Lesli Margherita and Tom Hewitt in "Kiss Me, Kate"

The people at Reprise Theatre Company celebrated “another op’nin” on May 10 — but when the Ovation Award nominations were announced earlier this week, suddenly that May production of Kiss Me, Kate became much more than just “another show”.

It garnered a total of 14 nominations— the most earned by any production this year. With two other nominations for other Reprise productions and one for “best season,” Reprise certainly has much to celebrate. According to artistic director Jason Alexander, celebrating is what Reprise is all about.

“Everything we do at Reprise is a celebration — even the darkest material is celebratory of the human experience. Kate was a celebration of show business itself with a wonderful send-up of egos, politics — both real and sexual — romance, crime and class. It is often hailed as a perfect show, and I would like to think we came as close as possible to a perfect production. When material, vision and execution all come together, you get an undeniably spectacular result.”

For Alexander and his team, the recognition from the LA Stage Alliance voters is particularly meaningful, considering the struggles, constraints, and pressures that Reprise operates under. “Like every theater in Los Angeles, and undoubtedly across the country, times are very, very hard. We have no choice but to try to continue our work, which we are very passionate about, under nearly crippling circumstances. It takes all the resources and all the creativity we can muster to produce our seasons. We know that our audience loves what we do, but to be acknowledged by the theater community at large is an even more reassuring and rewarding confirmation that perhaps our efforts are as worthy as we believe them to be.”

Bradley Benjamin, Seán Martin Hingston, Meg Gillentine, Lesli Margherita, Tom Hewitt, Jennifer Brasuell and Justin Jones

Of course, a successful voyage must be attributed largely to the captain at the helm. Both Jason Alexander and producing director Gilles Chiasson offer much of the credit to Kate’s Ovation-nominated director  Michael Michetti and his strong vision of what is considered to be Cole Porter’s masterpiece. “Michael Michetti,” Alexander says, “is one of the most thoughtful and thorough directors I know, and his ability to assemble just the right collaborators and cast is practically flawless.”

For both Michetti and Chiasson, capturing the essence of the show was much more essential than trying to re-work or re-imagine the piece. “I made the argument early on that Kiss Me, Kate is already a concept musical in that you have the backstage vs. the onstage,” offers Michetti. “So, to burden that by trying to do too many other conceptual things might’ve really muddied the waters.”

Chiasson notes that much of Reprise’s creativity derives from the reality of having to do without. “One of the things I always say about Reprise is that we turn all of our liabilities into assets. We don’t have huge budgets for the sets and production elements, so we look for the ‘emotional gesture of the show’ — that one sense of place that really gives you an idea of what the show is. So instead of creating sets for every location in the script, we tried to find what the real physical expression of the world of the play was.”

For Michetti, that core “gesture” of the piece came in the form of Tom Buderwitz’s rotating proscenium arch, which received rapturous applause from the audience during the performances and earned Buderwitz yet another Ovation nod. “Generally the show is done with much more scenery than we did, but instead we had most of the scenery be this one large proscenium that turned around, and when we saw the front side, we were onstage, and when we saw the back, we were backstage.”

“I think that was a really unique and contemporary way to look at the play without messing with what is a very well-written piece,” Chiasson adds. “We didn’t have to change the text or set it in another time period or anything like that. We just came up with a very contemporary set idea that made the play accessible in an entirely new way. It also made the transitions really seamless, and the play moved rather quickly.”

Herschel Sparber and Jay Brian Winnick

To further accent the difference between the onstage and offstage worlds, Michetti paid particular attention to the physicality of the performances, Chiasson says. “Michael Michetti had a very specific take on the two worlds of the play that provided a real clarity to the production. He had a real understanding of what a musical based on a Shakespeare play in the 1940’s would look like: what that acting style and the comedy would be.”

“We all really tried to commit to the idea that this is a musical comedy,” explains Michetti. “We wanted it to be funny, and yet we still tried to find the contrast between the comedy that played in the onstage world and off—using more highly stylized, choreographed comedy for the onstage world.”

Of course, when you’re talking about physical expression in a musical—particularly a Cole Porter musical—the choreography is part of that. According to Michetti, Lee Martino’s presence in this production was critical and her Ovation nod was well-deserved. “Lee and I have had the benefit of working on many productions now, to the point where we have a shorthand between us. Not many people know this, but because of the rehearsal period being so tight and us having to do our sessions simultaneously, there were large portions of the dance numbers I hadn’t even seen until the designers’ rehearsal. Lee is just so wonderful at what she does, and she has a brilliant instinct for this period style. And then from there, it’s about having an amazing amount of trust in just letting her do her thing, and she’s absolutely earned that with me.”

