Review: KISS ME KATE at Stirling Community Theatre

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Sunday 30th April 2023.

The Hills Musical Company's latest production, Kiss Me, Kate, should have you running to the hills, taking the freeway or, as we did, taking the scenic route past mist-enshrouded Mount Lofty. Director, Hayley Horton, has the right touch with a show which is sensual, indeed sexy, and Shakespeare.

This highly entertaining evening is probably the most enjoyable piece of music theatre based on a play by Shakespeare. Is anyone planning The Boys from Syracuse? It's certainly more engaging than Verdi's Macbeth. Frank and Bella Spewack wrote the book. On stage and offstage, though still on stage, an American touring company become an Elizabethan band of strolling players, opening in Venice and then going on to Verona, etc. Simultaneously, the crazy relationship between Petruchio and Katherine is mirrored in the fractious love affair of Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi.

The music and lyrics are by Cole Porter, beautiful words and great tunes, a distillation of the Great American Songbook. There so many classic songs, you have a choice of which is humming in your head as you leave the theatre. Ben Stefanoff and his band are spot on, and so stylish.

The first thing you notice is the dancing, which is first-rate. Vanessa Redmond's choreography benefits, as she says in the program, from the onstage presence of Mark Stefanoff, a real livewire of a dancer, with bubbling energy and a great high kick.

Now, let's get on to the Dramatis Personae. Daniel Hamilton's Fred/Petruchio is the best you can get. There's a touch of the Errol Flynns to his highly professional performance and his seductive baritone voice is a beautiful match to the Porter songs. Lilli/Katherine is Claire McEvoy, cool, elegant, and yet capable of great passion. The big fight scene, directed by Jethro Pidd, is pretty spectacular. Lois/Bianca is the vivacious Madi Grey, who not only gets the innuendo-laden Tom, Harry, or Dick, but all the verses of Always True to You in My Fashion. Bill/Lucentio is Kristian Latella, who made a big impression in The Producers for Marie Clark Musical Theatre.

It was great to see Jamie Wright as General Harrison Howell, Lilli's husband-to-be. He was channelling Joe Biden when he spoke and got to sing From This Moment On. The ensemble of actors and dancers are worth watching and their commitment really supports the leads. They do a very fine Too Darn Hot, at the beginning of the second act.

For me, for most people, the hit song in the show, clever and just a little bit naughty, is Brush Up Your Shakespeare, delivered delightfully by Michael Butler and Richard Greig. Porter's unforgettable wordplay gets a great serve.' If she says your behaviour is heinous, kick her right in the Coriolanus'.

If there's one scene that proves Hayley Horton's insight into the world of Cole Porter, it's when Petruchio laments, Where is the Life that Late I Led? As he remembers his past conquests, Momo in Milan, Tina in Taormina, and the rest, he tosses cushions onto the table, then climbs slowly on top of the pile, lowering himself gently on top and falling asleep. As a visual equivalent of his past, it was very, very well thought out indeed.

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