# Kiss Me Kate
**Kiss Me, Kate** is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by [Cole Porter](https://www.edgepedia.org/cole-porter) and a book by Bella and Samuel Spewack, based on [William Shakespeare](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-shakespeare)'s *The Taming of the Shrew*. It tells of a divorced acting couple, Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, who feud onstage and off while starring in a musical version of Shakespeare's play, and it opened on Broadway on December 30, 1948 at the New Century Theatre, running 1,077 performances and winning the first [Tony Award for Best Musical](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-award-for-best-musical).[1](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kiss-me-kate-2054) • [2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Broadway run | Opened December 30, 1948 at the New Century Theatre; transferred to the Shubert Theatre on July 31, 1950; closed July 28, 1951 after 1,077 performances[1](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kiss-me-kate-2054) |
| Creators | Music and lyrics by Cole Porter; book by Bella and Samuel Spewack; based on *The Taming of the Shrew*; produced by Saint Subber and Lemuel Ayers[1](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kiss-me-kate-2054) |
| Original leads | Alfred Drake (Fred Graham/Petruchio), Patricia Morison (Lilli Vanessi/Katharine), Lisa Kirk (Lois Lane/Bianca), Harold Lang (Bill Calhoun/Lucentio)[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) |
| Awards | Winner of the first Tony Award for Best Musical (1949) and five 1949 Tonys overall; the 1999 revival won five 2000 Tony Awards including Best Revival[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) |
| Recording milestone | The 1948 Columbia Records original cast album was the first Broadway cast recording issued on LP[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) |
| Film version | MGM, 1953, directed by George Sidney, with Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, and Ann Miller; shot in both flat and 3-D versions but never released in 3-D[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25428/kiss-me-kate-1953) |
| Major revivals | Broadway 1999 (Martin Beck Theatre, 881 performances) and 2019 (Studio 54, Roundabout Theatre Company)[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) • [4](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-show/kiss-me-kate-5083) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and structure
The show is a musical-within-a-musical. In a Baltimore theater in 1948, a company rehearses and performs a musical version of *The Taming of the Shrew*, with egotistical actor-director Fred Graham as Petruchio and his movie-star ex-wife Lilli Vanessi as [Katherine](https://www.edgepedia.org/katherine). The two argue constantly, and the backstage story, including Fred's interest in the young actress [Lois Lane](https://www.edgepedia.org/lois-lane) and a $10,000 IOU signed in Fred's name by Lois's gambling boyfriend Bill, mirrors and disrupts the Shakespeare plot they are performing.[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948)
The double plot is the show's defining device. Two gangsters pursuing the gambling debt turn up backstage and, to keep the show (and their money) alive, force Lilli to stay; they later end up onstage in Shakespearean costume performing "Brush Up Your Shakespeare."[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) Scholars have read the two levels differently. One analysis argues that the backstage drama progressively overwhelms the embedded Shakespeare performance, so that *The Taming of the Shrew* is not straightforwardly adapted but disturbed, as when a gunman shoots a prop bird during Katherine's wedding scene.[5](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/19002/1/Hannah%20Robbins%20-%20Entertainment%20and%20Theatricality%20in%20KMK%20%28Final%20Thesis%20Doc%29.pdf) A music-theoretical study by Michael Buchler, a music theorist whose work appears in the *Journal of the Society for American Music*, identifies three formal rotations of musical and dramatic material cutting across the show's two acts, tying the framing and framed shows together and portraying the narrative as united rather than bifurcated.[6](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-society-for-american-music/article/abs/musical-structure-dramatic-form-and-song-pairings-in-cole-porters-kiss-me-kate/90C777949FAFBCC90A3744F1ED3A50B0)
## Original production
The show was produced by Saint Subber and Lemuel Ayers, staged and directed by John C. Wilson, and choreographed by Hanya Holm, with orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett, incidental ballet music arranged by Genevieve Pitot, and scenic and costume design by Lemuel Ayers.[1](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kiss-me-kate-2054) The original Broadway cast had 40 members including chorus.[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) Alfred Drake and Patricia Morison played Fred and Lilli until June 3, 1950, with replacements including [Keith Andes](https://www.edgepedia.org/keith-andes), Anne Jeffreys, and Lisa Kirk's vacation substitute Julie Wilson.[1](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kiss-me-kate-2054)
