Kismet (musical) London's West End and has been given several revivals. A 1955 film version was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The musical was commissioned by Edwin Lester, founder and director of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, who conceived of a musical based on the 1911 play "Kismet" by Edward Knoblock. Lester had previously produced "Song of Norway", with the same composing team, adapting the melodies of Edvard Grieg. For "Kismet", the writers seized upon the melodies of Alexander Borodin, which they felt had a suitable exotic flavor and lush melodies. "Kismet" is set in a fictional Baghdad in the times of "The
Kiss of the Spider Woman (musical) also in using the elaborate machinery of a big Broadway musical to tell the story of an uncloseted, unhomogenized, unexceptional gay man who arrives at his own heroic definition of masculinity." Kiss of the Spider Woman (musical) Kiss of the Spider Woman is a musical with music by John Kander and Fred Ebb, with the book by Terrence McNally. It is based on the Manuel Puig novel "El Beso de la Mujer Araña". Directed by Harold Prince, the musical had runs in the West End (1992) and Broadway (1993) and won the 1993 Tony Award for Best Musical. Despite a