News location:

Canberra Today 12°/15° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

‘Kate’ takes away some bad male behaviour

Front: Adam Best. Back, Dick Goldberg, Janelle McMenamin and David Cannell in “Kiss Me, Kate”.

EVEN as the ghost of “Me Too” hovered in the wings, it was obvious at a recent rehearsal of the famous Cole Porter musical “Kiss Me, Kate” that the Queanbeyan Players were having a thoroughly good time. 

“Kiss Me, Kate” is the 1948 Broadway hit musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Porter, but it’s actually two plays, not one. Set on a tour to Baltimore, the plot hinges on the consequences of casting the leading lady Lilli and her recently-divorced husband Fred as Katherine and Petruchio in the same play – Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, where the wild and wacky Petruchio decides to “tame” the shrewish Katherine to enrich himself through marriage.

Before readers exclaim, “Oh no, not THAT play”, it needs to be pointed out that director of the show, Michael Moore, is well aware of the glaring problem – its perceived misogyny and mercenary quality. 

“Altogether disgusting to modern sentiments,” playwright George Bernard Shaw said.

Moore is adamant that Shakespeare was not misogynistic, and that, given that he had a queen for a monarch, he wouldn’t have aired his views even if he had been.

“Clearly the play was intended by Shakespeare as a joke,” he said, noting that most people when they stage it leave out Shakespeare’s opening “induction” scene, where the drunken Christopher Sly is treated to an entertainment – “The Taming of the Shrew”. 

In other words, the whole Katherine and Petruchio story is only the play-within-a-play.

Musical director Leisa Keen.

I popped into Gowrie Primary School for a Sunday afternoon run-through to find veteran performers Dick Goldberg and David Cannell in gangsters’ hats busily working on their routine for perhaps the show’s most famous song, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”.

Happily tinkling away at the keyboard in another corner was musical director Leisa Keen, very chuffed, she said, at having just lured musical identity (and “CityNews” reviewer) Ian McLean back on to the conducting podium for the show.

Keen said she’d pulled in a few favours, so that most of the 14 instrumentalists would be professionals. As for the music, she said, “it’s unusual in that it’s jazzy, with a kind of ‘Robin Hood’ medieval sound”.

Medieval? The song sheet is breathtaking, ranging from the humorous “I Hate Men” and “Always True To You In My Fashion”, to timeless love songs like “So In Love” and “Wunderbar”.

Front: Janelle McMenamin, Adam Best. Back: Dick Goldberg and David Cannell in “Kiss Me, Kate”.

Inside, choreographer Lauren Chapman was putting three elegant hoofers through their paces while Adam Best sang the romantic number, “Were Thine That Special Face”.

Later, Janelle McMenamin, who plays the Kate of the title, was busy throwing Adam Best, who plays Petruchio, around the stage as punishment for his macho swaggering.

Moore loves “Kiss Me, Kate” because it represents the golden era of musicals, but he also sees it as an opportunity to bring it into the 21st century. 

And, following the example of the 2019 Broadway revival, he’ll change the lyrics of the song “I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple” to “I Am Ashamed That People Are So Simple”.

“Setting it in the 21st century allows it to take away some of the bad male behaviour,” he says, adding that it’s not restricted to Petruchio, but also in a subplot about the lover of Kate’s sister Bianca and some very dodgy-looking gangsters.

There’s a cast of around 30, and in time-honoured Queanbeyan Players’ style, there’s a mixture of age ranges and experience.

“It’s a lovely combination of old heads and new heads,” Moore says.

“Kiss Me, Kate” June 18-27, book here or 6285 6290. 

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Helen Musa

Helen Musa

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews