Infectious Fun Civic Theatre Successfully Delivers Musical “Kiss Me Kate” With All The Humor And Spice It Demands

“Kiss Me Kate,” through June 17 at the Spokane Civic Theatre, call 325-2507 for tickets<

This is not only the best musical I’ve seen this season in Spokane.

It’s also one of the best comedies. “Kiss Me Kate” is studded with hilarious comic performances to go along with its half-dozen or more show-stopping Cole Porter numbers.

The first thing the Civic did right, of course, was to pick the right show. “Kiss Me Kate” is very nearly flawless as a work of musical comedy. It comes from the heyday of the genre - 1948 - and it contains all of the elements that made this art form so popular: It’s optimistic, it’s clever, it’s slightly naughty and you never have to wait more than about ten minutes for a drop-dead musical number.

And director Kathie Doyle-Lipe has given this show her own style, which, lucky for us, abounds in high spirits. It would be hard to imagine a production with more effective physical shtick: From the pseudoItalian clown who keeps hoisting his beer-belly back into place, to the Incredible Recurring Gangsters who keep showing up for one more verse of “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” this show is filled with clever detail.

Doyle-Lipe’s choreography is even more inspired, and she makes the big production numbers look like tremendous fun, especially “Another Op’nin’ Another Show,” “Tom, Dick or Harry,” and the sizzling, moody, alley-cat-like “Too Darn Hot.”

Scarlett Hepworth makes a fiery, feisty Kate/Lillie. Hepworth has usually been cast as a sweet Julie Andrews-type; here, she proves she can be a fine fist-swinging, hairtossing shrew. She also has an outstanding voice, which she proves in “So In Love.”

I will admit I had a moment of doubt about Troy Nickerson in the lead role of Fred-Petruchio. Nickerson is not the Howard Keel leading man-type, nor does he have a particularly strong voice. But he is such an outstanding comic actor that he re-made this role on his own terms. He made his character terrifically funny and he contributed enormously to the show’s success.

I can’t say enough about Laura Seable, who was an absolute knockout as the slinky, sexy Lois Lane-Bianca. She, too, is an excellent comedian, and she brought down the house in her two big numbers, “Tom, Dick or Harry,” and “Always True to You in My Fashion.”

Cheyenne Jackson was the ideal Bill-Lucentio. Here’s a guy with leading-man looks and the talent to match, and he is also an excellent dancer, as he proved as the focal point of “Too Darn Hot.”

These lead performers were supported by three remarkable comic turns. One came from Patrick Treadway, unrecognizable as the ancient Harry Trevor-Baptista, who dodders around the stage like a 95-year-old turned loose from the nursing home.

The other two are Tony Caprile and Scott Dunckley, who get more mileage than I believed possible out of their roles as the two gangsters. These two guys were like Laurel and Hardy up there, or more accurately, Laurel and Laurel. Their “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” was one of the show’s high points, although I would have appreciated just a bit more articulation of Porter’s lyrics, which are among his cleverest ever.

The nine-piece orchestra, directed by Jeff Batdorf, was superior even to the Civic’s usual high standards. Peter Hardie’s sets were ingenious, as he transformed a Baltimore theater into a 16th-century Italian villa and back again.

The costumes by Dee Finan, Jeannette Esther and Toni Gilmartin were absolutely stunning, which is a major accomplishment in such a complicated and costume-heavy show.

And the show’s biggest accomplishment is that it makes all of this hard work look so easy. With Nickerson, Hepworth, Seable, Jackson, etc., having so much fun up there, we in the audience can’t help but have fun, too.