| Kiss Me, Kate | |
|---|---|
| Music | Cole Porter |
| Lyrics | Cole Porter |
| Book | Samuel and Bella Spewack |
| Basis | Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew |
| Productions | 1948 Broadway 1951 West End 1999 Broadway revival 2001 West End revival 2007 Italian Version |
| Awards | Tony Award for Best Musical Tony Award Composer and Lyricist Tony Award for Best Author Tony Award for Best Revival Drama Desk Outstanding Revival Evening Standard for Best Musical Critics Circle for Best Musical |
Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.
Kiss Me, Kate was a comeback and a personal triumph for Cole Porter. After several successful musicals in the 1920s and 1930s, notably Gay Divorce, Fifty Million Frenchmen, and Anything Goes, he experienced an equestrian accident in 1937 that left him in constant pain.[1]
Following the accident, he continued to write songs and musicals but with limited success, such as Mexican Hayride, Let's Face It! and Something for the Boys, causing some to think he was past his prime. Kiss Me, Kate was a response to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and other integrated musicals, and it proved to be his biggest hit and the only one of his shows to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway.[2] It won the first Tony Award presented for Best Musical, in 1949.
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After a 3½-week pre-Broadway tryout at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia starting December 2, 1948, the original Broadway production opened on December 30, 1948, at the New Century Theatre, where it ran for nineteen months before transferring to the Shubert, for a total run of 1,077 performances. Directed by John C. Wilson with choreography by Hanya Holm, the original cast included Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk, Harold Lang, Charles Wood and Harry Clark.
The original West End production opened on March 8, 1951 at the Coliseum Theatre, and ran for 400 performances. Directed by Sam Spewack with choreography again by Holm, this production starred Patricia Morison, Bill Johnson and Julie Wilson.
A London revival opened in December 1970 at the London Coliseum, in a production by the Sadler's Wells Opera. The cast featured Emile Belcourt (Petruchio), Judith Bruce, Eric Shilling, Ann Howard (Kate), Francis Egerton, Robert Lloyd, with direction by Peter Coe and choreography by Sheila O'Neill. Coe did a translation for British audiences, including having "a tea wagon", and included "traditional English music hall jokes".[3] This revival had a "brief run", according to the Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre.[4][5]
A Broadway revival opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on November 18, 1999 and closed on December 30, 2001 after 881 performances and 28 previews. Directed by Michael Blakemore and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall and Rob Ashford, the opening night cast included Marin Mazzie, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Amy Spanger, Michael Berresse, Ron Holgate, Lee Wilkof, and Michael Mulheren. This production won the Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for Mitchell; Marin Mazzie received a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, and Michael Berresse, Lee Wilkof and Michael Mulheren received Tony nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
A West End revival opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre on October 30, 2001 and closed on August 24, 2002. As with the 1999 Broadway revival, Michael Blakemore was the director with choreography by Kathleen Marshall. Brent Barrett and Marin Mazzie co-starred.[6]
The Italian version opened at the Teatro delle Celebrazioni in Bologna on December 31, 2007.
A Canadian production opened on June 8, 2010, in Stratford, Ontario. Kiss Me, Kate had also been produced in Canada as the choice for a musical at the annual Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, in the early 1990s.
The Swiss-German version of the show opened on December 30, 2010, in Zentrum Bühne Bottighofen, Switzerland and had 14 successful performances.
In November 2011, the Minerva Theatre Group in Glasgow opened a version of the show at The Mitchell Theatre which ran for 5 performances from the 8th to the 12 of Novermber. The show starred Cathrine Usher as Lilli Vanessi/“Kate”, Jim McPhee as Fred Graham/“Pertruchio” and Eleanor Docherty as Lois Lane/Bianca”.
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama performed the show from July 5 - July 13 2011.
Act I
The story begins with the cast of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew rehearsing (Another Op'nin', Another Show), getting ready for the opening of the show,(having Ralph get everything prepared), which is that day. Egotistical Frederick C. Graham is the director and producer, as well as playing Petruchio, and his movie-star ex-wife, Lilli Vanessi, is playing Katherine (the titular Kate). The two are not fond of each other and frequently bicker and insult each other. During the rehearsal, Fred upsets Lilli by appearing more interested in young and sexually promiscuous actress Lois Lane, playing Bianca, who is romantically involved with actor Bill Calhoun, playing Lucentio. After the rehearsal, Bill, who had been missing, appears and reveals that he had been gambling, to which he is addicted. He lost $10,000, and to get away, signed an IOU in Fred's name. Lois reprimands him (Why Can't You Behave).
Meanwhile, Lilli and Fred argue backstage shortly before the opening. They recap experiences that happened in their past, and Lilli reminds Fred of the first anniversary of their divorce. As well, it is revealed that Lilli has a lover who has some political importance. However, they end up reminiscing fondly (Wunderbar), and kiss before being interrupted by Ralph, the stage manager. After returning to their dressing rooms, Lilli receives flowers from Fred, and realizes that she still loves him (So in Love). However, we find out that the flowers were meant to be delivered to Lois, and that there is a card with them that reveals it. As well, before the show, two gangsters show up to collect the money that Fred lost earlier while gambling, though it was really Bill who lost the money. They threaten him and tell him that they will be sitting in the first row. The actors go onstage to begin the show.
