Product Description

The first Broadway revival in nearly 50 years of the musical comedy masterpiece by composer Cole Porter and book writers Sam and Bella Spewack not only enchanted critics and delighted audiences, but went on to triumph as one of the biggest prize winners of the 2000 season. Taking its inspiration from Shakespeare, this hilarious romp recounts the backstage and on-stage antics of two feuding romances during an out-of-town tryout for a musical adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. Sparkling with 18 classic Cole Porter songs including "Another Op'nin', Another Show," "Wunderbar," "So in Love," "Always True to You in My Fashion," "Too Darn Hot," and "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" this is Broadway musical comedy at its irresistible best. Directed by Michael Blakemore, this Tony winner for "Best Revival" stars Brent Barrett, Rachel York (Victor/Victoria), Nancy Anderson and Michael Berresse as the squabbling couples whose offstage disputes entangle them with a pair of song-and-dance gangsters and a pompous U.S. army general.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11684 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2003-05-13
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 147 minutes

Amazon.com
Cole Porter's masterwork Kiss Me, Kate was revived in a splashy production that played on Broadway in 1999 then in London, where this version was filmed in front of a live audience in 2002. Broadway veterans Brent Barrett and Rachel York play pompous Fred Graham and feisty Lilli Vanessi, respectively, the couple whose roles in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew mirror their offstage feud. The play-within-a-play format is reflected in a score that has both contemporary '50s songs ("Too Darn Hot") and Bard-inspired stage songs ("I've Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua"). Other songs such as "Wunderbar," "So in Love," "Why Can't You Behave?," "Always True to You (In My Fashion)," and "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" are among Porter's best-loved melodies and wittiest lyrics. Nancy Anderson and Michael Berresse (the lone principal still remaining from the Broadway revival cast) sing and dance up a storm as the secondary couple Lois and Bill, and Teddy Kempner and Jack Chissick steal scenes as the gangsters. Recommended for fans of musicals, though it's not the most family-friendly choice due to gender conflicts and stereotyping. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Sit down and listen up...
`Kiss Me Kate', Winner of 5 Tony Awards, 6 Drama Desk Awards and 4 Outer Critics Awards including Best Musical Revival, is a wonderful production with breathtaking performances from a stellar cast including Brent Barrett and Rachel York. What I want to clear up is the criticism of the DVD. I have to disagree with everything negative said - the sound is fine and a pleasant balance of orchestra and vocal with a crisp clarity.

Secondly, the DVD is widescreen and captures a lot of the onstage `business'. Indeed the cameras do follow the main action, but never misses anything. It has been filmed by people who both appreciate the performance, the art and the intention of Michael Blakemore. Since he directed it and then adapted `Kiss Me Kate' for television, surely he of all people knows what needs to be filmed?

Always, the performance has an `on stage' feel and I urge you to ignore the exaggerated views of others here. Sound is good, video is good, DVD menu is good and I guarantee that you'll be as enthusiastic about the DVD as I was today after watching it. Maybe the others need to appreciate that this is a stage `adaptation' as stated on the DVD case.

Too Darn Hot!
A worry I always have with filmed stage shows (as well as modern movie musicals in general) is that very few directors these days seem to be able to direct the filming of a choreographed dance routine. Worried about a static camera, they jump around and, worse still, give us close-ups of the dancers' faces. Looking back to the MGM and Warner musicals of the Golden Age, one can see that letting the dancers and choreographer do thier stuff and filming it with the minimum amount of technical flourish is the way it should be done. I am pleased to say that this filmed stage production of 'Kiss Me, Kate' mostly gets it right and shows off the staging both of the dances and the frantic dramatic action to it's best advantage.
Brent Barrett and Rachel York are absolutley fantastic in the leading roles, as are all of the principals (in particular Michael Berresse as Bill Calhoun, who fleshes out his character beyond the typically under written 'romantic lead'). Barrett plays one of Broadway's most complicated and demanding male roles with confidence and great emotion when required. York sings like an angel, screams like a banshee and pulls faces that could stop a clock as well as get the audience rolling in the aisles. Speaking of audiences, one way in which this production suffers is the seeming lack of an audience. Although there are laughs at the jokes there is no applause after the numbers. This seems a ridiculous omission, particularly considering the theatrical nature of the piece.
The re-written role of Harrison Howell, changing him from a boring cattle-baron to an agressive military man, jars as does the bizarre inclusion of a song for the character - 'From This Moment On'. The scene in the show involving Howell being mocked and eventually put to sleep, surely must rank as one of Broadway's most perfectly crafted and witty set-pieces. The re-written version on this DVD pales in comparison.
Cole Porter's best score is well served both vocally and visually (although I believe 'Brush Up Your Shakespeare' is wasted) and the set and costumes are beautiful. I feel that the lighting is lacking in places, creating some gloomy scenes particulary in the 'Shrew' sequences which surely should be vibrant to the point of tackiness. The direction and performance during the 'Shrew' parts of the show are a real highlight - showing that Shakespeare can be fun - particularly when accompanied by a Cole Porter score!
Unless you're mad about gimmicky 3-D camera angles or a sanitized version of the show that avoids the B-word, avoid the Howard Keel, Katherine Grayson film and invest in this infinitely superior version of one of Broadway's gems.

This Was Our Fave!
Based on the Amazon customer reviews that my husband and I read of the two versions of this musical that are available on DVD, we bought both of them. We started with the other (classical Hollywood) version, and watched until I commented that it really bothered me that so many of the bawdy lines had been censored out. What's the use of Cole Porter without the naughty bits? So we switched it off and watched this production instead. We loved it from start to finish. One of the highlights was the duet, "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," in which the marvelous actors playing the comical Chicago-style mafia thugs take us on a tour from vaudeville to burlesque to Music Hall, evolving the song stylistically with each repetition of the chorus. Altogether a wonderful night out at the theater that I would highly recommend to anyone who treasures the rare wit of Cole Porter. (And the little wink between sisters Bianca and Kate makes the over-the-top final soliliquey of submission palatable.

Someone else might say they prefer the Hollywood version, with its superior technology, orchestration and dancing. But I was put off by the liberties taken with the original script--cutting out so much of the Shakespeare, all the racy little jokes and bad words (the word "bastard" hit the cutting-room floor in that era, and "louse" just doesn't have the same impact). I also didn't appreciate the song "It's Too Darn Hot" sung by her as a bizzare sort of strip tease tap dance. If that's to your liking, you may well prefer the old classic film. It left us both wondering why Hollywood can't seem to find the balance between the pendulum swings of Puritanical censorship and today's tasteless oversexing. Bridget Bardot once said that in Europe, sex is a fact of life, but in America it's an obsession--and it comes out in the unhealthy-feeling treatment of sex that Hollywood films have tended to offer us. So--enjoy this charming theater piece instead!