In 1935, Arnold Saint Subber was a stagehand for the New York Theater Guild's production of "The Taming of the Shrew".  He overheard its stars - Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontaine - arguing backstage, indeed they quarrelled more than their characters in the play.  Ten years on, now a Broadway producer, Saint Subber saw this potential in setting this incident in a musical complete with the excepts from the Shakespeare play so brought together Cole Porter and the husband and wife team of Samuel and Bella Spewack, and "Kiss me Kate" was born.

"Kiss me Kate" takes place backstage and on-stage at Ford's Theater in Baltimore, from five pm to midnight during one day of a tryout of a musical version of "The Taming of the Shrew".  Egotistical actor-producer Fred Graham and his temperamental co-star and ex-wife Lilli Vanessi fight and make up and eventually demonstrate their enduring affection for each other - just like Shakespeare's Petruchio and Kate.  We also meet Lois Lane whose romance with actor Bill Calhoun is complicated by Bill's weakness for gambling.