KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews

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LimelightMike
#1KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 1:37pm

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LuPita2
#2KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 7:01pm

Looking forward to the reviews on this one!

Scarlet Leigh Profile Photo
Scarlet Leigh
#3KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 7:04pm

I'm really curious how this one is going to go. Especially after the clips dropped a few days ago. I have not been following the preview thread on it closely but I can't lie that after seeing the clips I am kinda glad that I decided against seeing it. Perhaps some good reviews can change my mind.

Fordham2015
Fordham2015
broadwayboy222 Profile Photo
broadwayboy222
#6KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 8:59pm

Am also quite curious to see how this one fares.... Saw it last week and thought it to be incredibly lackluster and in some cases woefully miscast, with this being (I would surely hope) the only time in Kelli O’Hara’s career we will ever be able say she was truly awful in anything. One of the finest interpreters of the R&H catalogue she is, but comedienne she is NOT. Everything about her performance felt so incredibly lifeless, humorless and incredibly dull, with absolutely zero chemistry between her and Will Chase. I still just cannot wrap my head whoever thought her to be the proper fit for this show and role.... She may not quite be on the same level as Kelli, but keeping the keys in the range of the 90’s revival, I think Carmen Cusak would have been an inspired choice for Lilli. Also a shame (kind of but not really) that the timing could not have worked with My Fair Lady, as with the higher keys, Laura Benanti would have made a wonderful Lilli as well. I am also surprised I have not heard any comments on the truly bizarre final scene addition to this revival.... won’t spoil it for those who have not seen it but I do not think I have ever been so puzzled by a directorial choice. Anyway I got a little carried away and don’t usually like to be so negative but man oh man was this revival a misfire on so many levels. I still need to go back and watch the filmed version of the 90’s revival to wash this current mess out of my head....

LuPita2 Profile Photo
LuPita2
#7KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 9:25pm

It's limited and selling great, so reviews don't really matter, regardless of what they say.  

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laurensambrose
#8KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 9:47pm

From the reviews I've seen, Stephanie Styles is getting nothing but raves and praise so I think it's safe to say she'll have her first Tony nomination next month! 

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Robbie2
#9KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 10:00pm

laurensambrose said: "From the reviews I've seen, Stephanie Styles is getting nothing but raves and praise so I think it's safe to say she'll have her first Tony nomination next month!"

 

Yes, I agree and I expect a Best Featured Actor Musical Nomination for CORBIN BLEU!

KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews


"Anything you do, let it it come from you--then it will be new." Sunday in the Park with George
Updated On: 3/14/19 at 10:00 PM

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Kitsune
#10KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 10:01pm

I saw Kiss Me Kate's second preview. In retrospect (not to mention in an ideal world where I lived closer to New York), I wish I had waited until closer to opening. There were things about it that didn't work for me (act II dragged, I couldn't figure out what they were going for with Fred/Lilli). But I don't have a good sense of what got cleaned up before opening.

I  did love Stephanie Styles, so I'm really glad she's getting love from the critics.

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SomethingPeculiar
#11KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 10:02pm

NYT Critics Pick from Jesse Green, though he has a few quibbles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/theater/kiss-me-kate-review.html

Scarlet Leigh Profile Photo
Scarlet Leigh
#12KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/14/19 at 11:45pm

While it doesn't really matter much being that it's a limited run, I feel like the reviews do put a bit more into light where this might fall with Tony nominations. Especially that leading actress race. As it's been talked about in the BMC review topic, reviews are not really going to be a make of break in the long run when it comes to the voters choices, but they put into a more clear picture of the pulse of what the voters might be feeling should we work on the idea that reviewers have a similar frame of mind as the nomination committee. 

So all that said, this looks like the revival Tony might be all but a locked down for Oklahoma and the Leading actress race is looking brighter for Block. There are no real bashes here of Ohara, but no raves either. These reviews seem to be dancing around wanting to tear a bit more at her but being too polite to rip on her being that she's... well she's Kelli O'hara. You don't BASH Kelli freakin O'Hara. 

