Kiss Me Kate – Broadway Musical

At Roundabout Theatre – Previews Feb 2019

Kiss Me, Kate is a Broadway musical written by Samuel and Bella Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off-stage between Fred Graham, the show’s director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul of some gangsters. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.
Kiss Me, Kate was Porter’s response to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and other integrated musicals; it was the first show he wrote in which the music and lyrics were firmly connected to the script. The musical premiered in 1948 and proved to be Porter’s only show to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway. In 1949, it won the first Tony Award for Best Musical.

Kiss Me Kate

Studio 54 on Broadway
First Preview 14, Feb 2019
Opening Night 14, Mar 2019

Last Performance Jun 30 2019

30 Previews & 125 Performances

Cast 2019

Will Chase – Fred Graham / Petruchio
Kelli O’Hara – Kate/Lilli Vanessi
Terence Archie – Harrison Howell
Corbin Bleu – Bill Calhoun / Lucentio
Mel Johnson, Jr. – Harry Trevor / Baptista
James T. Lane – Paul
John Pankow – Gangster (First Man)
Stephanie Styles – Broadway debut – Lois Lane / Bianca
Adrienne Walker – Hattie
Lance Coadie Williams – Gangster (Second Man)
Phillip Attmore – Ensemble
Darius Barnes – Ensemble
Preston Truman Boyd – Ensemble
Will Burton – Ensemble
Derrick Cobey – Ensemble
Jesmille Darbouze – Broadway debut – Ensemble
Rick Faugno – Ensemble
Haley Fish – Ensemble
Tanya Haglund – Ensemble
Erica Mansfield – Ensemble
Marissa McGowan – Ensemble
Sarah Meahl – Ensemble
Christine Cornish Smith – Ensemble
Sherisse Springer – Broadway debut – Ensemble
Sam Strasfeld – Ensemble
Ron Todorowski – Ensemble

Creative

Book by Sam Spewack and Bella Spewack
Music by Cole Porter
Lyrics by Cole Porter
Music orchestrated by Larry Hochman
Dance arrangements by David Chase
Additional Material by: Amanda Green
Musical Director: Paul Gemignani
Directed by Scott Ellis
Choreographed by Warren Carlyle
Scenic Design by David Rockwell
Costume Design by Jeff Mahshie
Lighting Design by Donald Holder
Sound Design by Brian Ronan
Hair and Wig Design by David Brian Brown

Original Broadway Production

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 1949 original cast recording has been inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry for the album’s “cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy”.

Looking for Kiss Me Kate Memorabilia from Past Production

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Cole Porter

Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs.

After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and ’30s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, Kiss Me, Kate. It won the first Tony Award for Best Musical.

Porter’s other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady, Anything Goes, Can-Can and Silk Stockings. His numerous hit songs include “Night and Day“, “Begin the Beguine“, “I Get a Kick Out of You“, “Well, Did You Evah!“, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin“, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” and “You’re the Top“. He also composed scores for films from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Born to Dance (1936), which featured the song “You’d Be So Easy to Love“; Rosalie (1937), which featured “In the Still of the Night“; High Society (1956), which included “True Love“; and Les Girls (1957).