KISS ME, KATE (1946), a Largely Fictional Biography of Porter, with Cary Grant Implausibly Cast in the Lead
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AUDIENCE GUIDE 2018 - 2019 | Our 59th Season | Issue 5 Issue | Season 59th Our 2019 | May 17—June 16, 2019 Season Sponsors Cole Porter's delightful songs are some He described Kiss Me, Kate as “the of the most sophisticated, witty, and perfect Skylight show because the book melodious ever written for the American and music reflect our continuing mission theater. Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate, of telling stories that sing. The score considered one of Broadway’s greatest covers a wide range of styles, mirroring treasures, won the very first Tony Award Skylight’s goal of presenting the full for Best Musical. spectrum of music theatre. It is a delicious challenge for our cast of The sparkling score follows the onstage versatile performers who sing, dance romance and backstage antics of a cast and easily handle the musical’s witty putting on a musical version of William dialogue along with Shakespearean Shakespeare’s The Taming of the text,” he said. Shrew. This brilliant battle of the sexes features such unforgettable songs as Kiss Me, Kate first opened on Broadway Too Darn Hot, So In Love, Always True in 1948, had a Broadway revival in 1999 To You In My Fashion and Another and is currently running in a new Research/Writing by Op’nin’, Another Show. revival on Broadway and has been Justine Leonard for ENLIGHTEN, nominated for a 2019 Tony Award as Kiss Me, Kate was inspired by the Skylight Music Theatre’s Education Program the Best Revival of a musical. This is backstage bickering of famous husband- the first time Skylight has produced the Edited by Ray Jivoff and-wife actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn show. The Los Angeles Times called [email protected] Fontanne during their 1935 production of Kiss Me, Kate, “A classic to be The Taming of the Shrew. Alfred Lunt savored…enormous delight.” Variety was a Wisconsin native and the couple said, “Vibrant, colorful… exhilarating!” owned Ten Chimneys, now a Kiss Me, Kate isn’t just Another Op’nin’, southeastern Wisconsin landmark. Another Show. It’s a classic from the Ray Jivoff will direct Kiss Me, Kate, Golden Age of American musical 158 N. Broadway marking his final show in his role as theatre. It’s a must see! Milwaukee, WI 53202 Skylight Music Theatre artistic director. (414) 291-7811 www.skylightmusictheatre.org This guide is available online at skylightmusictheatre.org Unlike many successful Broadway including a song about a streetwalker, composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as Love for Sale. The lyric was well as the music for his songs. In considered too explicit for radio play, 1916, Porter's first Broadway though it was recorded and aired as production, See America First, a an instrumental and rapidly became a "patriotic comic opera" modeled standard. Porter often referred to it as on Gilbert and Sullivan, was a flop, his favorite song. closing after two weeks. Next came Fred Astaire's last stage In 1917, when the United States show, Gay Divorcee (1932). It featured entered World War I, Porter moved to a hit that became Porter's best-known Paris and joined the French Foreign song, Night and Day. Porter followed Legion. Even during the war, Porter this with a show for Gertrude maintained an apartment in Paris, Lawrence, Nymph Errant (1933), which where he entertained lavishly. His ran for 154 performances. parties were extravagant and scandalous, with "much gay and In 1934, Porter wrote what many bisexual activity, with guests that consider his greatest score of this included nobility, celebrities and a period, Anything Goes, which was an Cole Albert Porter (1891 – 1964) was large surplus of recreational drugs". immediate hit. Its songs include I Get born in Peru, Indiana, the only child of a Kick Out of You, All Through the a wealthy family. His father, Samuel In 1918, he met Linda Lee Thomas, a Night, You're the Top (one of his best- Fenwick Porter, was a druggist and rich, Kentucky-born divorcée eight known list songs), and Blow, Gabriel, his mother, Kate was the daughter of years his senior who became Porter's Blow, as well as the title number. J.O.Cole, "the richest man in Indiana," confidante and companion. The a coal and timber speculator. couple married the following year. She He followed that with Jubilee (1935), knew about Porter's homosexuality, which was not a major hit, but it Porter began his musical training at an but it was mutually advantageous for featured two songs that have become early age. He learned the violin at age them to marry and they were