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Kelli O'Hara, Will Chase & Company Explain Why They're So in Love with KISS ME, KATE!
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Oct 31, 2022
Roundabout Theatre Company's new Broadway production of the musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate, starring Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara, is currently in preview performances today and will open officially on Thursday, March 14, 2019. This is a limited engagement through Sunday, June 2, 2019 at Studio 54 on Broadway (254 W 54th St).
View Video Transcript
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World. Up next for Roundabout Theatre Company is Cole Porter's beloved musical Kiss Me Kate
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Directed by Scott Ellis and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, it will open on March 14th
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And we drop by Studio 54 to meet the company, led by Kelly O'Hara, Will Chase, and Corbin Bleu
0:30
Here we go. I think Cole Porter was so smart
0:51
I mean, it's so sexy. It's smart. It's funny. It's witty. It's right on the nose in many ways
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You know, it makes you feel, it gives you power. it makes you feel good to be having that come out of your mouth
1:03
Playing this dual role, she must be so great to play. It is really great to play
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I start one way, I go into another, but they're so beautifully overlaid so that the emotions
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Lily's anger gets to shine, go through Kate. I loved kind of studying both and trying to find out their differences too
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And as we go on, it really starts to overlap. But I love their differences
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They both strong women but in very very different ways And Lily much more vulnerable Kate is the one that I think is smart as a tack
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This score, I don't know that there's a score like it. And I know people say that about every score ever
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but there literally is every genre. There's operetta, there's opera, there's hot jazz
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there's even musical with Brush Up Your Shakespeare. It's like he was like, okay, I'm pulling out all the stops
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I'm going to write everything that I know. And the lyrics are clever
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And it's funny, we keep using this word updating and things like that. Not a lot of that has to be changed or updated because he's already so clever
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I mean, Tom Decaharry is a perfect example of like, it's as ribald now and as erotic and cheeky and funny now as I can only imagine 1948 was
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So it's a pleasure to sing this score every night. How does it feel to stop the show with Too Darn Hot
2:25
Oh, that's been really fun to do. That has been a show-stopping number with Too Darn Hot
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And it's a 10-minute, 45-second long number of just sweating, jumping, tapping, dancing
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I think what I really, really enjoy about that number, though, is the sense of being offstage
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it's not meant to be look at us we all performing to you the whole number really starts out and isn and is this way until the very very end It starts out within its world and we performing for each other
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We're not even really faced. So much of it isn't even facing out to the audience yet
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It's really so it's almost like you're just getting a peek into the world of performers and what they do in their downtime
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And it's not until the very end that, as Warren likes to say, we take it global
3:25
Oh, I think it's a delicious battle of the sexes. I think it's Adam and Eve, isn't it
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It's like from all time, there's been this great kind of battle of the sexes
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and we get to see it in Kiss Me, Kate. We get to see it on stage and we get to see it backstage
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You know, you get to see it played out in Shakespeare. You get to see it played out in a modern musical
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And now we get to look at it through the lens of 2019. That's really amazing
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What's it like working with Warren Carlyle? You know, he's such a technician
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but he allows you to be free. He works off of your own energy, but he comes in prepared, you are ready, and you are challenged
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So in this next phase that we're in, in the preview process, we are building on this lovely stuff that he's been giving us
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and it's wonderful. Oh, I mean, I have learned how to sing
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by listening to the Light in the Piazza soundtrack, so it is a dream come true
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And Kelly is incredible, and her voice is just, it's like an ointment on the world
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And then Will Chase, he's just the greatest leader, and he keeps us all laughing
4:27
and it's just an incredible family that we have here. And there Scott Ellis Oh Scott Ellis the king He brings together the greatest group of people and he like the perfect editor in that he always gives you a great idea that you can go off of and his vision is sublime
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You really feel the color of the music. You feel the character
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You see it playing out every day on stage and the reaction that we get from the audience
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It's a real great interplay because it's the type of music we can all kind of..
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You can't help but to smile when you listen to it or when you sing it
5:03
I just can't believe it. I'm so... I wake up every day. Where's the wood
5:07
Where's the wood? It's so much fun. It's so... It's such an honor
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I mean, 40 years of doing this and I've never done a musical. And to be doing it with these people who are all so talented, it's scary
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It's just a joy. I'm a seven-year-old who got cut loose at Disney World
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You know what I mean? It's just like, ah, it's heaven. This incredible score you get to sing
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I mean, what is that like living in the world of Cole Porter? Oh, my goodness. It's so exciting because all of the lyrics are so clever and smart
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and I think it's incredible that it still fits in with today
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Well, some of the lyrics, or most of the lyrics still fit in with today and it's a joy to be a part of the process
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The melodies, the lushness, the orchestrations, it's just, you know, it's really heartwarming
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and the audiences love it. I mean, you know, because, yeah, you know, some revivals
6:00
this is just big. And to sing another opening, another show every night
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you know, it's very exciting
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