Kiss Me Kate
OPENING: November 18th, 1999.
CLOSING: December 30th, 2001.
Seen: August 2000
LOCATION: Martin Beck Theater
Happy Tonys, Theater Kids! Here’s to another year of innovating and groundbreaking theater.
If my parents saw any upside to my Theatre Kid Awakening, it was that they weren’t being dragged to concerts of the pop star du jour – pop stars they wouldn’t be able to name, let alone appreciate their offerings. Instead, they could guide me towards shows and songs that they enjoyed. But that Summer, after Swing!, my mom decided she was going to introduce me to the famed TKTS booth. My dad, at this point, had told me of it’s lore – and my mom was down for it. In fact, she saw it as an educational experience. And to top it all of, we would take the train.
So on a Wednesday morning, while my dad was at work, we boarded the train and looked through our options in the New York Times. I felt so cosmopolitan, it was fabulous.
It came down to Jesus Christ Superstar and Kiss Me Kate. I was adamantly leaning towards Kiss Me Kate, as JCS felt like I’d be going to Church and even then that was not my happy place. Unfortunately, my mom was leaning towards JCS as she had no idea what Kiss Me Kate was about.
In the end, I won the argument – but only because the tickets for Kate were significantly cheaper. So off we trekked to the Martin Beck – exactly where we had been several years previously with The Sound of Music.
And you know what? I absolutely adored Kiss Me Kate.
I think my mom did too, but she was definitely worried about content. Kate is not exactly what you call a “Family-Friendly” show – so much so that when Stephanie J. Block did the show in London in 2024, some parts were altered because she did not want her young daughter to see her being treated abusively, on stage or off.
Again, my mom treated this as an educational moment.
The show started with the company manager Hattie (Played by Adriane Lenox) singing Another Op’nin, Another Show in front of a gray brick wall that opened up and allowed the ensemble cast enter as actors and crew members to create the bustling world of a theater. I remember it being absolutely electric and now, as a theater professional myself, I can confirm that the energy brought on stage is the exact energy felt on the first day of rehearsal of a new show.
And it wasn’t just the opening number – but that was to be expected (thought I didn’t know it as the time as a theater baby) when Marin Mazzie and Brian Stokes Mitchell were headlining. Even being the fledgling Theatre Kid that I was, the talent on that stage was undeniable. Ms. Mazzie was simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious. And Mr. Stokes Mitchell – there is something about that man when he steps on stage. He’s phenomenal on his recordings, but he is even better in person. Obviously, this being my first exposure to his work I didn’t know that yet, but even today that stands true. And I wasn’t imagining what I saw; he beat out Adam Pascal for Best Actor in a Musical that year. At the time, I was just drawn to him because of his sheer magnetism (And because he looked like an African-American version of my uncle David).
But something happened to me when I was sitting in my seat before the lights went down. As I flipped through my Playbill and studied the headshots – which turned into a tradition that still holds for me today, though now it’s more an exercise in “Who do I know in this cast?” – I stopped on the photo of Ms. Lenox turned to my mom, and said “I’m going to meet her when I’m seventeen”. She nodded in the way that moms do when you say something ridiculous but they don’t want to hurt your feelings. But something just told me I would.
And indeed I did – the summer I was seventeen, I studied at New York Stage and Film at the Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar. And Ms. Lenox was one of the professional performers in residence that summer.
To top off this fabulous day, I got to experience another theatre staple that I had never had the chance to indulge in: the art of the stage door. I think it happened accidentally because Mama Wats is not the type to hang outside of theatres, but admittedly she is far more outgoing than I am. So as we exited the theater and saw other audience members crammed up against the barricade, she went “Why not?”.
And I got signatures! And one of the signatures was from a dancer who I still follow. I won’t name him here because I hope to work with him someday, but one of the reasons I started following his career is because he was kind enough to look me straight in the preteen eye and tell me that he was glad that I was there. And boy – were those eyes pretty!
