Cole Porter's "Kiss Me Kate" can be an irresistable experience and the production by The Western Stage at Hartnell College in Salinas brings it to life with the exuberance it deserves. With one of the cleverest scripts to be found in a musical (that of a play within a play) and with it all expounded in an outpouring of musical wealth sung to remarkably literate and clever lyrics, it was a joyous experience. This melodic romp tells the story of what goes on backstage when a theater company is opening a production of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" that reflects the real life of the actors. The leading man, Fred Graham/Petruchio (Reg Huston) and his former wife Lilli Vanessi/Kate (Susanne Burns), are the disputatious actors vehemently mirroring the events of the play. Huston, a commanding figure on local stages in many major roles, undertook the incredible vocal demands of his role with superior results. His music allowed him to display the full, fine operatic quality of his voice with great sensitivity and well-colored interpretive skill. It was a luxurious and unusual advantage for a musical comedy Huston is a strong presence and while he appeared overly mature and unglamorous for a dashing, highly egotistical and coolly calculating ham actor, it should be considered a tradeoff for the way he delivered his music. It would be more believable, however, if he were made up to appear more youthful. As Lilli Vanessi, the equally egotistical, strong-minded and starring actress, Burns made a matching forceful contribution to the teamwork needed for the role of a woman whose shrewish manifestations hid a sentimental heart. Burns also is a more mature figure than is usual for the role, but here too she is a singer with a lovely, well-developed and projected voice and it is a pleasure to listen to her. Her battle scenes as Kate were very strongly played and believably staged. There is a subplot with another pair of theatrical lovers. They are the ones who cause the complications which embellish the story and incidentally occasion the appearance of those two unforgetable gangsters to keep the plot on track. Samantha Harris Bartholomew and Eric Anderson as Lois and Bill are a delightful but somewhat morally undisciplined pair. Their standards of behavior (remember this play opened in 1948) were somewhat lax, but Bartholomew was fun as a blonde sex symbol with numerous boyfriends and Anderson has an uncontrollable gambling problem. Both players are believable and they are fine singers and dancers. The show is theatrically appealing from start to finish and the contributions of the large and very able cast never stops giving pleasure. Among them, Marc Grossman and Alfred Seccombe as the gangster purveyors of "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" neatly filled that very clever scene with its ever more amusing "encores." "It's Too Darn Hot," a backstage dancing tour de force led by Chente Cervantes with a clarion voice and great physical agility, was another absolutely outstanding scene. He was seconded by Anna Schumacher, with much verve and agility, and the full ensemble. It was a show-stopping number. Tom Donald as Gen. Harrison Howell, Lilli Vanessi's fiancée, did a fine spoof of a self-important military man with high-flying political aspirations. But it is all those wonderful songs that create the magic. "Another Opening, Another Show" used as an overture was a colorful and inventive beginning. Then came a torrent of music, "Wunderbar," "So in Love," "We Open in Venice" and on and on, almost too many to believe in a single show. Director Lorenzo Aragon created a fast-moving, excellently integrated production, made easier by the lovely and very efficiently handled scenic designs of Theodore Michael Dolas. Anne Marie Hunter's choreography was very well designed for her dancers and Ken Fitch's costumes were colorful and very fetching for the ensemble, but were not sufficiently elegant for the egocentric main characters. Conductor Yvonne Crane led her 11-piece band with precision, but they were frequently overpowering in their enthusiastic playing. Work needs to be done to achieve better proportion in the overall vocal and instrumental balance. But don't let it stop you from going. I wish I could go again.