This version of Kiss Me Kate, directed by Pru Donaldson and produced by Carol Bridle, is taken from the 1998 Broadway revival. The show within a show is a musical version of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, which is opening at the Ford Theatre in Baltimore. The leads, Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, played by Earl Ingleson and Lisa Friesen, are a divorced couple reunited to play Katharine and Petrucio in the play.

Also in the show is Fred’s current love interest, Lois Lane, played naughtily and gleefully by Aussa Penniall. Mike Quemby plays Lois’s carefree and irresponsible partner Bill, who by virtue of a gambling problem, signs Fred’s name to an IOU and sets the stage for the appearance of two hilariously hapless hoods played perfectly by Alec Hollands and Mike Provan. The larger-than-life General Harrison Howell (Liam Cragg) provides Lilli with her off-stage love interest.

The sophisticated music and lyrics of Cole Porter are beautifully offset by the physical comedy of Fred and Lilli as the drama of their off-stage lives carries over into the play to create havoc on stage. Friesen does a brilliant job of making us wonder whether the off-stage Lilli or the on-stage Katharine is the bigger shrew, as she does a very scary and convincing version of I Hate Men.

Ingleson, as the pompous and egotistical Fred, manages by some great vocal interpretations and solo moments, to make his character vulnerable and to even elicit some sympathy for his predicament as he sings So In Love. The full-ensemble choruses are huge and intricate songs that need outstanding voices to bring them to life, and this cast rises beautifully to the challenge.

From the opening with the lone stagehand pushing a broom across an empty stage, and Hattie (Dana Clark) singing Another Op’nin’, Another Show, to the final rousing choruses of Kiss Me Kate, the play is an extravaganza of song and dance, full of dual plots, double entendres, physical comedy and witty puns. Because of Cole Porter’s penchant for wit and rhyme, it’s necessary to listen closely to songs such as Lois’s Always True To You In My Fashion and Tom, Dick and Harry, and especially the hoodlums’ burlesque-style Brush Up Your Shakespeare (where we learn that “Othello was a helluva fello”).

For the more basic feelings, we see the heat coming off the stage as Paul (Terry Bridle) opens the second act with the well-known Too Darn Hot, as he laments that it’s just too hot for his favourite activity. However, all ends well as Kate sings (with a wink) I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple, indicating her intention to return to Fred.

Kiss Me Kate: a great opportunity to see great live musical theatre at the new Rene M. Caisse Theatre in Bracebridge.

Continuing Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.