I have never heard of the Playhouse Theatre or Kiss me Kate. Being a freshman I feel it is important for me to get acquainted with the campus. After all, this will be my home for the next four years. I didn’t really know what to expect. I couldn’t even find the Playhouse Theatre at first. I was anxious to see what this musical was about and enjoy a day at Penn State different from my typical Saturday, which consists of sleep, homework, and the football game.
I haven’t really been exposed to that many live theatre performances. My high school’s drama club put on the only plays I saw. The drama club did a really nice job considering they weren’t professionals, and had to balance schoolwork and preparing for a show. I give them a lot of respect. It takes a lot of time to memorize lines, design sets, and do all the work that goes into a show. Some of the performances I saw included: Into the Woods, Pirates of Penzance, Romeo and Juliet, and Annie. Of all of these, I really enjoyed Annie. A few of my friends were in the musical so it was cool to see them dressed up as a character and at times I even forgot that they were my friend because they played their character so well. I loved the set they designed for scenes in New York in Annie. There were skyscrapers, bright lights, and it looked just like the city.
Kiss me Kate contrasted a lot with the plays I have seen before. I thought the sets and scenery all looked so good and you could really tell a lot of time went into them. My high school drama club’s sets were nice, but Kiss Me Kate’s were a whole different level. They were more sophisticated, professional, and realistic. The costumes were also a lot better. Clearly my school’s drama club didn’t have that much money to give toward costumes and usually the same costume was worn throughout the entire play for the same character. Sometimes the main character would get two outfits. Kiss me Kate had many characters with several different outfits. Also, everything ran together a lot more smoothly and the choreography was ten times better than that of which I have been exposed to. I thought all of the dances were beautiful. There were a lot of nice lifts, and even the male actors they did wonderful ballet and I really enjoyed watching it. I didn’t really expect to see choreography that great. Everyone was on time and together as well. It was wonderful.
Honestly, I am not really into musicals. They aren’t my forte and I would much rather go see a movie in the cinema with my friends or watch a sporting event. I did enjoy Annie, however, which says a lot, because I don’t really enjoy sitting through musicals. The songs always are stuck in my head for the rest of the week and I sometimes have trouble following the plot and keeping up with the characters. Kiss me Kate lived up in some ways to my feelings on musicals. I thought the play was somewhat confusing but I understood most of it. There were a few scenes in the Act 2 that I really had to concentrate and think about in order to understand because the play kept flip flopping between the play and the play within the play. I loved the dancing though. I thought it was beautiful and it was a pleasure to watch and that’s honestly what kept me going and interested in the play. Whenever I would become confused, frustrated, or didn’t understand part of the play I would instantly become at ease and relaxed whenever the actors would break out into come chorography accompanying a song.
I have never seen The Taming of the Shrew, which may also be a factor as to why I felt confusion at times throughout the play. I felt that the performance was well done but there were obviously some scenes I think that they could have done a little bit differently that would have made the message clearer. I was confused during the scene with Bianca in the second act “Always true to my Fashion, “ and concerning the money situation. I also think that the whole concept of the gambling issue was confusing and how it was resolved.
My favorite parts were definitely the chorography and I loved “I Hate Men”. Lilli was very passionate during it. I also thought that the “Tom, Dick, or Harry” scene was good and full of lots of nice dancing and clearly you can tell a lot of time and effort went into practicing it. Overall, I give the choreography two thumbs up and the play was good, just not for me.
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