standards, Begin the Beguine and six, the piano at eight, and wrote his genuinely devoted to each other. They Just One of Those Things. first operetta at ten. His mother remained married from 1919, until her falsified his recorded birth year, death in 1954. Anything Goes was the first of five changing it from 1891 to 1893 to make Porter shows featuring Ethel Merman. him appear more precocious. At the age of 36, Porter returned to He loved her loud, brassy voice and Broadway in 1928 with the musical wrote many songs that displayed her Porter was sent to Worcester Paris, his first hit. The songs for the strengths. Red, Hot and Blue (1936), Academy in Massachusetts in 1905. show included Let's Misbehave and featuring Merman, Jimmy Durante He brought a piano with him and one of his best-known songs, Let's Do and Bob Hope, introduced It's found that music, and his ability to It. Porter then wrote the score for a De-Lovely and Ridin' High. entertain, made it easy for him to revue, Wake Up and Dream, which make friends. opened on Broadway in 1929. His song What Is This Thing Called Love? Entering Yale University in 1909, became immensely popular. Porter majored in English and minored in music. He was a member of several fraternities, and contributed to the His last show of the 1920s was Fifty campus humor magazine, The Yale Million Frenchmen (1929), for which he Record. He was an early member of wrote 28 songs, including You Do the Wiffenpoofs, Yale’s famous Something to Me, You've Got That a capella singing group. Thing and The Tale of the Oyster. The show closed after only three weeks despite support from Irving Berlin, who Porter wrote 300 songs while at Yale, took out an advertisement calling the including the football fight songs show "The best musical comedy I've Bulldog and Bingo Eli Yale that are heard in years...One of the best still played at the school today. After collections of songs I have ever graduating, Porter enrolled in Harvard heard." By the 1930s, he was one of Law School in 1913. But he defied his the major Broadway composers. domineering grandfather who wanted him to be a lawyer and switched to Harvard's music department. Porter’s score for The New Yorkers (1930) acquired instant notoriety for AUDIENCE GUIDE | KISS ME, KATE (1946), a largely fictional biography of Porter, with Cary Grant implausibly cast in the lead. The film was a huge box office hit, chiefly because of the wealth of vintage Porter numbers in it. The biopic's success was in stark contrast to the failure of the film The Pirate (1948), with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, in which five new Porter songs received little attention. From this low spot, Porter made a Porter also wrote for Hollywood conspicuous comeback in 1948 movies in the mid-1930s, including with Kiss Me, Kate. It was by far his Born to Dance (1936), with James most successful show, running for Stewart, featuring Easy to Love and 1,077 performances in New York. I've Got You Under My Skin, and It was made into a successful MGM Rosalie (1937), featuring In the Still of musical in 1953. the Night. Porter began the 1950s with Out Of Few people, except his closest friends Porter also composed the cowboy This World (1950), which was not and associates, had any idea of the song Don't Fence Me In for Adios, successful. His next show, Can-Can painful and tragic life he led for more Argentina, an unproduced movie, in (1952), featuring C'est Magnifique, It's than 25 years. His life was more 1934. It became a hit when Roy All Right with Me and the now classic realistically portrayed in De-Lovely, a Rogers sang it in the 1944 film, I Love Paris was another hit. Porter's 2004 film starring Kevin Kline as Hollywood Canteen. last Broadway production, Silk Porter and Ashley Judd as Linda. Stockings (1955) was loosely based on On October 24, 1937, Porter was the Garbo film Ninotchka. A 1957 film Cole Porter’s work set standards of horseback riding when his horse rolled version starred Fred Astaire and Cyd sophistication and wit seldom matched on him and crushed his legs, leaving Charisse. in the popular musical theater. His him disabled and in constant pain for songs show an elegance of the rest of his life. Though doctors told The film High Society (1956), starring expression and a cool detachment Porter's wife and mother that his right Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace that epitomizes a sophistication leg would have to be amputated, and Kelly, included Porter's last hit song, peculiar to the 1930s. He was also an possibly the left one as well, he True Love. Porter also wrote songs for authentically talented creator of refused to have the procedure. the Gene Kelly film Les Girls (1957).