Last week, I gave you a short history of Cole Porter’s musical, “Kiss Me, Kate.” Oh, but there are so many songs I missed. Like Bianca’s big number, “Tom, Dick or Harry.” Here is actress Ann Miller performing the tap-dance number in the 1953 movie version of “Kiss Me, Kate.” That dancer in the red and white get-up singing for her affection? Surprise! That’s Bob Fosse.
More “Kiss Me, Kate” songs from assorted productions after the jump.
In the early 1940s , Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein revolutionized musical theater with their show “Oklahoma!” which was not only a smash hit, but took the idea of integrating song and dance numbers into a story to new heights. But there was one person who was not so thrilled with their success—composer and lyricist Cole Porter. Porter seemed to take the opening of “Oklahoma!” as a challenge to create his own fully enmeshed musical. And so he began writing a little play called “Kiss Me, Kate,” a musical that takes place behind the scenes of a production of William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” The twist? The director and star of the play casts his ex-wife as the infamously reluctant in love Katherine, while he sets out to woo the actress playing Bianca.
The Broadway show was an instant smash with Alfred Drake and Patricia Morison in the lead roles. It won the very first Tony Award for Best Musical in 1949.
Annoying thing #2 that happens when you are named Kate: you are regularly confronted with people making references to the musical “Kiss Me, Kate.” Annoying thing #1 that happens when you are named Kate: sometimes, said references are made by a person who, until that moment, you had found attractive.
But apparently Katie Holmes does not have the same aversion to the Cole Porter musical that I do. In fact, she loves it.
When recently asked about romantic things Tom Cruise has done for her, she said, “Two years ago he took me up on his P-51 Mustang, a fighter plane from World War II. He painted the words, ‘Kiss Me, Kate’ on the side.”
Got a Kate-
