April 24, 2025 By Roy Harris
The cast of Hingham Civic Music Theatre’s “Kiss Me Kate” is prepared for its curtain- raising on Saturday—with the orchestra lead-in to its appropriately named first number: “Another Op’nin’, Another Show.”
And this past week’s final nightly rehearsals suggest that its talented South Shore performers, directed by veteran Steve Dooner, are ready to blow the ceiling off the Sanborn Auditorium stage on the second floor of Hingham Town Hall.
The 7:30 p.m. Saturday presentation of Cole Porter’s classic, Tony-winning hit musical will be followed by a Sunday, 2 p.m. matinee–with Saturday and Sunday performances on a second, closing weekend, May 3 and 4, also at 7:30 and 2, respectively.
Standout performers and songs for this “Kiss Me Kate”—which tells the story of an attempt to turn Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” into a Broadway musical—are too numerous to list. But much of the story involves the troubles of the Shakespeare musical spin-off’s director, played by Hingham’s Dan Daly, and its leading lady Lilli, played by Sara Daly.
“Fred and Lilli” are a divorced couple who are off-and-on-again in this show’s story. (He plays Petruchio in “Shrew,” while she’s Katharine, the very “Kate” of the Cole Porter show’s title.)
They beautifully mirror “Kiss Me Kate’s” many complications in songs like “So in Love” and “Wunderbar,” and Lill’s quite-different, angry “I Hate Men.”
The show’s amazing song-and-dance numbers, accompanied by the full orchestra, include the familiar “Too Darn Hot” and “We Open in Venice.”
Among other highlights of this production is the delightful “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” performed by Plymouth’s Brendan Smith and Brockton’s Connor O’Brien, as gangsters out to spread mischief–when they’re not mastering the Bard’s English.
Choreographer for the show is Diana Gossard, with Sandee Brayton as music director, leading the orchestra. Julie Collinge is stage manager, and Pat Sherman is the producer.
Advance ticketing is available at https://hcmttickets.ludus.com/select.php, or at the door of Sanborn, on the second floor of Hingham Town Hall, 210 Central St. Tickets are $25 each; $20 for seniors or students, and group prices of $18 each also available.
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Roy Harris, a semi-retired journalist and long-time HCMT performer, lives in the World’s End area of Hingham.