From the time I was in grade school through today, I have attended several live theatre performances. My family and I used to make it a special night out, where we would go out to dinner and then go see a show at the small theater company called The People’s Light and Theater Company. These shows included The Jungle Book and Around the World in 80 Days. When I entered high school, I fell in love with our fall musical because of the superb performances that the Arts Program put on. Unfortunately, I could not attend the show Kiss Me Kate with the rest of the class, so I watched the film version instead.
The musical-theater genre first caught my attention when I was in 6th grade. We watched the movie of West Side Story and I was completely enchanted by the show. The various musical numbers like “I Feel Pretty” and “Tonight” stuck in my head for months and I loved how the story of the Jets and the Sharks was narrated by song. In addition, the dancing was like no performance I had ever seen. I would always become so easily mesmerized by the combination of song and dance that I would leave reality and enter into the story. As I got older I continued to find more musicals that caught my interest. I loved Rent for its soundtrack including “Seasons of Love” and “Light My Candle”. When I got to high school, the fall musical was always a very big deal, so I went to see it every year. My favorite performance of theirs was Jesus Christ Superstar because of its mix of 70’s rock with the Christian theme.
Kiss Me, Kate did not measure up to my other favorites as well as I had hoped for. As each musical number came on I found myself waiting for it to be over and wanting to fast forward through the movie. While the musicals I liked had more dramatic plots, Kiss Me Kate was more frivolous and comedic. Unfortunately, I found the humor hard to follow. I think my love for musicals has always been because of the music. Using catchy tunes and lyrics that narrate the story, I am pulled into the performance. In Kiss Me, Kate, I found it difficult to immerse myself into the story.
I have never read Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, so I did not have a background on the story before. However, I did understand how they integrated the character, Kate, as the parallel to the Shrew when they call her a “shrewd” woman. While I cannot compare the Shakespeare literature and Kiss Me Kate, I can infer that the plot was well intertwined as Kate transforms from despising men to finally falling in love with her suitor, Bertuccio, which I would inquire as “the taming” part of the story.
Although I was unable to attend the performance, I hope that I have another chance to experience the theater at Penn State. Live performances are always a completely different experience than watching a movie. While movies allow you to rewind and fast-forward, theater performances force the viewer to pay close attention to the plot while also using their own imagination to create the scene around them. My hope is that the theater performs one of my favorite musicals like West Side Story or Jesus Christ Superstar so I can hopefully enjoy the experience and be engaged.
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