Quintessence Theatre Group presents Cole Porter and Sam and Bella Spewack’s Kiss Me, Kate

Start with the material: winner of the first-ever Tony Award for Best Musical in 1948, the material remains outrageously funny and irresistibly tuneful, with a knockout Cole Porter score and a witty, cultured libretto by Sam and Bella Spewack. A loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, set amid a floundering musical tryout of that play, it also checks a thematic box for a theater focused on classical drama.

Another Op’nin’

Director and choreographer Todd Underwood sets a high bar, with snappy scenes and energetic dance numbers. The opening salvos of the first and second acts—"Another Op’nin’, Another Show” and “Too Darn Hot”—feature some of the best physical storytelling I’ve seen all season, effortlessly creating the right mood for what’s to come.

Anchored by the rich-voiced Karley Purnell as Hattie, “Another Op’nin’” captures the intoxicating madness of a life in the theater, while seamlessly introducing the principal characters and their complicated relationships. “Too Darn Hot”, sultry and jazz-tinged, provides an ideal showcase for the tapping talents of Ian Coulter-Buford, a phenomenal chorister who nearly walks away with the show.

Supporting stars

Throughout the production, the strengths are in its support. Kate, like Shrew, features two romantic subplots. Here, the pair you can’t take your eyes off are Lois Lane and Bill Graham, the team of scrappy nightclub dancers hoping to make their break into legitimate theater playing Lucentio and Bianca. The audience senses their acting talents are, to put it kindly, limited…but it takes a fair amount of skill to effectively play dumb.

Renee McFillin and Andrew Burton Kelley have that kind of skill in spades. It helps that Porter gives Lois the score’s single most enduring number, “Always True to You in My Fashion”, a song so funny it barely needs ornamentation to work. Still, many actors feel the need to goose the comedy—but McFillin, a superb singer and mover, trusts the material and does more with less. Kelley is her equal in every way: an impressive physical comedian with a honeyed voice that recalls the Golden Age.

Quintessence veteran Steven Anthony Wright steals scenes as the preening General Harrison Howell, the war hero who intends to marry the production’s leading lady, Lilli Vanessi. Wright’s comedic prowess was such that on opening night, his mere appearance could elicit appreciative laughs.

Beguiling theater

If the staging has a stumbling block, it’s a rather large one. The two leads do not rise to the level of those around them. Chris Cherin seems too young and green to convincingly embody the impresario Fred Graham, and his thin singing voice doesn’t suit a rule conceived for a light baritone in the operetta tradition. Cherin compensates for his deficiencies by showboating, making Fred’s second-act showstopper, “Where Is the Life That Late I Led?”, feel like a trial of endurance. And although she convincingly crafts a sympathetic portrayal of the conflicted Lilli, Jennie Eisenhower’s once-ravishing voice now sounds a bit shopworn, with much of the character’s music falling awkwardly between her vocal registers.

I sometimes wondered if Kelley and McFillin, the winning juvenile couple, would have been better off in the leading roles. But it’s a testament to the quality of the cast overall—and to a production that captures the beguiling magic of theater through the design work of John Raley (sets), Summer Lee Jack (costumes), and Anthony Forchielli (lighting, a particular highlight)—that Kiss Me, Kate still feels like a winner.