Now though, the FEATURED races are really gonna be a nail biters for space. Is it just me or does it seem EVERY year like the featured Actor and Actress nominations are FAR more interesting then the leading ones?

RentBoy86
#13KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 12:38am

I think Jones from Oklahoma might become a front-runner, no?

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MichelleCraig
#14KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 12:43am

I posted this in the “Kiss Me, Kate” preview thread earlier today. Posting it here, too, for anyone interested.

When the last revival went to the West End, the production was taped. In London, the show starred Brent Barrett and Rachel York. Sets and all of the rest were the same...

This London production is available on Blu-ray and it's very enjoyable. I would've loved to have this with Brian and Marin, but this London edition is a lot of fun.

https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Kate-Blu-ray-Rachel-York/dp/B06VSN5CY4/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=kiss+me+kate+blu-ray&qid=1552583921&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

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OlBlueEyes
#15KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 1:55am

Kelli O'Hara can do humor. See her in Pajama Game and South Pacific. Check out the concert number that has become the highlight: "They Don't Let You In The Opera, if You're a Country Star."  The critic who called her warm and friendly in the show must have seen an early preview, or slept through it. Kate was very aggressive turning back Petruchio's advances, if not as aggressive as Rachel York.

As a major Broadway star in New York City she has to be sensitive to the sexual politics all around us, even though she herself in her childhood and adult worlds she has not experienced much abuse. As one sensitive to both sides, Kelli believed that she could tone down the rancor of this production while still sounding the note that men should not exercise arbitrary power over women.

What is repulsive to me is that all the male critics feel compelled to spend the preponderance of their reviews justifying the continued existence of Kiss Me, Kate in the musical theater repertoire. All of them walked on egg shells as they felt the need to avoid any possible statement that might be judged as politically incorrect and which might find them having to squirm and apologize just to keep their jobs and their heads. It has not gone unnoticed by these critics how so many men accused of saying or doing something improper to women have been cashiered out of their jobs and careers without anything resembling due process of law.

The critics are so anxious to disassociate themselves from any of the backward elements of Kate that they are accusing the show of offenses to women that do not actually exist. I don’t know what they are talking about regarding the subservience of  Lilli (as opposed to The Taming of the Shrew’s Katherine). Lilli is self-assured and every bit her ex-husband’s match; she is spanked by him on stage only after knocking him around physically herself, and ultimately reconciles with him on her own terms.

Also, the secondary female character Lois tells her boyfriend that she’ll be true to him “in my way”, take it or leave it. Both these women sound pretty resilient to me. Note, by the way, that the script was written by a woman (alongside her husband), a relatively rarity on Broadway until recently. I don’t think that young women are going to come out of even the untampered with Kiss Me, Kate ready to submit themselves to abusive men or thinking any less of themselves. I wish critics would relax sometimes.

 


 

Updated On: 3/15/19 at 01:55 AM

Impossible2
#16KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 2:33am

Oh dear Lordt....

Phillytheatreguy10 Profile Photo
Phillytheatreguy10
#18KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 3:06am

With all due respect, Babe and Nellie are not Katherine- Katherine is a feisty, spitfire, outspoken and brash, even as Shakespeare wrote her. Kelli is just not those things and that’s ok. Think of it this way millennials, Laura Osnes, wonderful soprano, can belt, but she’s no Elphaba. Kelli was miscast from the beginning. As others have said, Benanti or Block was always the way to go here, she’s a broad- it’s a scenery chewer, despite the direction of this production, that by all accounts doesn’t know what it wants to be. Dolly aside, this really could’ve been Baldwin’s star turn- she would’ve went for it, vocally alone I think she is Mazzie’s heir apparent.  Kelli is not in the category of a Rachel York, Carolee Carmello, or Marin Mazzie, god rest her soul- they are all broads. Kelli could never in any realm play the parts they have, so why did she here? I applaud her for stretching herself, but this wasn’t right. I am shocked to see Chase not get better notices, I thought he was very funny in Drood and has a voice that is more colorful than other leading men pigeon holed into the rock genre. To clarify, I don’t mean “Broad” in any derogatory manner, quite the opposite- there’s just nothing like a dame! A broad is someone in charge, that knows what she wants and how to get it- part of what makes Katherine such a challenge for Petruchio in the first place which is the central conceit of the piece, you get the casting wrong, it will be unbalanced before the curtain even rises.

