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Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the Sound of Musicals. 欢迎回来【曲外之音】.

Hi, Oliver.

Hello.

So what are we gonna talk about today?

Well, last time we talked about one of my choices. Why don't you choose one this time?

Ok. I'm gonna choose… I wouldn't say this is very famous. It's probably a minor one, lesser-known one, called Kiss Me, Kate. Have you heard of it?

I have heard of it, but I have never actually seen it. I’ve heard of it and some of the music, but I haven't seen it.

Have to admit, I was struggling with myself, had a bit of an inner dialogue whether we should talk about this or not, because this is such a controversial one. I love the music, but the content and the storyline is a bit like questionable. Shall we say? I'm sure in your research you’ve read about those controversies as well.

I have yes, I’ve read a little bit about all of the things going on around this, and the songs the words, it sounds very interesting but controversial, yes.

So first of all since it's my pick, so let me give you the background to the show and also audience.

Yes, this time it's your job to have the impossible task of telling us a brief overview.

Yeah but before the overview. I'm going to talk about the background.

Of course.

So this show debuted in 1940s, 1948 in Broadway and then 3 years later in London's West End.

西区（The West End of London）是19世纪的英国人用来指代伦敦查令十字以西的商业和剧院聚集区的名词。在西区中心盘踞着大大小小40个剧院，伦敦人直白的称呼这篇区域为Theatreland

So roughly around 40s, 50s that time. And then in 2019, there was a Broadway Revival, so they brought back once. Kiss Me, Kate is a very interesting story because it's a musical within a musical.

So what musical is inside Kiss Me, Kate then, what's the relationship between the musicals there?

Ok. It's a musical version of a Shakespeare in play. Remember last time when we were talking about West Side Story that was based on Romeo and Juliet. And this one is based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Even saying the name makes me a bit uncomfortable.

Yeah, it.. feels very out of date, doesn't it?

Yeah. 莎士比亚的《驯悍记》就是这里面有一个很凶悍的这个女主角. And Taming of the Shrew obviously not supported by gender equality, this one, or not supporting gender equality.

Nope, not at all.

And the reason why it's a musical within a musical is that the characters in this musical, they are trying to put on a musical, they are a theater company in the show, they want to put on the musical that is based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. And this is why it is a musical within a musical.

The reason why I love this so much is… do you know the music and lyrics in Kiss Me, Kate, they’re by Cole Porter.

Are they really? I did not know that. That's fantastic.

Yeah. They're entirely by him.

Yes, he has some very good songs, doesn't he? Cole Porter. Cole Porter’s written some very nice stuff.

Cole Porter and he created all these very famous songs like I’ve Got You Under My Skin, I Get a Kick Out of You, Let's Do It, Let’s Fall in Love, Or Anything Goes. I think most people they probably have heard of his songs but never realize it’s Cole Porter.

I think I have, yes. Definitely I Get a Kick Out of You, great song, really like it, didn't know it was him. Yeah.

Yeah, that's why the music and the lyrics are really witty, and the music is just fabulous. So you gave me the task of giving you a brief overview or summary of the story. It is impossible.

Little bit of a revenge here.

Fair enough. I did ask you to summarize Les Misérables within a few sentences. So, let me see if I can get this.

In order to explain this, I need to explain Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, since this is the play they want to put on in this musical.

Taming of the Shrew, you have to think there are four characters.

So you have two men, they are friends. One men is called Petruchio, the other men is called Lucentio.

There are two women, Katherine or Katherina and Bianca, they are sisters. Katherine is the older sister, and she is the Shrew. Let's say she's got a fiery temper, she's very aggressive. She's got a very obedient, very girly, nice, gentle sister Bianca. Everyone loves Bianca and no men wants to marry Katherine.

But their father said if Catherine does not get married, then Bianca cannot get married. That's why, this Petruchio needs to tame Katherine, the older sister, and marry her in order for his friend Lucentio to marry Bianca. So that's the original Taming of the Shrew story.

In the show, these four characters actually are played by four people in this modern show.

Kiss Me, Kate: The Major Characters

Actor: Fred Graham / Petruchio

Actress: Lilli Vanessi / Katherine

General Harrison Howell

Actress: Lois Lane / Bianca

Actor: Bill Calhoun / Lucentio

So Fred is playing Petruchio. And then this woman that he's trying to tame, Katherine, is played by his ex-wife Lilli. They were in a really strange relationship. They got divorced, but they still somewhat had feelings for each other. But you know, it's one of those on and off, on and off relationships. They were fighting and then they were like in love, they were fighting.

The other pair, the one who played Bianca is a younger actress, it's a young actress called Lois. And her boyfriend plays Lucentio in the Shakespeare play and his name is Bill.

So Lois and Bill, Fred and Lilli.

But what makes it very difficult, especially for our audience just listening to this is that, like I said, Fred and Lilli, they were married and now they're divorced. Fred is not a very nice man, and he basically plays around and chases girls. And in this, he starts to chase after Lois, the young actress. But remember Lois already has a boyfriend Bill.

And Lili, Fred's ex-wife is also engaged to another man called Harrison. But, here's the twist, Harrison used to have somewhat of a relationship with Lois. So this is not a love triangle, it’s a love pentangle. Five people involved in…

Five people all complicatedly linked together, right. I think I'm with you here. I think I'm with you.

It's so messy. And this love pentangle is creating another layer of drama over the original Shakespeare play. So in this musical they go in and out of the Shakespeare plot into their own life drama, and then go back into the play on stage, and then come back to their life drama. That's why it's a bit complex.

You've got to pay attention to it very well then. Otherwise you are going to get lost, I think.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, after summarizing, you probably can tell it's a farce. It's not like on a serious theme like some of the stuff that we talked about before, like Les Misérables or even West Side Story. This is more a battle of sexes and people watch it for fun, mostly.

It does sound like the sort of show which would have lots of comedic moments, funny happenings, inappropriate unwanted jokes and things happening which nobody really expects, and definitely not to be taken seriously, as you say, definitely a farce.

You know what I think? I think it's um, like a musical version of soap opera, like a musical version of Coronation Street, or EastEnders, where people slap each other.

Does sound like that. Yes, yes, two people, no, that's four, no, that's five and they're all together and it sounds very… yes, daytime TV.

Yes, daytime TV. But it does touch upon a pretty touchy subject, a battle of sexes, you know, the gender thing. So I mean, you read something about it and you watch some bits of it, and listen to some music scores from this. What's your general idea? Did you like it or did you think it was kind of wrong?

Can I answer “Both” to that question? It was… some of the songs, some of the things that happened I felt quite uncomfortable with. It was listening to the words, thinking “woo… you can't say that today, that's very old fashioned, very out of date.” But it's got music and… just good music as well. So these lyrics, which are not at all for today's society in many ways, are covered by really good music that makes you want to like it. It does feel very unusual.

Same here. I feel like “I love it, but I should I like it? I shouldn't.” Especially as a woman, I should feel offended by a lot of the lyrics.

They are very much sort of uncomfortable by today's standards of how we should treat women. Yeah, very misogynistic in several ways, and I see that definitely outdated…

Very outdated, the idea.

Very much so, but yeah, I know what you mean. I like it but should I…?

I'm sure we’ve already got your curiosity up. We're gonna wrap up here. We're gonna leave a cliffhanger. Next time in the next episode, we are going to actually listen and analyze some of these music scores and some of the lyrics and to take a look at the controversy and the conflicts in this particular musical.

Thank you Oliver, for coming to the show.

Thank you. See you next time.