In fact, no aspect of the performances in Kiss Me, Kate went unnoticed or unappreciated. Five principals as well as the entire acting ensemble were nominated for Ovations. Reprise is notorious for its concentrated rehearsal process, which is often commented on as a real test of nerve and stamina for the performers. So the coming together of this cast in such a highly-acclaimed way seems fortuitous to say the least.

“My memory of that experience was my first few nights being all about ‘what’s my next line?’” laughs leading man Tom Hewitt, who was nominated for his performances as Fred Graham/Petruchio. “The Reprise format is very, very stressful, so I’m still kind of recovering from the shock of having done it, and now I’m even more shocked that I got nominated for something!”

Lesli Margherita and Tom Hewitt

For Hewitt and his co-star (and fellow Ovation nominee) Lesli Margherita, the lightning preparation process turned into a bonding experience. “Lesli and I were stress buddies. I came in incredibly unprepared, assuming that it was a staged reading and that you held your book [Reprise originally produced its shows as staged readings]. So I was screwed from day one. She was performing in Little Shop of Horrors at La Mirada during rehearsals, so the both of us would just curl up into a fetal position and cry for the first five minutes of rehearsals.” He laughs.

But when all is said and done, it seems as though the performers and the creative team actually credit the harried rehearsal time for their ability to coalesce so well in the final product. “The Reprise schedule is insane,” Margherita says. “And the roles in this show are massive. Massive. It’s not always easy, but for some reason, this combination of creatives, cast and crew was pretty perfect. Nobody lost it…well, not in a big way. Seriously, tensions can be high, but we just kind of went with it. Jason really sets that tone. I laughed so much during the rehearsals, and I think you could tell we were having a blast. Or I was just delirious. Either way, it was fun.”

Chiasson offers his explanation of why the intensity of the Reprise system ended up yielding such positive results. “One of the things that happens when you have a compact rehearsal process like we do, is that it puts a big focus on the preparation, so when you start rehearsing, you hit the ground running.  It demands a sense of focus, collective risk—it requires a fearlessness on the part of the artists. It’s a company of wonderful people who you’re asking to take this leap of faith, and hopefully you match that leap of faith with a really strong point of view and a clear idea of what the play is about — and Michael really did that. Michael understood the play beautifully. He understood why it was emotional, why it was funny, and we didn’t waste any time not knowing where we were headed.”

Hewitt offered similar sentiments about the final product. “It’s very serendipitous how personalities, qualities, and timing all came together. One missing element could’ve ruined the whole stew. It was just a magical combination of people and talents.”

Lesli Margherita

According to Chiasson, the praise and recognition for Margherita’s turn as “Lili Vanessi/Kate” comes as a particular point of pride. “Many people would say that Lesli was not a conventional choice to play that role, and to me she was a tremendous part of why this show was so successful. I think that she was an inspired choice. Michael Michetti and Michael Paternostro, the musical director [also nominated], strongly advocated for her early on and I thought that was very smart and intuitive.”

Michetti explains that casting Margherita, who currently has a different “O” Award sitting on her mantle (she won an Olivier Award for Zorro! The Musical, a part that she is currently reprising in Tel Aviv and Shanghai), was a risk that definitely paid off. “Lesli had actually played the ‘Lois/Bianca’ track in a previous production, and she first contacted us to ask if we would consider letting her do that role again…I know Lesli to be not only a wonderful comedienne and singer, but also a wonderful actress, and there was something that told me she had a ‘Kate’ in her. Very early on we did a private audition with her to hear her sing some of the material, because she is mostly known for doing belt roles, and also to have her read to make sure that my instincts that she had the right sensibilities were correct. Of course she completely knocked it out of the park. I love her as a human and as an actress, and I thought it was worth casting her in a way that was a little outside of how people normally cast her. I’m thrilled that the Ovation voters felt the same way.”

Casting, unfortunately, isn’t the only risky territory that Reprise is treading on these days. As the next Reprise season is well under way (Cabaret concludes this weekend), Alexander approaches the year with a combination of trepidation and perseverance as he contemplates the future. He calls the nominations “a bittersweet delight, because unless we can continue to expand our audience and find new, innovative ways of controlling costs and production necessities, our company faces a very desperate future. I fear it is a jeopardy that all our fellow nominees and all our colleagues in the theater face as well. For all we’ve achieved and have yet to achieve, without patrons who believe we are worthy of investment, these works—these celebrations—may well cease to be possible. But, I am choosing to be optimistic and say that I am hopeful that Reprise will be as equally lauded next year as we have been blessed to be this year.”

All Kiss Me, Kate production photos by Ed Krieger