People Who Need People

There's a revival of Kiss Me, Kate on Broadway starring Kelli O'Hara and Will Chase.  O'Hara is a big Broadway star, yet I'm a little surprised she's taken the role--it's a great show, but I've always felt the male lead has much better songs than the female. (And the secondary female has much better songs than the secondary male.)

The book has apparently been spruced up by Amanda Green, a lyricist and daughter of the great Adolph Green.  I'm generally not in favor of "fixing" classics.  If you can get the original creators to do it, or at least get their blessings, then fine.  But I'd just as soon see a show the way it was originally enjoyed by millions (especially if it's got a real book, and isn't just a pre-Oklahoma grab-bag of song cues and blackouts).

I guess the producers felt Kiss Me, Kate, though a classic, has problematic sexual politics (though perhaps they're missing some of the original's irony).  But looking at the list of songs, it's hard to miss something:  O'Hara's closing number, "I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple," has been changed to "I Am Ashamed That People Are So Simple." I'm aghast.

No one should be touching Cole Porter's lyrics.  But this is far worse.  Kiss Me, Kate is a backstager about a musical production of The Taming Of The Shrew.  At the end of the Shakespeare original, Kate has a monologue about how a woman should submit to her husband.  What Cole Porter did is take a section of that speech and set it to music.

I'm not saying it's the best number in the show.  In fact, it's one of the weaker songs.  But while rewriting Cole Porter is bad enough, rewriting Shakespeare is just bizarre.