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
Shrew (stock character) psychological manipulation (without animal abuse), were reused by William Shakespeare in his play "The Taming of the Shrew", which closes with the reformed shrew giving a monologue on why wives should always obey their husbands. This overall plot structure was retained in various works of silent-era and post-Second World War cinema. Elements of the shrew-taming plot are still used today, though with less patriarchal messages since the rise of feminism. "The Taming of the Shrew" has itself led to various modern, loose adaptations to current societal views in differing Western and Eastern industrialised societies, while retaining the stock character and