The Taming of the Shrew (Broadway Theatre Archive)
by Kirk Browning
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DVD details
Actor: Barbara Dirickson, Bobby F. Ellerbee, Earl Boen, Raye Birk, Ron BoussomDirector: Kirk Browning
Cinematographer: Mark Sanford
Producer: Charlene Harrington
Producer: Ken Campbell
Writer: William Shakespeare
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-07-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kultur Video
DVD Reviews of The Taming of the Shrew (Broadway Theatre Archive)
DVD Review: TAMING OF THE SHREW, FILM OF LIVE THEATER PRODUCTION
Summary: 5 Stars
This film of a live theater production is full of action. There is much action and movment to keep the viewers attention and to enhance the language and plot. A highlight is the very athletic performance of Marc Singer.
Dave Turnage
DVD Review: Taming Contest...Petruchio wins
Summary: 5 Stars
The opinions of the reviews seemed so different and so unyielding that I decided to go on a Taming binge and watch every one of them I could get my hands on and see for myself.
The Taming of the Shrew
1976 with Marc Singer - winner hands down, my husband and I both like this one best it is fun and funny, Marc definitely pulled it off amazingly, the times when he showed some vulnerability made that part.
1980 with John Cleese BBC - we were hoping it would be funnier instead it seemed serious
1967 with Liz Taylor and R. Burton - talk about fluffy middle-aged people trying to be young and vital. He looked like he was going to collapse when he tried to pick her up.
1999 10 Things I hate about You - The actual Kate and Petruchio parts were nice, but some of the vulgarity we could have lived without. Drawing a penis and testicles on somebody's face seemed unnecessary.
1983 with Franklyn Seales - He didn't have the chops for this part. He should play a Vulcan on Star Trek or something.
1929 with Douglas Fairbanks This one was very early when they were switching from silent to talkies. You can surely tell it too. A little painful.
1982 with Len Cariou - Recorded in EP. There is some confusion as to when it was recorded either 1982, or 1984-85 It is better than 1929, 1967, 1980, and 1983, but not as good as 1976. Much of what made it better was the fact that it kept to the original script and it was funnier and more animated than John Cleese's version. However, the hollering of the Katherine character made it seem more violent than the funnier 1976 version.
1950 with Charlton Heston - This was my first time watching anything with CH. I was surprised to see him strike Kate across the face three times. I had thought that patriotic gun lovers didn't strike women, but he was probably just following the script. It seemed as if they sometimes were more focused on getting their lines said and said loud enough to hear than they were in really feeling the part.
2005 This Kate curses constantly and gives the finger to the camera/we the audience.
DVD Review: Great play!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this production! it is funny and romantic. the actresses are all great. its such a feel good play.DVD Review: Best production on video.
Summary: 5 Stars
This one is simply the best. I have no problem at all choosing between this production and the Burton/Taylor movie. This one wins without a contest. Grab it while you can!
William Ball's production remembers one thing that many productions forget: this is a comedy and it is supposed to be funny. It is not literary scripture to be intoned in solemn reverence to the great Bard of Stratford on Avon. To accomplish this Ball makes a robust and ribald presentation based on the Commedia dell'arte, a broad and slapstick style that was current in Shakespeare's time. The result is baldly, not subtly, hilarious.
More subtle is the direction of the story itself. Thoughtful direction, brilliantly delivered by the Marc Singer as Petruchio and Fredi Olster as Kate, is used to show Petruchio's increasing regard for Kate as the play proceeds. Even in the final scene it is clear that when he calls for Kate to come, after the other two wives have refused, that he is uncertain of the outcome. Thus he is surprised, delighted and gratified when she does come, not gloating in overbearing male chauvinist triumph. This goes a long way toward making modern sense of the now problematic text about the roles of men and women, and the way she is brought to heel. (I find the middle section of the play where the shrew taming is accomplished, with methods that include food and sleep deprivation, has an uncomfortable resemblance to modern day brainwashing and torture. It leaves today's audience with the question: Is it love? Or is it Stockholm syndrome? The very idea of such obedience is now controversial, even without the issue of abuse. This presents a huge challenge for the present day production of Taming of the Shrew as anything but a theatrical museum piece.) Portrayed in this way, Petruchio is not a just a swaggering playboy out to cash in a dowry, but someone who might be worthy of the obedience he expects, and is coming to value the strength and honesty of Kate and its advantages over the coquettish, spoiled personalities of Bianca and her friends back in Padua. Thus this production is both traditional and modern without upending the play entirely in some PC "re-visioning" or gender-bent re-interpretation. And most of all, it is funny.
I saw it one time on PBS before the VCR and I thought I would never see it again, and worse, nor would anybody else leaving Zeffirelli's text mangled showpiece or much duller "official" versions as the only ones available. I was overjoyed to find that it had been released on DVD in along with many other similar programs that I enjoyed on PBS (do not let the politicians kill PBS!) many years ago that are also in this Broadway Theater Archives series.
The Burton/Taylor/Zeffirelli version is just a movie. It places showcasing its marquee power, plush production, and cinematography far above the play itself. It seems like about half the play is omitted outright and the rest, even some the most prominent and well known speeches are hacked up. (Compare the play or this production to the "streamlining" done to the final scene in the movie. Completely unedited presentations of any Shakespeare are rare, and for good reason, but this was too much.) Seeing both in close sequence reminded me just how good this one is, and how much the other suffers after subtracting the contribution of movie stardom and lush production.
DVD Review: Marc Singer as actor
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a revelation- Marc Singer acting in Shakespeare! He should have done more and not spent his time on Beastmaster movies. But hopefully those were lucrative.
Description of The Taming of the Shrew (Broadway Theatre Archive)
San Francisco's prize-winning American Conservatory Theater's rowdy commedia dell'arte production incorporates slapstick, pratfall and earthy humor into William Shakespeare's comedy about the two unmarried daughters of a wealthy Italian merchant. While daughter Bianca is genteel and popular, daughter Kate is foul-tempered and strong-willed. No one dares to marry Kate, until Petruchio arrives in Padua and tries his hand at courtship. "...delivered with such clarity." --The New York Times. With Fredi Olster, Marc Singer, Stephen St. Paul, Sandra Shotwell, and William Paterson.General DVDs
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