Kiss of the Spider Woman | Director's Note
16 Apr 2026
"You've got to learn how not to be where you are" - so advises the iconic movie actress, Aurora in one of the best songs in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Molina, the garrulous window dresser, condemned for his sexuality to an eight year jail sentence in the ironically titled La Hermosa ("Glorious") prison remembers sequences from his favourite films - both highbrow and low - to distract himself from the squalid conditions. The reenactments transport himself and his poles-apart cellmate, the political revolutionary Valentin from their bitter reality. The fantasy and escape that the excerpts provide do more than pass the time; they constitute a love language. John Kander and Fred Ebb's superb score, coupled with Terrance McNally's agile book (each Tony Award-winning) balances the darkness and light with brassy, Latin-inflected dance numbers and tender, confessional solos.
The musical version is rarely seen in this country and means that those working on it feel extremely lucky. It has been a busy and vibrant rehearsal room. We wanted to do justice to the tonal richness of the piece and have been fortunate to draw on the skills of one of the UK's best Fight Directors, Kate Waters, whose work on the more disturbing episodes has helped us approach the heart of the prison setting of Manuel Puig's 1976 novel with conviction. Indeed so explosive was the Argentine writer's previous book, THE BUENOS AIRES AFFAIR, that representatives of the military authorities visited his family home and made it clear that he should leave the country - or else. Like Molina in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, Puig was a cineaste who "totally rejected...the reality that I had to live in." In rehearsals, we talked about the "desaparecidos" whose families still gather to keep their missing loved ones' names alive and who fight for answers and the truth "if not tomorrow then the day after that," as Kander and Ebb's powerful anthem attests.
Hal Prince's original production, seen over here in the cavernous Shaftesbury Theatre with the legendary Chita Rivera in the title role and the Canadian classical actor Brent Carver as Molina, went on to take New York by storm. The opportunity to look again at the title over three decades later in a more intimate, chamber production for audiences in Leicester, Bristol and Southampton has been truly fulfilling. Musical theatre can have the unfair reputation of bring superficial and trite, boasting wafer-thin characters. I think KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, with its timeless focus on the human spirit and the human heart, is one of the finest examples of a writing team all being on the same page. To delve into its complex core with this fabulous cast and creative team has been an honour.
Thank you for coming to see the show and for supporting live theatre - especially a title that doesn't come around very often. I hope more than anything that you enjoy being caught in its web.
PAUL FOSTER, Director
