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University of Central Florida

Kiss of the Spiderwoman:

Sarah Schreck
Honors Theatre Survey THE 2000H
Sybil StClaire
November 3, 2014

Word Count: 1710

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Kiss of the Spider Woman is a poignant musical about two cellmates and their
relationships and fantasies that entranced audiences at the University of Central Florida.
Graced with richness and passion that one can only hope was likewise found in its
original production, the superb story, acting, directing, and technical craftsmanship left
this audience member practically sobbing come the final number.
Based on a pivotal novel by Manuel Pig, Kiss of the Spider Woman began inworkshop on a restricted schedule by New Musicals, a group determined to produce
sixteen musicals in four years (performing many as unfinished works). Kiss of the Spider
Woman grew out of a genesis that interestingly mirrors its own plot.
Almost twenty-five years ago, the first production opened to scathing reviews. In
his article, In a Prison Cell, 2 Men and a Movie Musical, Frank Rich dismissed the
production as burdened with the full, and in this case crushing, weight of Broadway
extravagance. It had lost its moral weight and self-respect in shallow spectacle. This is
the same shallow pool in which the audience finds Molina, our lead character, a
homosexual incarcerated in a Latin American prison, mentally living out the plots of his
favorite movies as a means of escape.
Molina waits in his cell, surrounded by graphic violence and torture, watching his
favorite actress named Aurora dance across his closed eyelids. All of her roles he wishes
he could fill himself save but one, that of the Spider Woman, who wields a deadly kiss
and haunts Molina mercilessly. Alone he cowers, thinking of his aging mother, until
revolutionary prisoner and passionate Marxist Valentin is thrust into his cell.
Likewise thrust was producer Grath Drabinski who, in 1990, prepared to pull Kiss
of the Spider Woman out of its overgrown aesthetics. After revitalizing the production

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with a new cast (including legend Chita Rivera), reinforced ideas by director Hal Prince,
and an amended score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, the 1992 West End Production
moved on to Broadway in 1993. One of the first Broadway musicals to be set in Latin
America, and one of the first concerned with the struggles of a homosexual lead character
won three Tony awards on its own, with three more for three of its cast members.
Valentins entrance affected Molina in similar ways. As the two characters evolve
together, they are introduced to each others means of escape. Molina chases Aurora
through her movies, dreaming of himself as a glamorous woman (Shes A Woman),
whereas Valentin shares his macho fantasies of his wife, revolution, and the
camaraderie of his ideal world (The Day After That). When given an ultimatum to
sabotage Valentins cause versus caring for his mother, Molina battles between selfsacrifice, self-preservation, and his emerging potential for true bravery, as the Spider
Woman quietly threatens.
The last element shared by all productions is the story, articulated by Terrence
McNallys luxurious book. Having won Tonys for Kiss of the Spider Woman and
Ragtime, while sporting a slew of additional awards, Hall-of-Fame resident McNally
invested himself in these characters. As Raymond-Jean Frontain of the Gay and Lesbian
Review states, For McNally, theaters most important function is to create community
by bridging gaps opened between people by differences in race, religion, gender, and
most particularly sexual orientation. Condensing Puigs novel into limited personal
dialogue was economically executed, making up for lost detail with luscious accessibility
to the main characters psyches. While retaining a dark atmosphere, heavy action and

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dialogue are balanced with humor and lighthearted bonding; wherein McNally
masterfully builds empathy.
John Kander and Fred Ebb, who also wrote the musical and lyrics for anti-fascist
and ironic Cabaret, masterfully used music as a metaphor in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
In The Happiest Corpse Ive Ever Seen, Ethan Mordden calls this the teams most
serious show, and praises how the journey of the main character is amplified through a
final coda; a repetition used in music to end a piece, used in the writing of the show
itself (251).
In this specific theatrical production, Aurora-Spiderwoman Abby Jaros was a
mature and poised flower onstage, and the ensemble offered bits of brilliance and charm
while remaining balanced in the periphery. In the end, though, the actors who brought
Valentin and Molina to life truly made the show what it was.
Kyle Wilkinsons Molina was feminine without being camp, a trait that
distinguished Molina as one of the revolutionary gay characters on Broadway during the
original production. Wilkinson and Molina are inseparable, with not only an unmatched
vocal performance, but tangible character transformation. Andrew Conners Valentin
managed to become deeper as the performance continued, and while his actiosn could
become repetitive, his chemistry with his cellmate became one of the most emotionally
complicated performances I have ever witnessed, saving his character from a bland stasis
many Valentins have fallen into before.
This does not mean the acting was flawless! While Conners was a convincing
firey rebel, his dialect managed to sidestep Argentinean in a profoundly confusing way.