According to the scholarly literature, the genesis lay in producer Arnold Saint Subber's backstage inspiration from *The Taming of the Shrew*, after which the Spewacks and Porter transformed the play's misogyny into a witty double-plot musical.[7](https://academic.oup.com/mississippi-scholarship-online/book/61978/chapter-abstract/548473168) Archival research by Hannah Robbins documents the stringent cuts the Spewacks made to Shakespeare's play, erasing scenes, characters, and plot details to create a potted version usable alongside the backstage story, and shows Bella Spewack and Porter working together on an alternative plotline for Katherine.[8](https://academic.oup.com/book/62695/chapter-abstract/562071122)
## Songs
Porter's score includes "Another Op'nin', Another Show," "Why Can't You Behave," "Wunderbar," "So in Love," "We Open in Venice," "Tom, Dick or Harry," "I've Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua," "I Hate Men," "Were Thine That Special Face," "Too Darn Hot," "Where Is the Life That Late I Led?", "Always True to You (In My Fashion)", "Bianca," and "Brush Up Your Shakespeare."[1](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kiss-me-kate-2054) Several numbers are sung in character within the Shrew scenes, while others belong to the backstage world, such as "Too Darn Hot," sung by Paul and the crew during intermission.[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948)
The score's standing is high among critics: Variety called the show "the crowning achievement of Cole Porter's long and celebrated career on Broadway," and the *New York Times* described the score as "an astonishing encyclopedia of musical comedy style."[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) A 1949 *TIME* cover story on Porter appeared as the show made a splash on Broadway.[9](https://time.com/4355178/cole-porter-1949-cover-story/)
## Awards and recordings
In 1949 the show won the first Tony Award for Best Musical, along with Tonys for the Spewacks' book, Porter's score, Lemuel Ayers's costume design, and the producers, five awards in all.[1](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kiss-me-kate-2054) • [2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) The original cast album, issued in 1948 by [Columbia Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-records), was the first Broadway cast recording issued on LP; two original cast recordings exist, one from 1949 recorded a fortnight after the Broadway opening and another from 1959 when the cast reunited for a stereo recording.[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) • [10](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10486800802583091)
A London production opened on March 8, 1951 at the Coliseum Theatre and ran 400 performances.[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948)
## Revivals
The 1999 Broadway revival, a revised version staged at the Martin Beck Theatre, starred Marin Mazzie and [Brian Stokes Mitchell](https://www.edgepedia.org/brian-stokes-mitchell) and ran 881 performances; it won five 2000 [Tony Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-awards), including Best Revival and Best Orchestrations, and six 2000 Drama Desk Awards. The same production played about 300 performances at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, with Mazzie and Brent Barrett.[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) In 2018 the Roundabout Theatre Company presented a newly revised version starring [Kelli O'Hara](https://www.edgepedia.org/kelli-ohara) and Will Chase; it ran at Studio 54 from March 14 to June 30, 2019 and received four Tony nominations, including Best Musical Revival, winning the 2019 Drama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical.[2](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948) • [4](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-show/kiss-me-kate-5083)
## The 1953 film
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released a film adaptation in 1953, directed by George Sidney from a screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley, starring [Kathryn Grayson](https://www.edgepedia.org/kathryn-grayson) as Lilli, Howard Keel as Fred, Ann Miller as Lois, and [Keenan Wynn](https://www.edgepedia.org/keenan-wynn) and [James Whitmore](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-whitmore) as the hoodlums.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25428/kiss-me-kate-1953) • [11](https://hcmc.uvic.ca/eol/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Theater/production/recorded/591/index.html) The film appropriates all the songs from the stage production, with the addition of "From This Moment On," originally written for another Porter musical, but alters many of the Broadway version's suggestive lyrics; a reference to the Kinsey Report in "Too Darn Hot," for example, became "the latest report."[12](https://wwws.loc.gov/rr/mopic/findaid/Shakespeare.pdf) Bob Fosse, appearing as one of Bianca's suitors, choreographed the "From This Moment On" number, his first film choreography.[13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/kiss-me-kate-3-d) • [14](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/1127)
