Stage to Screen: Kiss Me Kate

             Hello, friends and enemies - here's another blogathon article! This is my entry for the 4th Broadway Bound Blogathon: Tony Edition hosted by Taking Up Room. 

            1953's Kiss Me Kate is an adaptation of Cole Porter's Tony-winning stage show, which in turn revolves around a show-within-a-show of Shakespeare's the Taming of the Shrew. Less confusing than it sounds, I promise!

Stage Show (1948-49)

            Kiss Me, Kate the stage show is awarded a lot of firsts: it was Cole Porter's first integrated musical, meaning all of the songs and lyrics connect directly to the plot. This was the vogue at the time, and Porter wrote Kiss Me, Kate in response to big integrated-musical hits like Oklahoma! It was the first, and only, of Cole Porter's shows to run for over 1,000 performances on Broadway. And it was the first-ever show to win a Tony award for Best Musical! Needless to say, it was a smash success.

            The plot of the show revolves around a production of the Taming of the Shrew. The stars are a divorced pair of  actors who constantly fight off-stage - based off of real-life married performers Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. (Anyone who's seen the Barkleys of Broadway will notice the similarities there, too!) The original Broadway cast starred Alfred Drake as Fred Graham, the director, producer, and star of Taming of the Shrew, and Patricia Morison as Lilli Vanessi, his former wife.

            As with all good shows, there's a secondary plot or three to keep things lively. They involve *deep breath* jealousy, resurfaced affairs, gangsters, gambling debts, conflicting love triangles, and plenty of misunderstandings.

            The secondary characters were played by Lisa Kirk (Lois Lane, a young actress whom Fred pursues to Lilli's dismay) and Harold Lang (Bill Calhoun, Lois's boyfriend and a gambler.)

            Kiss Me, Kate won five Tonys at the 3rd Tony Awards in 1949:

Best Musical

Best Author (Musical)

Tony Award for Producers (Musical)

Tony Award for Composer and Lyricist

Best Costume Designer

            Fun fact: the stage show's title has a comma (Kiss Me, Kate) but the movie's does not (Kiss Me Kate)!

Film (1953)

      

           

            We open in Venice - or rather in Fred Graham's apartment. The beginning of Kiss Me Kate has Cole Porter and Fred Graham (Ron Randell and Howard Keel) going over the score for Cole's new show, a musical adaptation of the Taming of the Shrew. They've invited Fred's ex-wife, Lilli (Kathryn Grayson), to sing Kate's part. Though the tension is obvious (as it would be), the mood lightens a little when Lilli and Fred sing the show's song "So in Love". Conveniently placed around them are photos of when they were a married show-biz team, which isn't lost on Lilli. Here we establish the plot: could Fred and Lilli - gasp - still be in love?

            Any thoughts on that front are interrupted by the arrival of Lois Lane (Ann Miller), a young actress. She also knows Fred - or "sweetie," as she calls him - who apparently promised her the part of Bianca in Cole's show. Lois expresses her delight in meeting all of them and greets Lilli with "I'm just nuts about your ex-husband!" Then she proceeds to invite a whole band into the apartment, strike up the song "Too Darn Hot," and shimmy around the room in a hot pink leotard with glitter and fringe trim. I love a good contrast scene, and Lois's bubbly personality couldn't be more different from Cole, Lilli, and Fred.

            Cole and Fred are enthusiastic about her performance but tell Lois that unfortunately they already cut "Too Darn Hot" from the show. Lilli wants nothing to do with Lois and tells the two men that she'll have to decline because the show might interfere with her honeymoon. Honeymoon?!  is the general reaction, except for Lois's hearty congratulations. Lilli leaves, but listens at the door as Cole and Fred offer her part to Lois. As they expected, Lilli returns and demands her part back. With this wonderful group camaraderie, rehearsals begin!

            Things are rocky from the start - Lilli hates Lois, Lilli hates Fred, and everybody knows they can't do the show without Lilli. Meanwhile, Lois's boyfriend Bill (Tommy Rall) is a gambler who spends money he doesn't have. After discovering Bill signed an IOU in Fred's name, she reproves him with the song-and-dance "Why Can't You Behave." There are trampolines!

