Chances are, the original 40-piece score for Cole Porter’s most popular musical, Kiss Me, Kate, hasn’t been heard since the show closed on Broadway in 1951 after its three-year run. The show, the first to win the Tony Award for Best Musical, has been revived a number of times since and remains hugely popular among regional and amateur theater groups. It was last seen on Broadway in 1999; a new production in London at the Old Vic, directed by Trevor Nunn, has been widely praised by critics (and may move to the West End, but that’s another article).
None of the orchestrations, however, are the originals by Robert Russell Bennett and Don Walker. That would require 40 pieces – unheard of in today’s economy. More importantly, they simply haven’t been available.
Until now.
Credit David Charles Abell for restoring them, in all their glory. He reports that when asked to conduct the show at the Glimmerglass Opera in 2008, he went in search of the Real Thing and came up empty. He ended up using photocopies of whatever original manuscripts he could find, some in the offices of the Cole Porter Trusts in New York, some from the Library of Congress, some from the New York Public Library, and some from Porter’s alma mater, Yale University. But, as he reports, what he unearthed was “only the tip of the iceberg.” Since then, he’s discovered reams more, the results of which will yield an official “critical edition” of the score, complete with Bella Spewack’s libretto, assorted essays, and Porter’s lyrics.
This weekend, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s graduation, Yale will present the “premiere” of the newly restored score and parts in concert with full, 40-piece orchestra. The musicians are Yale students; the cast members are alumni in the theater profession; Abell, who will conduct, is class of ’81; and the producer, Amber Edwards, graduated in ’82. The event, at the University Theater, kicks off the school’s year-long celebration of its favored son’s anniversary.
Peter Felcher, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical and Literary Property Trusts, which is supporting the restoration, describes the “wonderful coincidence” that Abell was finishing up his work on the score just at the time that Yale was planning to honor the centenary.
“David thought it would be great to finally hear it, and kind of ‘kick the tires’ to see if there were any things that needed adjusting.”
In his program note, Abell describes putting together the pieces of the puzzle:
My co-editor Seann Alderking and I spent months poring over the original scores and parts. In addition to correcting thousands of copying mistakes, we discovered three different endings to the ‘Too Darn Hot’ dance routine, written to accommodate cast changes on Broadway and the 1949 National Tour. Dale Kugel, who lovingly edited Kiss Me, Kate in 1967 for Tams Witmark, drew my attention to ‘Harlequin Ballerina,’ a Stravinskian passage which accompanied a commedia dell’arte dance sequence before it was cut during previews in Philadelphia. It is being played at these performances for the first time since 1948.
Felcher reports that, once finalized, the edition will be issued by Alfred Publishing. The restored score will be available for licensing, more likely to symphony orchestras than to theatrical productions because of the instrumentation requirements. The smaller-scaled score from 1999 will remain available as well.
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