Taming of the Shrew, The

When the establishing shot of the Denver Center’s new Shrew turned-up on its website — an obviously Cowbo -Petruchio with a Wild-West Kate on his back — this image reminded your arts reporter of the Wild-West Shrewthat Charles McCalley staged long, long ago, at the Globe-of-the-Great-Southwest, in Odessa, TX. Since that epic adventure in updating Shakespeare, Mantua and Padua have occasionally been relocated to Western-American sites in Utah, Arizona and New-Mexico.

But that’s not quite what Kent Thompson had in mind for his 1950s Shrew. In fact, he now believes it was a mistake to present a photo image of Kate and Petruchio in Western garb, for that’s not what his Shrew is really about. Instead, this is a Shrew that takes place in a Post-art-deco, post-World-War-II, rise-of-the-middle-class, white-picket-fence, Dick Powell/June Allyson all-American world of possibilities.

At either side of an all-purpose unit set — with a clever Interior revolve! — are 1950s billboards, featuring ads in Arrow collar-style for products that bear the names of characters and places in Shakespeare’s plays!

Behind the upper level — an all-purpose street — is an immense map of what looks very much like the United States. But the place names are all wrong! Mantua & Padua are now in the wrong places. Even odder, Rheims — which is only mentioned as the city in which a putative young tutor studied — is sited on the map where Boston and Harvard should be. Whenever any Italian city is named, the letters light up on the map!

In Thompson’s Shakespeare-for-a-new-generation production, Baptista Minola (Robert Sicular) is operating an upscale taverna in Padua. Kate (the vibrant, electric Kathleen McCall) is in the kitchen, cooking up a storm. Her pretty, pouty, spoiled younger sister, Bianca (Christy McIntosh), is strolling-about in a poodle skirt, breaking hearts without not a care in the world, as they used to say.

[Centuries ago, when I was a theater major at UC/Berkeley, a teenager named Bob Sicular was a handsome young actor. Anderson Cooper’s dad, Wyatt Cooper, was also one of our band of young hopefuls. Wyatt is long-dead. I am almost-dead. Maybe this Sicular is Bob’s son?]

Anyway, as the dowry-seeking Petruchio, John G. Preston has even more magnetism than that other now-almost-mythic Preston, Robert.

In the Shrew program, my old friend & colleague, Danny Sullivan – I was once a NYC-theater “stringer” for Dan when he was drama critic for the LA Times – suggests that we do not want to see the comedy as a study in conflict resolution. “We want to see two crazy people going over the top.”

All the principals are admirable, but what is especially appealing is the way Thompson — working ingeniously with his actors — has helped them develop Major mini-dramas when describing an important off-stage event. Instead of taking-up valuable stage time with actually showing Kate & Petruchio on horseback, a minor character turns this description into a whirling dervish of a performance. Wow!

Because these turns are not merely a matter of making the lines come to life but also of making the actor’s face, body and limbs provide a non-verbal re-enactment of what’s just happened In the wings (so to speak), these wonderfully amusing cameos become important, both to the narrative and to the general fake-Italian-Renaissance ambiance.

While I much admire the scenic conceits of David M. Barber, I’m in even greater admiration of the colorful and stylish costumes of Susan Branche Towne. This is a Shrew that ought to tour! Just as Kent Thompson’s Dream deserved a longer life, even if on the road. Or how about a revival, with Dream and Shrew in rep? Denver could even throw-in a chronicle play, like Henry V, plus The Scottish-Play.