Kiss Me Kate 2023

It was Year 75 for Kiss Me Kate. And, as is becoming tiresomely familiar, once again it was not a very good year. But it made a pretty good start at a high school in Texas from January 26 through February 4:

We can continue to accentuate the positive in Los Angeles, where Lanie Marcantel and Billy Walker were Lilli and Fred in the Iberia Performing Arts League production that ran March 16 through April 2, and gave us a classic rendition of the scene (not to mention the whole of their parts):

Yes, he’s raising her skirt! And earlier scenes have already shown that she’s not wearing bloomers… but he takes care to leave a ‘modesty petticoat’ in place,

though her frantic kicking does something to displace it as the spanking continues:

Well done, that lady! The video may be viewable here.

A church drama group in Minnesota performed the musical April 20-23, and awkward feelings about the scene were limited to the way the chorus were made implausibly quick on the uptake: they rushed across to block off the view before any normal, unprepared person could possibly know what was happening.

The video may be viewable here.

In Brazil, July saw a revival of the 2015 production that had produced some outstanding spanking pictures with Jose Mayer and Alessandra Verney. This time round, Alessandra returned as Lilli, but in the interim Mayer’s career had been wrecked by #MeToo harassment allegations (on the rights and wrongs of which I am in no position to take a view), so Miguel Falabella took over as Fred. He gave a somewhat less masculine version of the character, and this time round, for the most part, the production avoided using spanking imagery in its publicity. But at least they did shoot one photo:

And they even put it in the centerfold of the program… captioned with lyrics from ‘I Hate Men’, which is probably fair enough!

Also fair enough, however disappointing, is the publicity for the staging by Notrevo Productions of Moapa Valley, Nevada, which ran February 23 through 25. The trailer used a stills montage to promise patrons ‘a slapping good time’. Most of the slaps shown were dished out by Lilli, but they also found room for this:

I guess we ought to be thankful for small mercies, but it really is the most pusillanimous way of both acknowledging the existence of, and yet covering up, the spanking scene. Apart from anything else, it’s rather hard on Erin Panter, reduced to a bottom just sticking up into frame over Chris Wallace’s knee. So for purposes of giving due recognition, here she is in another scene:

But as I’ve argued elsewhere, it’s the prerogative of each individual group to decide how to publicize their show, even if their choices may often not align with our preferences. Our real ire should be reserved for productions with the impudence to monkey around with the fundamental logic of the show itself, like one that ran in Liverpool, England, March 30 through April 1, and cut out the spanking altogether (or, let’s say it as it is, censored it). Instead, Fred’s reprisals took the form of pelting Lilli with food as she retreated off the stage. The video of this travesty may be viewable here, should you want to give it your time.

Is this the way Kiss Me Kate ends – with a whimper?