Updated On: 3/15/19 at 03:06 AM

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broadwayboy222
#19KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 3:34am

Could not agree more, Philly.

Also, in regards to the leading actress category, would Eva Noblezada not be leading for Hadestown? I want this to be Block’s year more than anything, but if Eva is considered leading, I could see her being more competition than Kelli.

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Here I Am
#20KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 4:48am

broadwayboy222 said: "Am also quite curious to see how this one fares.... Saw it last week and thought it to be incredibly lackluster and in some cases woefully miscast, with this being (I would surely hope) the only time in Kelli O’Hara’s career we will ever be able say she was truly awful in anything. One of the finest interpreters of the R&H catalogue she is, but comedienne she is NOT. Everything about her performance felt so incredibly lifeless, humorless and incredibly dull, with absolutely zero chemistry between her and Will Chase. I still just cannot wrap my head whoever thought her to be the proper fit for this show and role.... She may not quite be on the same level as Kelli, but keeping the keys in the range of the 90’s revival, I think Carmen Cusak would have been an inspired choice for Lilli. Also a shame (kind of but not really) that the timing could not have worked with My Fair Lady, as with the higher keys, Laura Benanti would have made a wonderful Lilli as well. I am also surprised I have not heard any comments on the truly bizarre final scene addition to this revival.... won’t spoil it for those who have not seen it but I do not think I have ever been so puzzled by a directorial choice. Anyway I got a little carried away and don’t usually like to be so negative but man oh man was this revival a misfire on so many levels. I still need to go back and watch the filmed version of the 90’s revival to wash this current mess out of my head.... "

 

Everything you said is SPOT ON! I couldn’t agree more. This revival is such a sad misfire. I was so looking forward to it and left devastated.

 

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Sally Durant Plummer
#21KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 6:38am

I mean, O’Hara got a rave from the times, to the extent where Green says that no one else is on her level. I think she will at least be nominated. Block is a force of nature, but I’m haunted by something good a friend said in the fall: “they’re never going to give her a Tony for playing Cher.”


"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
Updated On: 3/15/19 at 06:38 AM

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NYadgal
#22KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 6:58am

I continue to disagree that Kelli was miscast. She can do comedy and bawdy characters beautifully. I blame the direction.
I liked this production very much. Parts of it I even loved. I wanted to adore it but it just missed that mark, for me.
I saw the second preview and am eager to return to see how it has evolved.

As others have said, these reviews will have little impact on the production which is a limited run and well sold.

Some of these “reviews” are dull to read...


"Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. . ."

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OlBlueEyes
#23KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 9:35am

Phillytheatreguy10 said: "With all due respect, Babe and Nellie are not Katherine- Katherine is a feisty, spitfire, outspoken and brash, even as Shakespeare wrote her. Kelli is just not those things and that’s ok. Think of it this way millennials, Laura Osnes, wonderful soprano, can belt, but she’s no Elphaba. Kelli was miscast from the beginning.

Philly, the charge was that Kelli could not do comedy, not that she could not do Katherine as Katherine was portrayed in the Marin Mazzie / Rachel York revival. Here you are focusing in on a particular type of comedy: broad, over-the-top mugging. Having seen the first and last previews, O'Hara changed much in this direction in her portrayal of Kate. If she did not catch Petruchio in his private parts, she certainly was aggressive rushing at him again and again with her kick.

Kelli is a very intelligent woman and I believe, though I can't be sure, that she could have turned up her level of bawdiness still higher if she had wished. This was not the way that she saw the role. In a Newsday interview:

Like my song “I Hate Men” — we’re not changing anything about that except I’m not flailing about, like a crazy woman, so you discount me. I’m just singing the words. 

Is she entitled to her interpretation of the role? I see nothing here different from what Benanti did when she stormed into My Fair Lady. She was certainly not the trampled guttersnipe of Shaw and Andrews and Ambrose, who cowered at the idea that a police officer might be taking notes down about her. Whose self-confidence and self-worth was summed up in "Marry me? Who'd want to marry me?" Laura on her first appearance is right away "Hey Look me over." She already possesses the independence and self-confidence to upgrade her stance in society; she lacks but the means.

