Can Kiss Me, Kate be tamed?

The nine-time Tony Award nominee Bartlett Sher has this year directed Robert Downey Jr's Broadway debut and a London revival of Cole Porter's 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate. Kiss Me, Kate is based upon Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, so how palatable is this controversial musical to a 21st century audience? In Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County, we become flies on the wall at the reunion of a deeply dysfunctional American family. Belvoir St Theatre and Black Swan State Theatre Company are presenting a new production directed by Eamon Flack, featuring Pamela Rabe and Tamsin Carroll in the cast.