Word: vanessi
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...forerunner of the mini-genre of “insider chic,” Kiss Me, Kate depicts a warring couple, actor-director Fred Graham (Joseph H. Weintraub ’05) and starlet Lilli Vanessi (Jean M. Flannery ’04), whose offstage feud affects the performance of a musical version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew in which the two co-star. Its top-drawer Porter score, filled with tricky diction and prankster flourishes, encourages performances that are expansive, even shamelessly theatrical...
...talk about standards. Perhaps I used the wrong word before. How can you talk about Kiss Me, Kate and apply standards? Look, you have a simple story about a director, Fred Graham, and his ex-wife, Lilli Vanessi who are putting on a performance of The Taming of the Shrew. You see their backstage shenanigans as well as their performances in the play. We threw in a couple of gangsters because they're always funny. But that's not a quality story by any means. With my music and some dancing, however, it works very well on stage...
Paul Ukena in the leading role of Fred Graham (and Petruchio) sings resonantly and employs unusually clear diction. His voice is well produced throughout his range. Elaine Malbin shows considerable skill as an actress in the part of Lilli Vanessi (and Katherine). Miss Malbin, however, might be shown to better advantage in a conventional theatre where her diminutive stature would not convey the slightly plump appearance it does on an arena state. Her voice seems to have lost power in its lower range over the last two years without compensating gains...
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