Kiss Me Kate PreviewAnn Arbor Civic Theater revisits Porter's classic Saturday, June 06, 2009 Edmond Reynolds, director of Ann Arbor Civic Theatre's new production of "Kiss Me Kate,'' will probably always have a soft spot for the classic Cole Porter musical. "I was in a production of 'Kiss Me Kate' when I was 12,'' he said. "It was a summer stock show, so I was performing with Equity actors that came in for the summer, as well as college student theater majors. They were so excited about the show, and they all loved it so much. By the time I was in it, I loved the show, too.'' Winner of the first Tony Award for best musical in 1949, "Kate'' tells the backstage story of a Baltimore theater company that's mounting a production of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew.'' The show's two leads, Fred and Lilli, are warring exes, and Fred's young fianceé, Lois, secretly loves Bill, who's carrying a sizable gambling debt. This makes Bill the object of a hunt by two gangsters - fun roles that proved the most popular during "Kate'' 's auditions. "Everything else fell into place,'' Reynolds said. "But the gangsters, I was like, 'My God.' I had about six people that would have done a great job, and I think 12 people auditioned for those parts specifically.'' For "Kate'' 's vocally demanding lead roles, meanwhile, performers with professional training and experience showed up. "These people have credentials,'' Reynolds said. "I asked them: 'What brought you here?' And they said: 'Because you don't get to do these parts very often, and these are parts people kill for.' So I'm like: 'OK, I'll take you!' '' An altered 1999 Broadway revival of "Kate'' that starred Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie met with great success, but Reynolds opted to use the original version of the show. "(Music director) Tyler Driskill scoured the vocal scores and he thought, lyrically, it was more accessible,'' Reynolds said. "He thought that they had complicated a lot of things, and that Cole Porter's music was more pure-sounding (in the original).'' According to Reynolds, there's nothing objectionable in the original version, except for its depictions of the era's sexism. "I don't like the way revivals try to clean up things and change history,'' Reynolds said. "I think we should be confronted with what things were - short of something just being blatantly objectionable. Then don't even do it at all. But there's pretty bawdy stuff, too. There were things that they obviously could get away with in theater that they couldn't get away with in film back then, so there's kind of a vaudeville feel to some of it.'' Reynolds also believes "Kate'' to have been a major source of inspiration for later classics of American musical theater. "You can see the genesis of other things,'' he said. "I think 'Guys and Dolls' was a take-off on the two gangsters in 'Kiss Me Kate,' and I think 'Cool' from 'West Side Story' is exacted from 'Too Darn Hot.' There are definite connections there.'' Jenn McKee can be reached at 734-994-6841 or jmckee@annarbornews.com.
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