Kiss Me Kate @ WST

 Wonderful afternoon at the Washington Shakespeare Theatre's production of "Kiss Me Kate". I've never seen the show before so it was all new to me with the exception of some of the songs--but even they were done in the spirit of the drama and came off as fresh (as opposed to stand alone ballads and vehicles for masterful vocalists). Once again, there wasn't a weak link in the cast. Scanning the actors' bio's, I could only find three who hadn't done multiple productions on Broadway. The actor who played the relatively small role of Hattie, was Celie on Broadway's original production of "The Color Purple," for example. Therefore the power in the singing from top to bottom is a given. The best numbers were the two ensembles: "Another Op'nin', Another Show" and "Too Darn Hot". And the best solo's both went to Robyn Hurder's Bianca for "Tom, Dick, and Harry" and later in the second act "Always True To You (In My Fashion)". The costumes were luscious, the sets amazing, but I still haven't nailed the best part of all.

 Ensemble, lead by T. Oliver Reid, singing "Too Darn Hot!"

I have never seen such athletic, joyous and consistently well choreographed dancing in any production in DC (and I include the Broadway touring companies). I feel like I've gone to enough of them at this point at enough different companies to be able to say that with some confidence. I've never been to a show were the dancing stunk, but it sometimes feels like an obligatory inclusion that you have to get through in order to continue with the story. And I understand that, because of everything that happens on stage, nothing is honestly as hard as the dancing. A good dancer works at it all the time and a great dancer does this AND has a degree of natural talent to boot. I just have to say that Brandon Bieber, Con O'Shea-Creal, Clyde Alves and the afore mentioned, Robyn Hurder deserve special mention, as does the choreographer, Michele Lynch.

 Kate, played by Christine Sherrill under the watchful eyes of the gangsters two: Raymond Jaramillo McLeod and Bob Ari.

Clyde Alves and Robyn Hurder

Now, what I didn't like. To evoke some distorted idea of 1940's realism, the actors were often instructed to smoke. It was an unnecessary and awkward distraction with one exception: the second gangster having a stogie to chew on added to his character and it's well timed withdrawal and insertion added to his comedic timing. For the rest of them, it just got in the way of their acting. They never had the opportunity to actually smoke anything and once the cigarettes were lit, they had the predicament of what to do with the damn things! It was an infantile design choice. If there was a flaw--that was it.