Mama Wats laughed on the way home because apparently he had girls hanging off of him, but I hadn’t even noticed. THOSE EYES!
Kiss Me Kate really changed me in a lot of ways. For one, many of the ensemble members went on to have long careers as dancers and choreographers. One of the OG cast members, who unfortunately left the cast before I had a chance to see it, I actually did some audition training with last year and I am proud to call him my friend. And it was the first time that I got to see Ms. Mazzie live – and since she left us in 2018, my two experiences with her will remain my only two. I feel honored to have gotten to watch her create magic while I could.
I hope other theater kids out there can have the same experiences I did. Not with this show, obviously, since it closed many years ago, but with their own version. My friend’s daughter had a similar experience with Come From Away and it melted my hear to see her fall in love with the art.
But what I didn’t know what that my true game changer was still three and a half years away. And it was a big one.
CAST: REPLACEMENT
CONFIRMED UNDERSTUDIES:
Tripp Hanson for the role of Philip
HATTIE: Adriane Lenox
PAUL: Stanley Wayne Mathis
RALPH (STAGE MANAGER): Eric Michael Gillett
LOIS LANE: Amy Spanger
BILL CALHOUN: Michael Berresse
LILLI VANESSI: Marin Mazzie
DANCE CAPTAIN: Vince Pesce
FRED GRAHAM: Brian Stokes Mitchell
HARRY TREVOR: John Horton
POPS (STAGE DOORMAN): Robert Ousley
CAB DRIVER: Michael Arnold
FIRST MAN: Lee Wilkoff
SECOND MAN: Michael Mulheren
HARRISON HOWELL: Ron Holgate
The Taming of the Shrew Players
BIANCA (LOIS LANE): Amy Spanger
BAPTISTA (HARRY TREVOR): John Horton
GREMIO (FIRST SUITOR): John MacInnis
HORTENSIO (SECOND SUITOR): Jeffrey Broadhurst
LUCENTIO (BILL CALHOUN): Michael Berresse
KATHERINE (LILLI VANESSI): Marin Mazzie
PETRUCHIO (FRED GRAHAM): Brian Stokes Mitchell
NATHANIEL: Michael Arnold
GREGORY: Vince Pesce
PHILIP: Kevin Ligon
HABERDASHER: Michael X. Martin
THE ENSEMBLE: Michael Arnold, Jeffrey Broadhurst, Lisa Gajda, Eric Michael Gillett, Patty Goble, Joan Hess, JoAnn M. Hunter, Kevin Ligon, John MacInnis, Michael X. Martin, Carol Lee Meadows, Elizabeth Mills, Linda Mugleston, Robert Ousley, Vince Pesce, David Villella, Patrick Wetzel.
SWINGS: Paula Leggett Chase, Tripp Hanson, Lisa A. Mayer, T. Oliver Reid.
STANDBY: Merwin Foard (Fred/Petruchio, Harrison Howell).
UNDERSTUDIES: Michael X. Martin (Fred/Petruchio, Second Man, Harrison Howell); Patty Goble (Lilli/Katherine); Linda Mugleston (Lilli/Katherine, Hattie); JoAnn M. Hunter (Lois/Bianca); Carol Lee Meadows (Lois/Bianca); Jeffrey Broadhurst (Bill/Lucentio); John MacInnis (Bill/Lucentio); Vince Pesce (Bill/Lucentio, Paul, Hortensio); Joan Hess (Hattie); Kevin Ligon (Harry/Baptista, First Man, Second Man); Robert Ousley (Harry/Baptista); T. Oliver Reid (Paul, Hortensio, Gremio); Michael Arnold (First Man, Gremio); and Tripp Hanson (Gremio).
Culwell-Block, Logan. “London Kiss Me Kate, Starring Stephanie J. Block, Completes Run September 14.” Playbill, September 14 2024. https://playbill.com/article/london-kiss-me-kate-starring-stephanie-j-block-completes-run-september-14
