April 14, 2o25 By Roy Harris
The delightful musical “Kiss Me Kate,” Hingham Civic Music Theatre’s latest production, opens April 26 and 27 for a two-weekend run at Hingham Town Hall’s Sanborn Auditorium.
And from rehearsals, it’s clear that audiences are in for a treat enjoying this take on the classic Cole Porter Broadway hit—an historic show, as well, as winner of the very first Best Musical Tony, back in 1949.
HCMT’s cast of top South Shore performers tells the story of a troupe of players preparing to turn Shakespeare’s four-century-old “The Taming of the Shrew” into a musical—with all the complications one might expect from that endeavor.
After the production’s first number, “Another Op’nin’, Another Show,” the musical delves into some of the issues involved with taking the Bard to Broadway. But for this show-within-a-show’s director, Fred, and his ex-wife Lilli, the issues are unusually complex. Fred also plays the lead role in “Shrew,” as Petrucio, while Lilli is his leading lady: “Kate” herself. Fred, however, is having an affair with another actress in the show: Lois, who plays Shakespeare’s sexy character, Bianca.
Making this production particularly fun for audiences is that Hingham’s Dave Daly has the lead acting-and-singing role of Fred. And Dave Daly, in real life, is married to the actress playing Lilli. She’s the delightful Sara Daly, and like Dave, she has starred in previous Hingham Civic Music shows—including 2022’s “Guys and Dolls.”(That production also was one of several HCMT shows directed over the years by “Kiss Me Kate’s” director, Steve Dooner.)
At one point in this show, Lilli sings the enchanting song “So in Love” while thinking of ex-hubby Fred. (Lois—played by Quincy’s Emily Crosta—has had a much different kind of solo a few minutes before: the delightful “Why Can’t You Behave?”) About “So in Love,” director Dooner says that its depth of meaning “pushed the repressive boundaries of moral propriety in the 1950s”—a feeling that Lilli will help bring out during the show.
“The musical score is so tuneful,” adds Dooner, “and it is a full experience of the theater just to sit through these great numbers. One after the other, they appear in the show and lift us up, either with their wit, or for their pathos.”
And the wonderful Cole Porter songs keep coming. As “Kate,” Sara Daly weighs in with a stern “I Hate Men.” And in the second act, two hilarious gangsters, played by Plymouth’s Brendan Smith and Brockton’s Connor O’Brien, have a knockout duet in “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.” Says Dooner of that number, Porter is “showing off his own verbal genius, punning on the titles and characters from Shakespeare’s plays.” And the gangsters “stand in for us, as we all aspire to understand great art, while still bound by our limited modern understanding of things.”
But these are only a few of the delights in a score that also includes “Wunderbar,” “Too Darn Hot,” and the lilting “From This Moment On.”
Leading the terrific dance ensemble is Cohasset’s Madison Pratt, while John Crampton, of Dedham, plays Paul, and dazzles as the show’s lead dancer. The show’s choreographer is Diana Byrne Gossard, while Sandra Brayton is music director. Julie Collinge serves as stage manager.
Tickets for “Kiss Me Kate”—staged at town hall’s Sanborn Auditorium, 210 Central St.–are $25 each; $20 for seniors or students, with group prices of $18 each also available. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Online ticketing is available at https://hcmttickets.ludus.com/select.php.
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Roy Harris, a semi-retired journalist and long-time HCMT performer, lives in the World’s End area of Hingham.
I know Dave & Sara Daly and have performed with each of them on stage… I Can’t Wait to see them Finally play opposite each other in this show, as Man & Wife, playing Man & Wife!!!
I know Dave & Sara Daly and have performed with each of them on stage… I Can’t Wait to see them Finally play opposite each other in this show, as Man & Wife, playing Man & Wife!!!