Kiss of the Spider Woman

"Kiss of the Spider Woman" still has its disappointments, but Vanessa Williams isn't one of them. The pop singer makes an alluring Spider Woman, in some ways more than matching the role's originator, the great Chita Rivera.

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” still has its disappointments, but Vanessa Williams isn’t one of them.

The pop singer makes an alluring Spider Woman, in some ways more than matching the role’s originator, the great Chita Rivera.

A drop-dead beauty, Williams is every inch the stuff of a Hollywood fantasy figure, a temptress as fatal as she is lovely, which is, of course, just what the musical calls for. She plays Aurora, the B-movie star who headlines the daydreams of Molina, a gay window dresser jailed in a Latin American prison. Williams surely is a convincing inspiration for escapism, more chic gamin than Rivera’s world-weary sophisticate. The role’s dancing requirements seem to have been toned down since the high-kicking Rivera left, but most in the audience won’t notice. And Williams’ singing more than compensates.

Popular on Variety

As Valentin, the macho revolutionary who shares a cell with Molina, Brian Mitchell downplays the role’s gruffness, a move that makes his character more accessible without sacrificing the necessary friction between the two inmates. His take also softens, but hardly eliminates, the book’s ultimate cop-out of ascribing to purely mercenary reasons Valentin’s acquiescence to Molina’s desire.

Less successful is Howard McGillin’s stagy perf as Molina. The character’s flamboyance seems forced, and the delicate poignance found by the role’s originator, Brent Carver, makes only fitful appearances.

Even so, “Kiss” pretty much remains what it was a year ago: a fair-to-middling musical with an audience-pleasing title role played by a captivating actress. No more, no less.

Jump to Comments