Brush up your Shakespeare

Start quoting him now

Brush up your Shakespeare

And the women you will wow

One the few musicals based on Shakespeare's plays to have had enduring success, Kiss Me, Kate is also Cole Porter's longest-running Broadway musical and probably his most successful show in an artistic sense as well. Inspired by The Taming of the Shrew, it introduced such standards as 'Too Darn Hot' and 'So In Love', frequently covered by diverse recording artists.

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Plot

At a theatre in Baltimore, the cast and crew of a production of a musical re-working of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew get ready for opening night. However, the performance is thrown into chaos due to the backstage antics of the leading players, who seem to resemble their characters more than would be thought desirable. Director and star Fred Graham is bickering with his ex-wife (and ex Hollywood icon) Lilli Vanessi, while nightclub singer Lois Lane¹ tries to live up to her character Bianca's reputation as a woman of many suitors. Her boyfriend, Bill Calhoun (playing Lucentio) manages to run up a gambling debt that gets gangsters on the scene, and the relationship between Fred and Lilli descends into on-stage violence. She continues to play her part at gunpoint while Lois flirts with everyone in sight. Somehow, they manage to reach the end of the first performance, with the possibility of a happy ending for the lovers.

Principal Characters

Musical Numbers

Film

Another Op'nin'...

Although some consider it dated, with much of the music having an operetta flavour, Kiss Me, Kate refuses to die. It has resurfaced several times in London and had a major Broadway revival starring Brian Stokes Mitchell in 1999, which ran for just over two years and transferred to the West End, where the production was filmed for posterity with a cast that included Brent Barrett and Rachel York. This production interpolated 'From This Moment On' as a comic duet for Lilli and Harrison, a move that pleased and perplexed Broadway fans in equal measure.

More surprising than its continued success on a professional level is the popularity of Kiss Me, Kate on the amateur circuit. Given the disparity in the numbers of male and female parts, and the fact that four of the principal male roles are dance roles, it would seem to be a terrible choice for most amateur groups, which tend to have more women than men and very few of the men they do have can dance. However, the evergreen score and the tempting roles of Fred, Lilli and the gangsters will probably keep the show as part of the staple diet of amateur companies for some time to come. Performers and audiences always seem to want to brush up their Shakespeare.