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POBox 92, Simsbury, CT 06070 | (860) 658-0666 | theatreguildsimsbury@gmail.com

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Simsbury High School
(860) 658-0451
34 Farms Village Rd
Simsbury, CT 06070-2399
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Synopsis:

   Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter   
Book by Bella and Samuel Spewack  

KISS ME, KATE was originally produced in 1948 and has been  considered one of Broadway's treasures. It was revived in 1999, taking  advantage of new technology in music and keeping in mind evolving social  values.  In the Revised Version all the basic music material for the show was  taken back to the fundamentals of its melody, harmony and rhythm, and a  new score was written.  All seventeen of the original songs are present in the revised score,  and the song From This Moment On  from Porter's OUT OF THIS WORLD as well as from the 1953 film version  of KISS ME, KATE has been added.  The book was carefully refined, not changed, for the new version. The  character Harrison Howell has become a General with political ambitions,  and adds some topical humor from the exact period of the show to the  Revised Version.
        Another Op'nin' Another Show  welcomes you to Baltimore and to the opening of a musical version of  Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." The cast of the play is on  stage and receiving  final instructions from Fred Graham, the director. A play-within-a-play  unfolds, where each of the four main cast members' on-stage performance  is complicated by what is happening in his off-stage life. Fred takes  the roles of director and male lead, Petruchio. His ex-wife Lilli, now  a movie star with a reputation for being difficult to work with, plays  Katharine, the shrew. Fred's current love interest, Lois, plays the  role of Bianca, and the other man in Lois' life, Bill, plays the role  of Lucentio.
       Before the curtain rises on "The Shrew"  we find out that Bill has a gambling problem. He tells Lois that he  signed a $10,000 IOU for a debt in Fred's name, instead of using his  own name. Not long after Lois begs Bill to stop gambling, two thugs  show up at the theater to make it clear that Bill will have to make  good on that IOU. But they confront Fred instead of Bill, since Fred's  name is on the gambling debt. Lois asks Bill Why Can't You Behave?  Fred and Lilli reminisce nostalgically about their other performances  together, and their warm feelings for each other return -Wunderbar.  When flowers sent by Fred to Lois mistakenly get delivered to Lilli,  Lilli falls even more deeply in love with Fred -So in Love.
        We are brought into Shakespeare's world  with We Open in Venice. It is not long before we are told that  Lucentio (Bill) may not marry his love Bianca (Lois), until Bianca's  older sister Katharine (Lilli) the shrew is married off. Bianca enjoys  flirting with her gentlemen callers in Tom, Dick or Harry.  Fortunately  for Bianca and Lucentio, Petruchio (Fred) comes to town looking for  a wealthy wife and is not scared off by Katharine. Petruchio explains  his goal in I've Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua and  Katharine  makes her feelings clear in I Hate Men. Lilli finally discovers  that the flowers Fred sent her were actually intended for Lois, and  we hear her shriek in outrage from offstage. In Were Thine That  Special  Face Petruchio sings of his strong feelings for Katharine. Lilli  threatens to walk out of the show, but is forced to stay. Fred  convinces  the two gangsters that he will be able to pay them the money he  allegedly  owes them, if they can make sure Lilli continues to play her role. The  gangsters put on costumes and become part of the cast of "The Shrew"  to stay close to Lilli. Lilli uses her anger toward Fred to express  herself as Katharine for the rest of the show. Fred is forced to get  tough with Katharine as he plays Petruchio. Kiss Me, Kate closes  the first act.
       The second act opens with Too Darn  Hot, which gives the cast a chance to relax outside the theatre  during intermission. Back at "The Shrew" Petruchio marries Katharine,  and already misses his relatively peaceful single life in Where Is  the Life That Late I Led? Lois and Bill sing of their relationship  in Always True to You (In My Fashion) and then Bill sings Bianca.  When the gangsters call their boss to 'check in,' they find out that  the boss has been killed. This makes Bill's IOU worthless, so the  gangsters  can leave. Lilli takes the opportunity to walk off the show, and leaves  with her dependable fiance Harrison, as Fred reprises So in Love.  The gangsters get caught up in the limelight and pay an unusual tribute  to Shakespeare in Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Bianca and Lucentio  are finally married. As "The Taming of the Shrew" comes to a close,  Lilli unexpectedly returns to the stage, and in Katharine's words  expresses  her intention of returning to Fred -I Am Ashamed That Women Are So  Simple. Lilli and Fred are reunited, and Lois and Bill are  together.                   

Cast: