Richard Watts speaks with performer Marina Prior about the musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate.
Kiss Me, Kate is one of the classics of musical theatre. First staged in 1948, it employs the timeless device of a play-within-a-play – a musical version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew – to explore the tempestuous relationship between a theatre director and his estranged actress wife. Melbourne has not seen a professional production of Kiss Me, Kate since 1952. A recent revival, already acclaimed in the West End and Broadway, and starring Marina Prior opens in two weeks at the Arts Centre.
"I think both The Taming of the Shrew and Kiss Me, Kate are essentially love stories about two flawed people who are meant to be with each other, but are having trouble connecting," says Prior, when asked if this classic period piece is still relevant for modern audiences. "Two people who are meant to be together and who are frustrating the hell out of the audience because they’re not. That’s not a story that dates."
Ironically, two of the three authors of Kiss Me, Kate, veteran comedy writers Sam and Bella Spewack, were estranged at the time they started working on the script, and stayed together thereafter. The third writer was the composer Cole Porter, who had not had a hit in 10 years prior to working on Kiss Me, Kate.
Porter was both married and gay, and Marina Prior believes it was this conflict between how he lived and who he loved that imbued the musical with such passion.
"I think his own circumstances had to inform his creative output, absolutely," she explains. "Certainly Cole Porter captured unrequited yearning beautifully in ‘So In Love.’ That is a magnificent, dramatic song."
Prior is no stranger to drama herself, having starred opposite the late Richard Harris in the musical Camelot at a young age. "I was 20 years old and he was about 60, and he was…temperamental," she says carefully. "He prided himself on being difficult. I was this quivering little girl who’d been in the industry for 18 months and I guess he was a bully, but that was actually a fantastic thing for me in the end, because that pushed me to my limit. I discovered a strength that I didn’t know I had and it taught me so much. I will never be intimidated by anyone again. Never."
Prior went on to star in the classics of musical theatre both old and new, including Phantom of the Opera, Annie Get Your Gun, Les Miserables, and The Merry Widow. She says that performing is in her DNA.
"Singing is such an essential expression of who I am. When I’m performing I feel that I’m doing what I was born to do. The discipline that’s required, and I’ve been doing this for over 20 years now – I started when I was four, of course," she jokes: "the discipline required to keep focussed and positive in this industry, that’s something that you have to work at."
Judging by her passion and her discipline, Marina Prior will be gracing Australia’s stages for many years to come.
Kiss Me, Kate opens at the State Theatre, The Arts Centre on Wed 20th July. Bookings through Ticketmaster7.
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