The show begins (We Open in Venice), and we are introduced to the main characters. Baptista, the father of Katherine and Bianca, will not allow Bianca to marry until Katherine is married. However, she is shrewish and ill-tempered, and no man desires to marry her. Three suitors - Lucentio, Hortensio, and Gremio - try to woo Bianca (Tom, Dick, or Harry). After this, Petruchio, a friend of Lucentio, arrives and expresses a desire to marry into wealth (I've Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua). The suitors hatch a plan for him to marry Kate, as Baptista is rich. A happy Lilli, as Kate, sings about her desire to not be married (I Hate Men). Petruchio attempts to woo her unsuccessfully (Were Thine That Special Face). After this number, however, Lilli reads the card that came with the flowers and discovers that they were for Lois. She storms back onto the stage off-cue and Fred is forced to improvise. She begins hitting him on stage, and claims to want to leave in the middle of the show. Fred, fed up, spanks her on stage, as Petruchio, causing a massive frenzy. Ralph, the stage manager, then keeps the show going by forcing 3 dancers to make up a dance while the Pit Orchestra kept on playing.
Fred then (Being his dramatic self) complains to the stage manager, Ralph, of his "Wounds". Then, Lilli decides to leave in the middle of the performance, and calls her lover. As well, the gangsters re-appear in Fred's dressing room. He tells them that he would have the money if the show could run, but it can't, since Lilli decided to quit. The gangsters force her to play the show until Fred can pay his debt. Back on stage, Petruchio and Katherine have been married (Cantiamo D'Amore) in a ramshackle ceremony, and Petruchio and Katherine enter, followed by the gangsters. Lilli is forced to perform (Kiss Me Kate), and tries to run away, but Fred catches her and drags her off-stage, followed by the gangsters.
Act II
During intermission, the company, led by Paul (Fred's assistant), sings about how hot it is (Too Darn Hot). The play continues, as Petruchio begins to 'tame' Kate by not allowing her food. He sings about how he misses the bachelor life (Where Is the Life That Late I Led?). Off-stage, famous World War II general Harrison Howell arrives and is revealed to be engaged to Lilli. He demands to see Lilli and take her away, but Fred convinces him otherwise. It is revealed that Howell and Lois have been sexually involved in the past, and Bill complains about Lois's sexual promiscuity. However, she tells him that though she is promiscuous, she will always love him (Always True To You In My Fashion).
Lilli prepares to leave with the general (From This Moment On), and it is revealed that he intends to be Dewey's running mate for the upcoming election (an inconsistency because the play takes place in 1949, a year after the Dewey-Truman Election). Fred and the two gangsters reluctantly allow her to leave. Meanwhile, Bill realizes that he loves Lois, and writes her a love song that he performs with the cast off-stage (Bianca). Lois shows up and they kiss. Lilli leaves with the general after one last attempt by Fred to convince her to stay (So in Love (Reprise)). However, he is unsuccessful in convincing her, and they leave to get married.
The gangsters discover that their boss has been killed, so the IOU is no longer valid. They prepare to depart, but not before wishing Fred the best. While they leave, though, they get caught on stage and are forced to improvise (Brush Up Your Shakespeare). The company prepares for the conclusion of the play, not realizing that Lilli has left. In the play, Lucentio and Bianca have been married (Pavane), but Kate is not there, as she should be. The cast begins to search for her, but suddenly, she appears, having left the general. She is obedient to Fred and performs Kate's final speech from 'Taming' (I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple). Fred and Lilli wordlessly reconcile on stage, and the play ends (Kiss Me Kate (Finale)) with them, as well as Bill and Lois, kissing passionately.
A film version of the same name was released in 1953. There have been at least four television productions, the first on Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1958, with Drake and Morison reprising their Broadway roles[7], the second recorded for the launch of BBC Two in the UK in 1964, starring Howard Keel, Patricia Morison and Millicent Martin, the third in 1968 with then husband-and-wife team Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence, and the fourth in 2003 on Great Performances, a high-definition shot performance of the London revival with Brent Barrett and Rachel York.
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In 1998, the original cast recording of the 1948 Broadway production was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Tony Award | Best Musical | Won | |
| Best Book of a Musical | Samuel and Bella Spewack | Won | ||
| Best Original Score | Cole Porter | Won | ||
| Best Costume Design | Lemuel Ayers | Won | ||
| Best Producer of a Musical | Saint Subber and Lemuel Ayers | Won | ||
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Musical Revival | Nominated | |
| Best Actor in a Musical | Brent Barrett | Nominated | ||
| Best Actress in a Musical | Marin Mazzie | Nominated | ||
| Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical | Nancy Anderson | Nominated | ||
| Michael Berresse | Nominated | |||
| Best Director of a Musical | Michael Blakemore | Nominated | ||
| Best Theatre Choreographer | Kathleen Marshall | Nominated | ||
| Best Set Design | Robin Wagner | Nominated | ||
| Best Costume Design | Martin Pakledinaz | Nominated | ||
| Evening Standard Award | Best Musical | Won | ||
| Critics Circle Award | Best Musical | Won | ||
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