From the Producer of Anything Goes, comes a new production of Kiss Me, Kate. With Cole Porter’s razor-sharp witted lyrics, it’s ‘The ultimate Broadway musical from the golden age’ (Financial Times) and is Broadway musical comedy meets Shakespeare meets *Noises Off*.
Directed by Bartlett Sher (The King and I, South Pacific and To Kill A Mockingbird*) and with a company of over 50 including a full-scale orchestra, Kiss Me, Kate features classic songs including Another Op'nin', Another Show, Brush Up Your Shakespeare and Tom, Dick or Harry. Adrian Dunbar stars as Fred Graham with Tony Award winner Stephanie J. Block making her West End debut as Lilli Vanessi.
Kiss Me, Kate is the original farce and whisks you into a world of backstage chaos and romantic entanglements. It’s the perfect Summer musical for 2024.
Stephanie J Block has 21 years experience on Broadway and, appropriately, gave it both barrels as Lilli Vanessi, the divorced wife of Dunbar’s actor-producer Fred Graham, and Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, the play that was being put up on the other side of the scenery by our troupe of touring players. Life was soon imitating art, as Lilli rained blows, verbal and physical, on the slithering Fred (Petruchio, natch) - but you kinda knew they were the only people who could stand each others’ presence.
Bartlett Sher’s sumptuous production is particularly well attuned to Sam and Bella Spewack’s wittily Shakespearean play-within-a-play conceit, using a busy revolve that constantly whisks us between on- and backstage (marvellous lofty design by Michael Yeargan). In one bravura sequence, an argument erupts mid-show, then continues as Lilli and Fred storm into the wings and then their dressing rooms, the fast-changing set matching their rising tempers and blurred boundaries.
1948 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1949 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
1951 | West End |
London Production West End |
1952 | Broadway |
Return Engagement [Broadway] Broadway |
1965 | Off-Broadway |
City Center Revival Off-Broadway |
1987 | West End |
London Revival West End |
1999 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2001 | West End |
London Production West End |
2012 | West End |
Old Vic Theatre Production West End |
2016 | New York |
Roundabout Theatre Company Benefit Concert New York |
2018 | West End |
Opera North Production West End |
2019 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company Revival Broadway |
2024 | West End |
West End |
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