Kiss of the Spider Woman
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Book by Terrance McNally
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by Mark Brotherton
Choreography by John Rudell
Starring Kyle Wilkinson, Andrew Connors, and Abby Jaros
Theatre UCF, Orlando FL</strong>
It’s amazing the level of production values you can find in a South American political prison. Sometime in the desperate terrors of Pinochet and Allende and those other high minded murders a weak and unsuccessful political prisoner falls into their trap. Valentin (Connors) breathes fire and wants to die for his cause, although he was hoping for more publicity. They toss him in a cell with sexual offender Molina (Wilkinson); he’s doing 8 years for doing a boy in a public rest room. Molina admits cowardice and tolerates the abuse; in exchange the guards allow him movie posters and lunch from his mom. He obsesses over Aurora (Jaros), a movie star whom he worshiped until her role as Spider Woman traumatized him. The evil warden wants information on Valentin’s group, and will do a deal if Molina sells out his cell mate. Can we squeeze in one last over the top dance number before Molina has to decide his friend’s fate?
While the story speaks to a beautiful if unlikely friendship, you have to love the dance numbers. Choreographer Rudell pushed this brutal story to high levels of camp with dancing prisoners, floating hallucinations, and Jaros’ smoldering 1920s sexuality. Numbers like “Where You Are” and “Morphine Tango” fall into the camp of classic Fosse style over extravagance, and the stark prison bars form a mute canvas for the dancer’s dreams. Meanwhile, Connors plays a convincing revolutionary; good looking and intense, he’s just the sort of man who could end up on an ironic tee-shirt. Wilkinson fusses with his red scarf and pink throw, and while his sexuality offends Valentin, Valentin’s real confusion revolves around the film fantasies. How can you dance when people are dying? Yes, the regime is brutal, but if you can’t defeat it, the only course left is to distract yourself until the next beating is scheduled.
This musical differs drastically from the film, that’s where you will discover a much more political angle on the story of men surviving brutality. Here we have a fluffy dance parfait covering a serious story, but then it IS a musical and musicals are about fantasy, the bigger the better. If Dialectical Materialism excites you this show might offend your political sensibilities, but if it’s jarring beauty anchored in murky misery that calls to you, this is a dream come to life.
For more information on Theatre UCF visit http://www.theatre.ucf.edu
