Top Five Songs: Kiss of the Spider Woman

 

(I didn't have much luck finding pictures from the pertinent scenes, so this one will have to do quintuple duty and represent the whole show.)

 

I recently picked up a CD of this Kander & Ebb show, and I’ve been listening to it a lot.  There’s the cast, of course – Chita Rivera and Anthony Crivello, and the incredible Brent Carver, who I loved in Parade.  Plus, though it won’t replace Cabaret as my Kander & Ebb musical of choice, the score is excellent as well, with my favorites listed below.  (Note:  I get a vibe that Molina is a straight trans* woman rather than a gay man, but the show uses male pronouns, so I will, too.)

 

“Dressing Them Up” – I love this breezy, peppy number.  Brent Carver’s Molina is so wonderful, and this song, describing his pre-prison life as a window dresser, hits you squarely with all the force of his personality.  I like the way he’s so proud of his window-dressing accomplishments that he doesn’t even care that the gruff Valentin won’t be impressed.

 

Best line:  “You’ll never catch them wearing a frown / Or catch them dressing me down / For my finesse at dressing them up.”

 

“Marta” – The simple, aching melody here is so lovely.  As Valentin describes his girlfriend on the outside and how he thinks of her, there’s a poignant sense of longing that cuts through the whole song.  It nicely creates this dreamlike feeling of contentment and then wakes you from it.

 

Best line:  “So I close my eyes, / And I hear her step, / And I know she’s come to hold me. / So, my senses stir, / But it’s never ever her – / It’s just a dream of her.”

 

“Gabriel’s Letter / My First Woman” – Another bittersweet song about love.  This one stitches together a gentle brush-off letter from Gabriel, the man Molina loves who’s “just not that way,” and Valentin’s remembrance of his first sexual experience.  The two different melodies blend wonderfully, and it’s an interesting contrast between an end (that never really started) and a beginning (that’s cherished but only half-recalled.)

 

Best line:  “What did she look like? / Probably plain. / Who can remember? / But to me she was the keeper of all mystery.”

 

“You Could Never Shame Me” – In this gorgeously heartfelt dream scene, Molina imagines a conversation with his mother, who assures him that she knows all about him being “different” and doesn’t mind.  It’s sweet, earnest, and could easily serve as the official PFLAG theme song.

 

Best line:  “Some other mamas have children / Whose secrets hurt them so, / But you have no secrets – I already know.”

 

She’s a Woman” – Best for last:  Molina’s quiet, wistful envy of Valentin’s Marta.  Not only because Valentin loves her, but because she simply has the good fortune to be a woman.  I love how the song builds from its soft, dreamy beginning to the big, almost desperate finish.  Just stunning.

 

Best line:  “Milky lotions, scented creams - / She’s the climax / Of your Technicolor dreams. / How lucky can you be? / So lucky, you’ll agree. / And I wish that she were me, / That woman.”