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Similarly, none of the other inmates shoed a hint of Latin American influence. However,
the emotion and strength of character still took the spotlight.
Perhaps the secret to this powerful acting is director Mark Brotherton, who kept
such a close hand in character portrayal that he would literally step in during rehearsals,
showing blink-for-blink what he was looking for of each actor. Every choice onstage still
appeared to have been made of independent thought, hopefully indicating that personal
choices could still be made.
Fast-paced, exciting, dazzling; all of these words could truthfully describe student
John Rudells choreography. Despite this being his first experience choreographing an
entire musical, Rudell showed no signs of insufficiency. The choreography drew upon
many Latin themes, including tangos, and sauciness in a Birdcage number (Gimme
Love), brilliantly reflecting the setting of the production.
Along for the ride were the costumes of Huaixiang Tan. The prisoners were
plainly and uniformly dressed for most of the production, donning interspersed costume
pieces for a few brief sequences. It is worthwhile to note that Alex Sims, the assistant
director of a production of Kiss of the Spider Woman at Donmar Warehouse in England,
referenced the original novel, where prisoners would wear the clothes they had been
arrested in. (Schrader and Sims 10). This was apparently dismissed by Tan, and might
have been a smart choice, as diverse characterization of inmates might have led to
distraction from the main characters.
As far as they are concerned, our main characters boasted colors reflecting their
inner and outer struggles. The colorful imagination of Molina, shown in his robe that
covered the reality of his prisonwear underneath, as well as the haunting fear of death,

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shown in his red scarf, contrast clearly with the grey jail. Characters outside of jail are
dressed in the blue tones of an open sky. These metaphorical shades are not forced, but
obvious enough to catch. In conclusion, there is very little to find unimpressive in this
productions costuming.
Overcrowded Villa Devoto Prison is the location this production calls home, the
darkest penal hellhole in all Argentina, according to TIME magazine during the time
period of the action, 1962 (Argentina: Lets Kill These Dogs 1). While successfully
being intimidating and integrating technology to increase set diversity, the set of Kiss of
the Spiderwoman did not feel nearly as claustrophobic or cramped as the jail is in fact
described to be. There seemed to be a constant surplus of open space. Aside from making
room for dance numbers, this may have detracted some impact. It is clear that the
ambitions of the director to have spider webs of masking tape lining the walls as well as
extensive use of projections to simulate grime (as articulated in the design meeting) were
not met to the fullest extent. While the set does not disappoint, it held untapped potential.
That being said, the lighting of the set dramatically enhanced its presence. The
filtering of light through cell bars was taken advantage of, as were colors that leapt off of
surfaces without overpowering the action. Like the costumes, the lighting dressed the cast
appropriately.
Underneath this category of lighting is the use of visually effects, and, most
prominently, the projections used to bring imagination to the stage. Many audience
members would never know that this was the biggest disappointment of all! Molinas
Shes a Woman was rehearsed with projections of female movie stars across the curtain
behind him, as he dreamed to fill their shoes. On my night of attendance, Friday October

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17th, this element- whether through technical hitch or purposeful decision- was
completely gone! While all other lighting effects went on without a hitch, this failure to
come through by the tech crew was a disappointment at best, especially when compared
to their fantastic work elsewhere.
Sound was handled without particular note, and there was little to no interaction by the
stage manager or crew that stood out. Both areas were handled beautifully in their
invisibility, without any noticeable cue misses or shortcomings.
The final sequence is written and executed brilliantly; a redemption so beautiful
and glorious that dry eyes in the audience should be few and far between. As far as the
atmosphere and the audience were concerned during my attendance, this was
exceptionally true. The diverse audience made up of anything from younger theatre
students to elderly attendees laughed together and cried together, showing the breadth of
audience this sort of a production can touch.
As a production both rich in talent and literary power, I could not recommend this
production highly enough. Not only was it thoroughly entertaining and stunning to every
sense, Kiss of the Spider Woman is a thought-provoking production that truly makes one
reflect on what they are truly made of. For days, audience members can continue to
ponder the meaning of bravery, self-control, self-sacrifice, self-preservation, and the
value with which we endow our relationships. With these heavy themes came heartfelt
laughs, and I only wish to have been able to see it a second time. It seems as though
through these characters, the audience itself is even given a way to, as director Mark
Brotherton states in the program itself, learn what it means to survive and finally escape
[our] own prisons.

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Works Cited
"Argentina: Let's Kill These Dogs." Time. Time Inc., 28 Dec. 1962. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.
<http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827934,00.html>.
Brotherton, Mark. Kiss of the Spider Woman "A Note from the Director" Orlando: n.p.,
2014. Print.
Frontain, Raymond-Jean. "McNally after the Gay Jesus Play." The Gay & Lesbian
Review. N.p., 1 Mar. 2007. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
<https%3A%2F%2F1.800.gay%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fwww.glreview.org%2Farticle%2Farticle-320%2F>.
Mordden, Ethan. The Happiest Corpse I've Ever Seen: The Last Twenty-five Years of the
Broadway Musical. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print.
Rich, Frank. "Review/Theater; In a Prison Cell, 2 Men and a Movie Musical." The New
York Times. The New York Times, 31 May 1990. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/01/theater/review-theater-in-a-prison-cell-2men-and-a-movie-musical.html>.
Schrader, Leonard, and Alex Sims. KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Comp. Donmar.
N.p.: Island Alive, 1985. Web.