Theatre Register
Kiss Me, Kate!

Kiss Me, Kate

Shows · Kiss Me, Kate

After having collaborated ten years earlier on Leave It to Me!, Cole Porter and the husband-wife team of Samuel and Bella Spewack were reunited for Kiss Me, Kate, the composer’s biggest hit and the fourth longest running musical of the Forties. The idea for the show began germinating in 1935 when producer Saint Subber, then a stagehand for the Theatre Guild’s production of The Taming of the Shrew, became aware that i…

Opened
1948
Performances
1,077
Type
Musical
Era
Golden Age
Music: Cole PorterLyrics: Cole PorterBook: Samuel Spewack & Bella Spewack

Productions5 on Broadway

1948 New Century Theatre Original. December 30, 1948 · John C. Wilson 1,077 performances · 3 Tony wins
1952 Broadway Theatre Revival. January 8, 1952 · John C. Wilson 8 performances
1999 Martin Beck Theatre Revival. November 18, 1999 · Michael Blakemore 881 performances
2001 Victoria Palace Theatre Transfer.
2019 Studio 54 Revival. March 14, 2019 · Scott Ellis 257 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Licensing 6 entries

US Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available
US Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available
US Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available
UK Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available
UK Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available
UK Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature43 passages

Cullum played him as John Barrymore, with the love-hate relationship of Oscar and Lily also recalling Fred and Lili in Kiss Me, Kate. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p241

Wilson, John C. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Kiss Me, Kate book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p387

West Side Story (1957) and Sensations(1970), both from Romeo and Juliet; Kiss Me, Kate (1948), from The Taming of the Shrew; Swingin'the Dream (1939) and Babes in the Wood(1964), both from A Midsummer Night's Dream; Love and Let Love (1968), Your Own Thing (1968), and Music Is (1976), all from Twelfth Night; Two Gentle… book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p131

The musicals of the post-Oklahoma! era seemed overly populated with these hoyden Jejune Allyson types (Daisy in Bloomer Girl, Hildy in On the Town, Carrie in Carousel, Lois in Kiss Me, Kate, Cissy in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Lola in Seventeen, and Hilda in Plain and Fancy). book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p57

(A few years later “From This Moment On” came into its own when it was interpolated into MGM’s 1953 film version of Kiss Me, Kate where it was performed by Ann Miller, Tommy Rall, Bob Fosse, Bobby Van, Jeannie Coyne, and Carol Haney.) book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p116

Alfred Drake was approached to play the King, but turned down the offer (allegedly because he didn’t want to commit to another long run, a la Kiss Me, Kate; but perhaps he was concerned that his character had so little to sing). book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p140

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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