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Inside the High-Flying, Tap-Filled Choreography of Broadway’s Kiss Me, Kate
From “Tom, Dick, and Harry� to a new, epic take on “Too Darn Hot,� choreographer Warren Carlyle kicks Broadway dance up a notch.
“No one tells stories through movement like Warren Carlyle,� says Kiss Me, Kate star Stephanie Styles.
Indeed, you’d be hard-pressed to find dancing as athletic (“Too Darn Hot� is a 10-minute, 45-second endurance test, not to mention a technical feat) and tap-filled as the latest revival of the show-within-a-show musical from Roundabout Theatre Company.
From the illusion of backstage chaos in Kate’s opening number “Another Op’nin� Another Show� to the final curtain, Carlyle manages to consistently one up himself with each number. “The choreography is extremely fresh also with some respect to past movement during that time,� says Adrienne Walker. “Things in the late �40s were edgier than we realize. There's a good amount of fresh for today and a great amount of respect for yesterday.�
READ: How Kiss Me, Kate’s Corbin Bleu Wound Up Tap-Dancing on the Ceiling and More Reveals From Opening Night
Of course, “Too Darn Hot� has always been the highlight of any incarnation of the show—including Stanley Wayne Mathis� rendition in the 1999 revival, showcased at that year’s Tony Awards. Carlyle knew he had to do something distinct. “I wanted to add Bill Calhoun into that,� Carlyle explains. “In the script he's referred to as a hoofer. So I thought how fun that tap dance would be his language. I inserted him into ‘Too Darn Hot,� I thought it would be a fun way of giving it a lift, giving it a gear change, having a new idea, making that number uniquely ours for this generation and then also I get to have James T. Lane who comes in and matches Corbin [Bleu] and we get to see the two of them blow the roof off together.�
“In the studio you knew this is the best choreography of anything I've ever seen and then it stops the show,� says star Will Chase of the number.
READ: How 2019's Kiss Me, Kate Broadway Revival Pays Homage to Marin Mazzie in the 1999 Revival
A self-taught tapper, Carlyle’s “rhythms are unconventional� and he uses sounds and movement vocabulary to deepen character and to wow his audiences—and cast members—to tears.
Watch the full video above for more, plus a look at the dance performed onstage at Studio 54.
Kiss Me, Kate currently plays Broadway’s Studio 54 in a limited engagement through June 30, 2019. Click here for discounted tickets.
