Cinemax Arthouse Theatre, Kingscliff screens the latest in their season of classic musicals.
This month it’s Kiss Me Kate featuring the music of Cole Porter and starring Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel.
Inspired by The Taming of the Shrew, it tells the tale of musical theater actors, Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, who were once married and are now performing opposite each other in the roles of Petruchio and Katherine in a Broadway-bound musical version of William Shakespeare’s play.
Already on poor terms, the pair begin an all-out emotional war mid-performance that threatens the production’s success.
The only thing keeping the show together are threats from a pair of gangsters, who have come to collect a gambling debt from the show’s Lucentio, Bill Calhoun.
In classic musical comedy fashion, slapstick madness ensues before everything is resolved.
Dorothy Kingsley’s screenplay, which was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award, was adapted from the musical’s book by Samuel and Bella Spewack.
The songs were by Cole Porter, with musical underscoring by Saul Chaplin and Andre Previn, who were nominated for an Academy Award.
Hermes Pan choreographed the dance routines.
