Word: shrew
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...good training for his starring role in the new Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate. Playing the head of an acting troupe performing The Taming of the Shrew, Mitchell is the undisputed star of both the show and the show within a show. Yet he has to cede most of the best Cole Porter numbers (Why Can't You Behave?, Too Darn Hot) to others and spends most of his time playing mock Shakespeare and bickering with his ex-wife and co-star, deliciously played by Marin Mazzie. That's one reason Mitchell never much liked the musical. "I thought...
Born in Seattle, he spent his early childhood at U.S. military bases overseas, where his father was a Navy engineer. When the family settled in San Diego, he started acting in junior high--the first scene he ever played was from (what else?) The Taming of the Shrew. His mix-and-match racial background (African American, German, Scottish, American Indian and maybe a couple of others) didn't stop him from getting roles. "I can kind of play everything because I am everything," he says. He landed a part in TV's Roots: The Next Generations when he was just...
...Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime. Yet even that role didn't win him quite the renown he deserved (he lost the Tony to Cabaret's Alan Cumming). Now he's starring in the first Broadway revival of Cole Porter's sparkling 1948 musical based on The Taming of the Shrew. He gets to reintroduce such Porter hits as So in Love, is teamed once again with his Ragtime co-star Marin Mazzie--and doesn't get killed in the end. Sounds de-lovely. WHEN Opens...
...taking shape in their living room. Finally, I just had to ask what was going on. It turned out that their son John, a seventh-grader, was putting together a skit with a group of other kids. Their short play was loosely based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, except that it was set inside a gigantic mouth, and the main characters were teeth. The theme involved not a tumultuous relationship but the invention of the electric toothbrush. Yet part of the dialogue was lifted verbatim from the Shakespearean original...
Meanwhile, the teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You" is keeping the Bard's spirit alive by basing its plot loosely--very loosely--on "The Taming of the Shrew." Amidst the discussion of Prada backpacks and prom dates, if you listen closely enough, you might hear a few snatches of William's immortal verse. All of which goes to show us that more than four centuries after his first play was performed, Shakespeare stays with us as a writer for all seasons and all topics. With the help of a cool web site from MIT (www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare) which allows...