The film was shot in both flat and 3-D versions, but the rapid decline of the 3-D fad meant it was never released in its 3-D version, though the staging used 3-D gags such as characters throwing objects at the camera.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25428/kiss-me-kate-1953) • [13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/kiss-me-kate-3-d) Critics have treated the film as a screwball musical rooted in the comedies of remarriage, and it holds a 93% rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/kiss-me-kate-3-d) • [15](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kiss-me-kate1953) Scholarship notes that the film modifies dialogue, staging, and character portrayals to suit Hollywood conventions, and that its conservatism, including the softening of the stage version's suggestiveness, throws the original production's relative boldness into relief.[7](https://academic.oup.com/mississippi-scholarship-online/book/61978/chapter-abstract/548473168) • [16](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/smt.6.2.173_1)
## Reception and scholarship
The show is widely acknowledged as one of the significant works of the "Golden age" of American musical theater and is Porter's most commercially successful Broadway musical.[5](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/19002/1/Hannah%20Robbins%20-%20Entertainment%20and%20Theatricality%20in%20KMK%20%28Final%20Thesis%20Doc%29.pdf) Its integration of song and story has been debated: Dan Rebellato, a professor of drama at [Royal Holloway, University of London](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-holloway-university-of-london), argues in *Contemporary Theatre Review* that despite often being considered Porter's most integrated musical, the show flaunts its resistance to integration between number and narrative.[10](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10486800802583091) John R. Severn of the [University of New South Wales](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-new-south-wales) has read the contrasting onstage and offstage storylines, the former all-white and focused on domesticity, the latter multiracial and focused on professional life, as a response to postwar discourses on women's return to domesticity, female fidelity, and racial integration.[16](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/smt.6.2.173_1) Robbins's monograph *Too Darn Hot: Kiss Me, Kate & the Making and Remaking of a Broadway Musical* (Oxford University Press) examines the show's making and remaking across stage and screen.[8](https://academic.oup.com/book/62695/chapter-abstract/562071122)
## References
1. [Kiss Me, Kate – Broadway Musical – Original, IBDB](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/kiss-me-kate-2054)
2. [Kiss Me, Kate (Original 1948), Concord Theatricals](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65754/kiss-me-kate-original-1948)
3. [Kiss Me Kate (1953), Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25428/kiss-me-kate-1953)
4. [Kiss Me, Kate – Broadway Show, IBDB](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-show/kiss-me-kate-5083)
5. [Robbins, Hannah M. (2017). 'A Chance for Stage Folks to Say "Hello"': Entertainment and Theatricality in Kiss Me, Kate. PhD thesis, University of Sheffield.](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/19002/1/Hannah%20Robbins%20-%20Entertainment%20and%20Theatricality%20in%20KMK%20%28Final%20Thesis%20Doc%29.pdf)
6. [Buchler, Michael (2018). Musical Structure, Dramatic Form, and Song Pairings in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate. Journal of the Society for American Music.](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-society-for-american-music/article/abs/musical-structure-dramatic-form-and-song-pairings-in-cole-porters-kiss-me-kate/90C777949FAFBCC90A3744F1ED3A50B0)
7. [Dick, Bernard F. (2025). Journey's End: Kiss Me, Kate, in The Musicals of Cole Porter. University Press of Mississippi.](https://academic.oup.com/mississippi-scholarship-online/book/61978/chapter-abstract/548473168)
8. [Robbins, Hannah. Adapting The Taming of the Shrew, in Too Darn Hot: Kiss Me, Kate & the Making and Remaking of a Broadway Musical. Oxford University Press.](https://academic.oup.com/book/62695/chapter-abstract/562071122)
9. [Inside Cole Porter's Songwriting Process, TIME](https://time.com/4355178/cole-porter-1949-cover-story/)
10. [Rebellato, Dan (2009). 'No Theatre Guild Attraction Are We': Kiss Me, Kate and the Politics of the Integrated Musical. Contemporary Theatre Review 19(1).](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10486800802583091)
11. [Kiss Me Kate (1953, George Sidney), Internet Shakespeare Editions](https://hcmc.uvic.ca/eol/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Theater/production/recorded/591/index.html)
12. [Shakespeare on Film and Television, Library of Congress finding aid](https://wwws.loc.gov/rr/mopic/findaid/Shakespeare.pdf)
13. [Kiss Me Kate: 3-D, Time Out film review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/kiss-me-kate-3-d)
14. [Kiss Me Kate. 1953. Directed by George Sidney, MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/1127)
15. [Kiss Me Kate (1953), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kiss-me-kate1953)
16. [Severn, John R. (2012). A (white) woman's (ironic) places in Kiss Me, Kate and post-war America. Studies in Musical Theatre 6(2).](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/smt.6.2.173_1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Musical and music films (individual works) › Musical films of the 1930s to 1960s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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