Apr 25, 2019
"I'm a maid mad to marry
And will take double-quick
Any Tom, Dick or Harry,
Any Tom, Harry or Dick!"
- Lois Lane / Bianca, in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate
We're back with episode 10! Today I explore the critical and theatrical history of The Taming of the Shrew, from folk tales to musicals, from the Victorians to vaudeville, from an overacting Christopher Sly to Hollywood's take on the rebel. Come join me!
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at
podcastshakespeare@gmail.com.
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Key links below. You can also visit the bibliography page here, which is a work in progress.
Links mentioned:
BBC's Upstart
Crow
Aarne-Thompson classification system for folklore
narratives.
The story of
"Ledasha"
1550s ballad: “A
Merry Jest of a Shrewd and Curst Wife Lapped in Morel’s Skin for
Her Good Behaviour”
George Gascoigne, Supposes
Ovid, Metamorphoses
1601 anecdote about William "the Conqueror" Shakespeare
John Fletcher, The Woman's
Prize, or the Tamer Tamed (1611)
The Enid
Blyton Society
John Lacy, Sauny
the Scot; or, The Taming of the Shrew: A Comedy
David Garrick, Catharine
and Petruchio
1976 American
Conservatory Theatre production on Youtube, starring Marc
Singer and Fredi Olster
Kiss Me
Petruchio (1978) on Youtube
The Taming of the Shrew (2012), Globe Theatre
production on DVD, starring Samantha Spiro (Kate) and Simon Paisley
Day (Petruchio)
The Taming
of the Shrew (1929), d: Sam Taylor, starring Mary Pickford
(Katharina) and Douglas Fairbanks (Petruchio) on Dailymotion
The Taming of the Shrew (1967), d: Franco Zeffirelli,
starring Elizabeth Taylor (Kate) and Richard Burton (Petruchio)
The Taming of
the Shrew (1980), BBC, d: Jonathan Miller, starring Sarah
Badel (Kate) and John Cleese (Petruchio)
Vermeer’s music lesson -
copied in Miller's production
Pieter Janssens Elinga - Interior with Painter,
Woman Reading and Maid Sweeping [1668]
The Taming
of the Shrew (1994) from Shakespeare: The Animated
Tales on Dailymotion
10 Things I
Hate About You (1999; d: Gil Junger), starring
Julia Stiles (Kat) and Heath Ledger (Patrick)
Atomic
Shakespeare from Moonlighting, with Cybill
Shepherd and Bruce Willis - cropped version on Youtube
ShakespeaRe-Told: The
Taming of the Shrew (2005; d: David Richards)
Shakespearean Whodunnits (1997): Murder Mysteries
based on the Bard, including The Taming of Lord Thomas
Vinegar
Girl (2016) by Anne Tyler, adapted from The Taming of
the Shrew as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series.
Wolf-Ferrari, Sly (opera) -
review of the 2002 Met Opera production starring Placido
Domingo, at the New York Times
Kiss Me
Kate (1948) by Cole Porter - 1999 production
on Youtube
Art inspired by The Taming of the Shrew
Music clips:
Nino Rota, soundtrack to Zeffirelli's "The Taming of the Shrew",
1967 (Columbia Picutres, US / Italy)
orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina
-Nocturne
-In the House of Petruchio
Cole Porter, Kiss Me Kate, 2000 Broadway cast recording: Stanley Wayne Mathis (Paul) and company
"Come, Kiss Me Kate" from Ross W. Duffin's Shakespeare's Songbook
Luciano Michelini, ‘Frolic’, from Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2000 – present
Hans Werner Henze, Royal Winter Music: First Sonata on Shakespearean Characters (1975-76), movement based on Richard of Gloucester
Porter, Kiss Me Kate, 1999 London cast, Nancy Kathryn Anderson (Lois Lane / Bianca) and company
Letters to Cleo, I Want You to Want Me, from 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Porter, Kiss Me Kate, 2014 BBC Proms, Michael Jibson & James Doherty (Gangsters)
Reference:
Garner, Shirley Nelson. "The Taming of the Shrew: Inside or Outside the Joke?." "Bad" Shakespeare: Revaluations of the Shakespeare Canon. Ed. Maurice Charney. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1988. p105-19.