The Taming of the Shrew steps forward and speaks directly to the audience as herself; "Well, I must own, it wounds me to the Heart/To play, unwomanly, so mean a Part./What – to submit, so tamely – so contented,/Thank Heav'n! I'm not the Thing I represented." Cole Porter's musical "Kiss Me, Kate" is an adaptation of "Taming of the Shrew". The music and lyrics are by Porter and the book is by Samuel and Bella Spewack. It is at least partially based on the 1935/1936 Theatre Guild production of "Taming of the Shrew", which starred husband and wife Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, whose backstage
The Taming of the Shrew argues that scholars tend to dismiss the idea that "A Shrew" is Shakespearean because "the women are not as satisfactorily tamed as they are in "The Shrew"." She also points out that if "A Shrew" is an early draft, it suggests Shakespeare "may have increased rather than decreased the patriarchal violence of his materials", something which, she believes, scholars find difficult to accept. However, others see the play as an example of a pre-feminist condemnation of patriarchal domination and an argument for modern-day "women's lib". For example, director Conall Morrison, wrote in 2008: Philippa Kelly makes this point: Elizabeth Kantor