New 2019 Revival of Kiss Me Kate

[web-ed]

Kiss Me Kate is being revived on Broadway once again, this time with Kelli O'Hara and Will Chase in the leads. My first thought when I heard this was, "How can they revive KMK again? They just did it a few years ago."

Well, the truth is it was back in 1999, which as hard as it is to believe, was 20 years ago (sob!) with the late Marin Mazzie and Brian Stokes Mitchell. So it's a whole generation later, and another revival is indeed appropriate.


Kelli O'Hara and Will Chase in rehearsal. Did they substitute a fireman's carry for the spanking?

I saw a video of O'Hara recording "So in Love" for the cast album, and I must say it was excellent. Of course, this is 2019 in New York City, and I could not find any photos of the spanking. Investigating further, I found that one critic (Matt Windman) reported the spanking had been cut, along with some other material - the PC police just couldn't stomach using the spanking for publicity, as practically every professional and amateur production has since 1948. They must be betting that today's young audiences wouldn't know about the spanking and wouldn't object to the bowdlerizing of a stage classic, and sadly, given that Millennials are the worst-educated generation in American history, they may be right.

One odd note - O'Hara mentioned in a Tweet somewhere (God, I hate Twitter !) that after each performance "both pairs of cheeks were sore". Why would that be unless the spanking scene had been restored?

If you haven't been there lately, New York City today makes the one Snake Plissken escaped from in the classic movie seem pleasant by comparison, so I can't recommend it as a tourist destination nor can I recommend the show (unless they had the sense to restore the spanking ).

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

What A Crime if they cut the Spanking out of Kiss Me Kate is it because of the Me to or feminists ????? do anyone remember when in Britain they censor out spankings in mainstream movies read about this back in the 80`s and 90`s what a nightmare it would be if they cut the spanking scene out of movies like Mclintock June Bride or Look For The Silver Lining and Kiss Me Kate!!!!!!! what a horror it would be!

[willjohn]

Without the spanking would it become kiss me date? (look up Australian slang terms for backside).

[web-ed]

Without the spanking would it become kiss me date? (look up Australian slang terms for backside).

That's not bad, Willjohn. Just for the heck of it, I did (see link here). My, what a lot of them there are !

Here's an example of "date" used in a sentence - really, a not-so-nice song sung in the Australian military (not in mixed company, we should hope): "To Hell with all conventions and the methods they dictate, You can keep your old procedure and ram it up your date." (From Mess Songs and Rhymes of the R.A.A.F., 1945)

Perhaps this aspect of Australian lingo was what that old episode of The Simpsons had in mind when the family went to Australia and we see this great big building with a sign: "Australian Cultural Centre - Cart Your Arse on In".

The focus on the anus recalls Cole Porter's original lyric for Brush Up Your Shakespeare:

"If she says your behavior is heinous,
Kick her right in the Coriolanus!"

Although I think this was cleaned up for the 1953 movie.

[daneldorado]

As I read here about the lamentable possibility that the new "Kiss Me Kate" will be staged sans spanking, my first thought was this:

How will the large, non-spanko community react to this news? I've been in the audience for about five stage versions of this play, and although none of the audience members talk about the spanking, they all seem eager to watch it when it happens. And... they always laugh! My suspicion is that the viewers are too embarrassed to talk about the scene openly to non-spankos, but they might engage in cheerful commentary among real spankos!!

Cheers,
Dan

[willjohn]

Without the spanking would it become kiss me date? (look up Australian slang terms for backside).

That's not bad, Willjohn. Just for the heck of it, I did (see link here). My, what a lot of them there are !

Here's an example of "date" used in a sentence - really, a not-so-nice song sung in the Australian military (not in mixed company, we should hope): "To Hell with all conventions and the methods they dictate, You can keep your old procedure and ram it up your date." (From Mess Songs and Rhymes of the R.A.A.F., 1945)

Perhaps this aspect of Australian lingo was what that old episode of The Simpsons had in mind when the family went to Australia and we see this great big building with a sign: "Australian Cultural Centre - Cart Your Arse on In".

The focus on the anus recalls Cole Porter's original lyric for Brush Up Your Shakespeare:

"If she says your behavior is heinous,
Kick her right in the Coriolanus!"

Although I think this was cleaned up for the 1953 movie.

I distinctly remember Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore singing that line...

[willjohn]

I can remember years ago Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan released a song called "Humphrey the Camel" that had a line "Down at the Oasis where the Arabs are all picking their dates."

A lot of Australians got a laugh out of that.

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

there`s a videos out called Fess`ee-Pov Lil Yan + J`Assume it on YouTube it a French music video about spanking check it out