O'Hara has the stature to re-interpret a role to a degree. And she chooses to do so. She doesn't think her character should flail her arms about like a crazy woman. Is Lilly necessarily a broad? Lilly, as I noted, is self-assured and every bit her ex-husband’s match;  She ultimately reconciles with him on her own terms.

I'm not a theater industry person, but my take on Kelli's starring in the show is more practical than artistic. After two years of only one low-budget musical, Holiday Inn, Roundabout wanted badly to get back to its signature lavish revivals. Money for backing, as always, was a concern. O'Hara and Sher had been feted at Roundabout's gala two years ago and Pajama Game had been a key step upward in her career. Not that she would commit to this limited run as a favor, but she likes to help when she can and she is about as bankable a star as Broadway has currently.

The reviews of Kelli have been just all over the place, from "awful" to "heavenly." Perhaps the reminder lesson here is to see the show yourself, and not pay too much attention to the reviews.

And different strokes for different folks (still)

Updated On: 3/15/19 at 09:35 AM

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Jeffrey Karasarides
#24KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 9:47am

Scarlet Leigh said: "So all that said, this looks like the revival Tony might be all but a locked down for Oklahoma and the Leading actress race is looking brighter for Block."

I think the thing that could be working against Stephanie J. Block is how The Cher Show has been received. No performance from a show that wasn’t nominated for Best Musical has won an acting prize since Heather Headley for Aida back in 2000. Plus, there is still the whole industry bias against commodity musicals.

 

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Phillytheatreguy10
#25KISS ME, KATE! (2019) Reviews
Posted: 3/15/19 at 10:14am

A couple things, first, the charge wasn't that she couldn't do comedy.  The charge I was replying to was that she was miscast which I still believe.  She was miscast for the same reason Bernadette was considered miscast in Gypsy.  Certain roles have a long standing history of expectations.  can she reinterpret this, sure, was it successful, I would argue, no, based on the reviews that aren't even polarizing but all over the place- which I think that speaks volumes to the production itself.  From step one, the creative team didn't know what to do with this, and anytime you bring in someone to revise or modernize the text, especially the first ever Tony Award winning Best Musical, you're setting yourself up for failure.  The approach should've been to acknowledge it for what it was and then try to interpret it for a new audience, but the conceit of the piece was always going to be a hard sell to a "me too" audience.  Which brings me to why do it in the first place?  Many have said these reviews don't matter, because it's selling well.  Ok, here's the rub, Roundabout is a subscription house- those tickets were sold before this was cast or reviewed.  Studio 54 is one of the smaller houses and it is subscription based who's ages of members are largely above what's considered to be millenial- so why tailor this to millenials? It was a misfire all around.  Back to Kelly, who I should caution I am a fan of despite what you're reading, people keep saying she can do bawdy- show me the receipts.  She's painting with too broad a brush here, commit, go all in, don't be afraid to get a little messy- O'hara largely strikes me as that one Musical Theatre actress in your college class who has an amazing voice, is a great technician, but struggles to really dig in and be anything but perfect- Musical Theatre grads, you know this person.  I want to see a fully committed performance, I want to see someone make a damn choice and go for it, fail spectacularly or succeed greatly, but I don't want "meh" at the end of their efforts.  And for the love of God, the director is not 100% to blame for an actor's performance. A Director's job is to tend the garden not plant it.  I think when an Actor/Actress says the Director got this performance out of me they do themselves a disservice- it was always in them, they needed a little guidance to find their way, but it was there. All around, this was a misfire- different strokes for different folks indeed! Finally, I think Roundabout has a real producing problem, they take all their risks and cater to new works or new interpretations at the Off-Broadway level, and as some reviews pointed out, many of that work is thrilling, like the re-interpretation of Merrily we Roll Along currently running- do more of that Todd, but give it a shot on a larger stage!

Updated On: 3/15/19 at 10:14 AM