hate Men’ was particularly convincing, although the softer ‘I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple’ was equally if not more pleasing.  Fred and Lilli’s voices blended beautifully in ‘Wunderbar’, and Lois’ number ‘Always true to you in my fashion’ were other highlights. Another talent is Daniel Richards (Paul) who sang and danced ‘Too Darn Hot’ superbly.

Meanwhile, good support was provided by Tom Paine (Bill Calhoun) who went awol during rehearsals to rack up gambling debts in the name of Fred Graham, resulting in the pursuit of repayment by an amusing gangster double of Chris Paine and John Aubrey (First & Second Man).

Doug Forrester too complimented the cast as Harrison Howell, an unlikely future match for Lilli. I was not convinced that the duet with Lilli, ‘From This Moment On’ from the 1999 revision of this show, was a necessary addition.

Scenery, costumes and lighting complimented the overall production and the orchestra was in the capable hands of MD Chris Passey. Thank you very much for the invitation and warm welcome. I look forward to future productions and congratulate KODS on entering its second century!

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