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KISS ME, KATE By warn* W NEW YORK, N. Y„ May 11.— You couldnt spoil "Kiss Me, Kate," if you beat it over the head with sticks or played it with puppets on strings, but you can, as is demonstrated at the City Center Theatre, put brakes on it and slow it down. The second offering of the spring musical season has all the lovely score, an orchestra which obviously adores the music, some talented players and a pace fit for Chopin in a fitful mood. Just why it has been decelerated is not clear, but it has. Nonetheless, it has a zip of its own that nothing can stop. David Atkinson brings a tall, lean, forceful way to the playing of the Fred-Petruchio role, and his singularly pleasant voice makes the Cole Porter songs and lyrics ring out. He is at his -.best in the quarreling scenes with Lilli-Katherine and makes a forceful figure when tussling vith her. Miss Kitty Carlisle is Lilli-Katherine and her voice is just right for the occasion. She rattles pewter and bangs tabletops and claws at her suitor. But when it comes to throwing things someone somewhere along the line slowed her -down. Those flower pots ought to have zinged through the air and the watering can and the chair should have been flung like bullets. Instead, she tossed them and took measured pace and aim between each toss. In spite of this evident slow-down, Miss Carlisle is lovely to look at and hear and she may be recorded as a good player of the role. Miss Barbara Ruick has the appearance and dancing dash to handle the role of Lois, but when it comes to telling her lover and the audience her plaint of wishing he could behave things again bog at the edges. However, she more than makes up for it when she does "Always True to You," New York Play Review a mocking, jeering, provocative item which a succession of Loises have done in a succession of manners. Miss Ruicks is among the best renditions. This one "she really sails into. The Messrs. Al Nesor and Tom Pedi lap up the gangster roles with the greatest of ease and. they stopped the show with "Brush Up on Shakespeare," one of Mr. Porters most successful songs. Richard France, a young man who knows just about all there is to know about ballet, male department, pretty much had things his own way and ran straight away with any scene in which he was employed. The audience saw immediately that Mr. France was in charge of his role and his Bill Calhoun-Luciento combination was dynamite. The dancers are terrific whether scampering in the modern style or whanging away at ballet. Ray Harrison staged the dances on patterns originally set by Tanya Holm, but if memory is not faulty he added greatly to whatever she originally provided for the "Too Darned Hot" number. This is not the best "Kiss Me, Kate" ever done, but it is a good one and proves that no matter where you plant your lapses if the original product is firm you have a show. It is for three weeks under the William Hammerstein -banner- at the City Center and since it may be a long time before you ever see it again youd best catch up with it there. Frederick Dvonchs conducting of the orchestra alone is almost worth- the whole price of admission. Mr. Dvonch plainly loves that Porter score and plainly has passed his devotion along to his musicians. The overture is playedjaeautifully and faithfully and with spirit. The conducting during the actual production is top musicianship. Not even the exacting Mr. Porter could quarrel with a single moment of what that orchestra and Mr. Dvonch do with his music.
