Staging a performance of Kiss Me, Kate today would seem to invite controversy. On the one hand, the 1948 musical – composer Cole Porter's biggest success – is full of rousing, memorable melodies, witty lyrics, contagious dance numbers and a storyline revolving around a battle of the sexes – always a timeless crowd-pleasing theme. On the other hand, the play-within-a-play plot is based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, which has been criticized for misogynism and female subordination, and features ample physical violence intended to earn laughs. But the Theater Bonn has smoothly navigated this potential rift in its refreshing production, giving us a well-needed reminder that musical arts can be light and entertaining, and appropriately so.
Kiss Me, Kate had a long journey before it arrived in western Germany in this co-production between the Theater Bonn and the Dortmund Opera. It was roughly 1590 when Shakespeare wrote his play about Katherine, the feisty, headstrong shrew of the title who rejects men and marriage and Petruchio's brutal attempts to "tame" her. Some 350 years later, the husband-and-wife writer team of Samuel and Bella Spewack were asked by a Broadway producer to write the book for what would become Kiss Me, Kate, based on a real-life backstage clash that he had witnessed in 1935 between an actor couple performing in the Shrew. (In another twist, the Spewacks were themselves engulfed by marriage turmoil, which perhaps explains why the musical's feuding and fighting seems so emotionally genuine.) It debuted on Broadway in late 1948 to critical acclaim, in large part for its snappy lyrics.
The Bonn Theater overcame the problem of translating lyrics by keeping the songs in their original English. Brushing aside a few moments where western twang oddly crept in, the cast's diction was superb, but the switch between German dialogue and English singing was a little disconcerting and the need for non-English speakers to read the supertitles meant that their attention was diverted from the action onstage.
And the action onstage was the true star of the show. While Kiss Me, Kate lends itself to being likeable, a production still has to be good – and Martin Duncan's direction and Nick Winston's choreography went far beyond good. Winston's dance work was stylish, sharp in detail and electrifying. It's no surprise that the dance-heavy second act opener, "It's Too Darn Hot," earned the loudest applause of any number by far. Duncan, meanwhile, gave the dramatic action a blistering pace that played up the farcical and barely gave one's cheeks a respite from smiling. Though he never allowed the show to take itself too seriously and wade into heavy moralistic territory, he nodded to the controversial ending where the female protagonist Lilli Vanessi/Katharine supposedly submits herself to her husband Fred Graham/Petrucchio's domination. Duncan had her take the upper hand – literally – by spinning Graham around and dipping him into a kiss as the curtain dropped.