I’m not saying life wouldn’t be worth living without “Too Darn Hot,’’ “Why Can’t You Behave?’’ “So in Love,’’ and “Always True to You (in My Fashion),’’ but it sure would be missing a certain flavor.
Spiro Veloudos seems to understand this. For all the knockabout antics in his rollicking new production of “Kiss Me, Kate’’ at the Lyric Stage Company, and there are plenty, Veloudos is always true to Porter in his fashion.
He makes sure we can hear every subtle double-entendre in Porter’s lyrics, every roundabout rhyme and silky rejoinder. This is no small thing, because for Porter, wit was practically an aesthetic principle. (That he was able to deploy that wit in the service of his own matchless melodies was not just the icing on the cake, it was another cake entirely).
But this “Kate,’’ powered by two superb performances in the leading roles and an endlessly energetic young ensemble, manages to generate a freehearted brio all its own. The production is charming enough that it almost, though not entirely, manages to overcome the problematic sexual politics at the heart of “Kate.’’ (More on that later.)
To be sure, at two hours and 45 minutes, including intermission, “Kiss Me, Kate’’ sometimes feels like too much of a good thing. “It’s a ’40s musical,’’ Veloudos warned the audience beforehand. And if I never hear “Wunderbar’’ again, it will be too soon. (Yes, I know Porter intended “Wunderbar’’ as a spoof of Viennese waltzes, but still.)
Yet Veloudos and choreographer Ilyse Robbins keep the stage alive with color and movement from the opening number (“Another Op’nin’, Another Show’’) to the finale, helping us overlook the fact that the plot of “Kate’’ is wafer-thin:
