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A Kiss for Kate

NEW YORK -- Saw Kiss Me, Kate. Pretty good. Loved the scenery that opened the second act, showing us the back wall of the long-ago-razed Ford's Theatre in Baltimore. Nice, isn't it, that Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie are once again playing the Ford. Some esteemed critics take issue with Kiss Me, Kate because it never introduces us to the composer and lyricist of The Taming of the Shrew: The Musical. Why aren't they around to work on their show, they ask. And they're right. But that could have been easily corrected without adding two extra salaries to the budget. Too bad no one thought of having egomaniacal Fred Graham say, "Once I buy a musical, I bar the composer and lyricist from the theater. They can be so disruptive." That's all it would have taken. Others have railed against the fact that if it's a musical of The Taming of the Shrew, why does the book sport Shakespearean dialogue while the lyrics contain anachronsitic references to the Shuberts, Louis B. Mayer, et al.? Well, maybe this The Taming of the Shrew: The Musical was just a little ahead of its time. After all, when the Two Gentlemen of Verona musical was produced in 1971, it too retained Shakespearean dialogue and used anachronistic references in song. And that show won a Tony as Best Musical, as all Follies fans can tell you -- while gritting their teeth. {:-)-:}

by Peter Filichia

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