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Some plays are timeless. Some age rather quickly and are interesting
more as artifacts than as entertainments. Kiss Me, Kate has
aspects of both.
I saw this Broadway revival in 2001 and remember being impressed and
entertained, but also feeling that parts of the play and its Cole
Porter score hadn't aged at all well. Some of it is as stylish and
sexy as when it was first written;
Another
Op'nin', Another Show and
Too
Darn Hot for two examples. Other bits were funny in spite of
feeling dated, like the two mobsters singing
Brush
Up Your Shakespeare. But then there are the embarrassments,
especially
Tom,
Dick or Harry. (The snippet on the iTMS lacks the more
questionable lyrics.) And of course there's the source material itself;
Kiss Me, Kate is a play about a performance of The Taming
of a Shrew, itself a play within a play. And one with so
cringe-worthy an attitude toward the sexes that it has to be performed
these days with a great deal of irony. I'd describe Porter's version
as rather irony-deficient.
Still, there's fun to be had. And as a collector of musical theater,
I won't condemn a work just because it reflects attitudes that are
passé, or at least should be. I'll try to keep them in context, enjoy
the music and try not to cringe too much along the way.
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