'Kiss Me, Kate' runs through Oct. 10

Thursday, October 1, 2009

HILLSBORO -- Myers Dinner Theatre will be running the witty Cole Porter classic "Kiss Me, Kate" through Oct. 10. There will be matinees on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays and evening performances on Fridays and Saturdays. There is also a special evening show on Thursday, Oct. 8.

The musical, with a book by Sam and Bella Spewack and music and lyrics by Hoosier Cole Porter, is a play within a play that tells the story of a small theatre company in 1948 who are trying to put on a new musical version of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." Broadway producer and director Fredric C. Graham has hired his ex-wife and Hollywood starlet Lilli Vanessi to appear as Katherine in the show, but his interest in chorus girl Lois Lane is more than Lilli can take. And Lois' dancer boyfriend Bill Calhoun is not exactly happy about the attention she is getting either. To punish Fred, Bill signs his name to a gambling name debt and two gangsters arrive just before the start of the show to collect the debt. As the tryout performance falls apart, the actors begin to resemble the characters they are playing in the show and the gangsters find themselves unexpectedly onstage to make sure the debt is collected. The high jinx increase when Lilli's boyfriend, a Douglas MacArthur wannabe, shows up and demands she return with him to Washington. Things only get more frantic, and more hilarious, until everything leads up to the final line of Mr. Shakespeare's play: "Kiss Me, Kate!"

Tickets for "Kiss Me, Kate" can be reserved by calling the Myers Dinner Theatre office at 798-4902, ext. 2. Cost is $36 for dinner and show, including tax. Dinner for the evening shows begins at 6:30 p.m., for the weekday and Saturday matinees at noon, and for the Sunday matinees at 1 p.m. For more information visit the MDT web site at www.myersdt .com. Myers Dinner Theatre boasts wonderful, microphone-free acoustics and is totally handicapped accessible.