Kiss Me Kate

Composer Cole Porter and director Fred Graham, who is also to star as Petruchio, talk legendary actress/singer Lilli Vanessi to play the female lead, Katherine, in Porter's new stage production "Kiss Me, Kate", a musical translation of the William Shakespeare comedy "The Taming of the Shrew". Talking Lilli into doing so is quite a feat seeing that Fred is her ex-husband with whom she parted on not so good terms a year earlier, and that Fred has cast Lois Lane, his new girlfriend, in the role of Katherine's sister, Bianca. Lois, however, is only using Fred as she is secretly seeing Bill Calhoun, cast as Lucentio, one of Bianca's suitors. The relationship between Fred and Lilli changes during rehearsals, on opening night before the curtain goes up and even on stage on opening night that mimics the story of the play. In turn, what happens on stage has to change on the emotional whims of the two leads. Thrown into the mix are Tex Callaway, Lilli's on-again/off again cattle baron fiance, and two gangsters who've come to the theater to collect on a gambling debt and won't leave the stage in order to protect their boss' new investment.