Kiss Me, Kate doesn't pucker up
Time restraint haunts LC musical
Paul Davis
Issue date: 3/3/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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The play within the musical is about a woman who is unruly and a man who is willing to win her over by teaching her manners. In Kiss Me, Kate, Fred Graham (Roi Evans) and his ex-wife, Lilli Vanessi (Crystal Iverson) star as Petruchio and Kate. Lilli is getting married to another man, General Howell (Christopher Tourtellott), but it doesn't seem Fred is entirely over her. Fred ends up trying to win back his ex, and the drama of the attempt is a majority of the musical.
Along with this is the romance between Bill Calhoun (Aaron Verber) and Lois Lane (Holly Zielinski). He has a gambling problem while she has a problem with sleeping around. They had several duets. Verber singing alone had an incredible voice, but Zielinski was flat during the duets and brought Verber down.
With that, I want to say that Evans was great. He had a large range throughout the night, hitting some lower notes that surprised me. The sarcasm of both Petruchio and Fred was a laugh a minute, along with the rare sentimental moments when Fred was by himself on stage, showing the ability of Evans to act out sarcasm and tragedy.
Iverson also did an excellent job. Her singing voice was pleasant on the ears and when she was on stage, I believed she was a stuck up brat who needed to cover her inner feelings with anger.
With Evans and Iverson usually taking front stage, I was continually plunged into the reality that I was witnessing the behind the scenes of two not quite famous actors trying to put on one big show. On top of the sarcastic anger that flung passionately between them theatrically on and off stage, the parts where they sang together enraptured me with both beautiful voices.