"Kiss Me, Kate" questions from a college student

Hi Everyone!

Im currently writing my final paper for my Musical Theatre History class about Cole Porter's 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate. Im having a little trouble finding a few answers to some questions I have, so I figured I would turn to the experts to see if any of you can help me out.

Here's some things I am curious about;

Was Kiss Me, Kate the first musical to implement the "show within a show" structure? If not, which musicals with this structure predated Kiss Me, Kate?

The show obviously has some outdated and sexist themes, but were these being discussed back when the show premiered? Were people aware of the problematic themes present?

How did the recent 2019 revival attempt to "modernize" the show to soften these problematic elements? I read that there was an effort made to fix the ending a bit, but I can't find very many first hand accounts about how well it worked.

Also if you have any other insight or opinions I would love to hear them :) Thank you for any help you are able to provide :)

The source material for KISS ME, KATE, Shakespeare's TAMING OF THE SHREW, is actually a play-within-a-play although it's rarely performed as such.

I think Showboat has KMK beat by several years as the first Broadway musical with a play within a play structure. However, KMK centers around one play, whereas Showboat has at least a couple going on I believe.

It’s also hard to define where the starting point for “Broadway” was. Technically, there were Broadway shows all the way back in the 1800’s, but these were mostly English plays (ie Shskespeare), melodramas, and musical reviews. The book musical as we know it today evolved gradually throught the first two or three decades of the 20th century. 
 

I’m going to guess and say no, in the 1940’s, there was probably little to no concern among the creative team about the show being sexist or misogynistic. However, the best way to find out would be to research “the making of” the show. Check out books and academic articles about Cole Porter that quote personnel involved in the original production.

I saw the Stokes-Mazzie revival twice, but not the most recent one. However, I read some of the reviews and puff pieces for the 2019 revival and a “book doctor” came in and did some pretty significant changes to make Fred less of a chauvanistic jerk. I believe a couple lyrics were changed as well. Interestingly, I remember critics basically saying that they made Fred too neutered and that overall, by trying to be more P.C., the production lacked fire, and didn’t really succeed in making it more “feminist.” It was generally not very warmly received, whereas the Stoles revival (which also had some book changes) was universally beloved.

Hope that helps.

Fan123 said: "https://www.americantheatre.org/2018/12/14/the-taming-of-kiss-me-kate/"

I was about to post this article! 
 

The story of the Bella Spewack and her involvement is fascinating. That’s a musical in itself! 

I almost missed the 2019 revival because there was not a lot of buzz, thankfully I went a few weeks before it closed, and the show was fully sold out on a weeknight and it was the best thing I have seen most likely on Broadway in my entire life. I'm a big fan of Kelli, and she even said her voice has lowered during The Pajama Game and I wasn't sure I'd enjoy her much in this but she gave the best performance I have ever seen in my life, she sounded absolutely flawless. She had a physical fight a second ago and then she was hitting insane notes and had terrific chemistry with Will Chase. Also, Corbin Bleu stole the show, the entire production was simply perfect. I LOVE Marin Mazzie so I'm sure she was excellent and I think she was on with Amy Spanger if I'm not mistaken, who I adore. So I can't compare those productions, but all I can say is that I don't think anything can be better than the 2019 Broadway revival, you can't beat perfection.

Take a look at James Shapiro's book Shakespeare in a Divided America. There's a lengthy chapter about Kiss Me Kate, detailing the particulars of the development of the show, the story of how Bella Spewack's work became diluted by contributions from her ex-husband, all the stuff mentioned in that American Theatre article shared earlier in this thread, just with more information and depth. Suffice it to say, there were absolutely differences in opinion among the original creative team about how to handle the portrayal of the women in the story.

You might want to contact the Shakespeare Theatre in DC. They staged an excellent version of KMK during their 2015/2016 season. Their playbills usually contain a couple of pages from the dramaturg offering context about the show. If that's the case, I think you might find that useful.

BTW, that production featured the amazing Robyn Hurder as Lois and her very talented husband Clyde Alves as Bill. For my money, Robyn stole the show in a supporting role.