BY THE TIME COLE PORTER STARTED his breakneck-speed Kiss Me Kate project in the sombre aftermath of the Second World War, his glory days of pre-war musical hits were fading. Even he sounded defensive about the project.
Turning Shakespeare’s into a multi-sided romance and a comedy of backstage errors, featuring gangsters, mistaken identity and the era staple of divorced couples still hankering for each other — see also, (1930) and (1940) — was an expensive business. Porter even included a sly dig at backers who had been initially reluctant to go, Shakespeare, you know …”
