<Tr> <Th> Awards </Th> <Td> Tony Award for Best Musical Tony Award for Composer and Lyricist Tony Award for Best Author Tony Award for Best Revival Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival Evening Standard for Best Musical Critics Circle for Best Musical </Td> </Tr> <P> Kiss Me, Kate is a musical written by Samuel and Bella Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter . The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off - stage between Fred Graham, the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi . A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul of some gangsters . The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang . </P> <P> Kiss Me, Kate was Porter's response to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and other integrated musicals; it was the first show he wrote in which the music and lyrics were firmly connected to the script . The musical premiered in 1948 and proved to be Porter's only show to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway . In 1949, it won the first Tony Award for Best Musical . </P> <P> The musical was inspired by the on - stage / off - stage battling of husband - and - wife actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne during their 1935 production of Shrew, witnessed by future Broadway producer Arnold Saint - Subber . In 1947 he asked the Spewacks (undergoing their own marital woes at the time) to write the script; Bella Spewack in turn enlisted Cole Porter to write the music and lyrics . </P>

When did kiss me kate open on broadway