            Fred visits Lilli in her dressing room on opening night, and they end up reminiscing about their honeymoon and their show career. They remember a song from a show they were in together, and waltz around the room singing "Wunderbar." You cannot convince me this setup wasn't inspired by the Barkleys. Even the dressing gowns match!

            After You'd Be Hard to Replace Wunderbar, it seems like things are looking up for Lilli and Fred. He even sends her flowers, the same ones from her wedding bouquet. Then we figure out that Lilli missed a note revealing the flowers were really for Lois. Fred lies about what the note says, but Lilli keeps it and says she'll read it later. Alas!

            The show begins in a marathon of musical numbers. Quite honestly the numbers are the best part of the film. Amazing costumes! Amazing songs! Amazing dances! There's "We Open in Venice," then "Tom, Dick, or Harry," then "I've Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua," then "I Hate Men." 

            A very brief summary of the Taming of the Shrew: Baptista has two daughters, Kate and Bianca. Three men want to marry Bianca, but none of them can until her older sister Kate, the shrew, is married. When Petruchio comes to "wive it wealthily," the suitors convince him to marry Kate, so he'll be wealthy and they can marry Bianca - it's a win-win! Only Kate doesn't want to marry anyone... so trouble ensues.

            After all the songs, trouble ensues for real. Petruchio (Fred) sings one more song to Kate, "Were Thine That Special Face." It's a romantic song... until Lilli reads the note from the flowers - onstage! She starts attacking Fred, verbally and physically, until it's basically a full-blown fight. 

            Thankfully, intermission comes, but now Lilli has had enough and she decides to leave the show. She calls her fiance, Tex Callaway, a cattle rancher from Texas. Fred, who needs her to stay in the show, tells the two gangsters that showed up to collect the IOU that he'll only be able to pay them if Lilli stays in the show. They keep her in the theatre (even holding her at gunpoint, which is a really dramatic turn?) Back in Fred's dressing room, Lois appears to thank him for paying off Bill's IOU. Anytime she's about to say what Bill did, Fred kisses her so the gangsters won't know that it wasn't really Fred's IOU. Of course, I bet you can guess what happens next - Bill and Lilli walk in and see the two of them together.

            Under threat, Lilli goes on for the second act. Onstage, Fred sings "Where is the Life That Late I Led," and backstage, Tex arrives. Lois recognizes Tex and begins flirting with him, to which an increasingly jealous Bill remarks, "Trying to annex Texas, huh?" She responds with the song "Always True to You in My Fashion" - in another complicated dress, so here we pause to admire the costumes!

            Designed by Walter Plunkett (of The Gay Divorcee and Gone With the Wind and Singin' in the Rain fame), the Kiss Me Kate costumes are colorful, magical, and a little crazy. Whoever said leggings weren't popular in 1500s Italy?

            The gangsters receive a phone call that their boss is dead, and therefore the IOU is overturned. This also means that Lilli is free to go, and though Fred tries to convince her to stay, she leaves (in Tex's really strange car which sports massive cattle horns on the top.) The gangsters cheer up Fred with the song "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," about how everyone will love you if you'll only start quoting the Bard.

            Fred prepares to go on with an understudy, but when none appears, a miracle happens - Lilli comes back. The show comes to a happy close, with Lois and Bill reunited and Lilli and Fred back together as well. It's a little bit of a rushed ending, but "all's well that ends well", I suppose.

            That's Kiss Me Kate! The story is a little dated, like most 1950s plots inevitably are. However, it's worth a watch for the lovely score and the costumes. There are some really funny comedic scenes and a whole lot of wonderful dance numbers for Ann Miller. I also loved Kathryn Grayson in Kate's role and I'll definitely watch more of her films in the future!

            I had lots of fun participating in another blogathon! As always, it's nice to watch a movie I've never seen before, and I really enjoyed Kiss Me Kate. Thanks for reading!