A few weeks ago, my daughter and I caught one of the last performances of the Waco Civic Theater’s fine production of My Fair Lady. It made me remember just how much I enjoy a good musical. The famed duo of Alan Lerner and Frederick Lowe wrote the lyrics and the music for My Fair Lady and almost every tune in that one just kills. I noticed in the program that next season they’re doing a musical by Cole Porter called Kiss Me Kate. Porter is another of those composers whose work with musicals shaped American culture.
Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana in 1891. His father was a pharmacist, and his maternal grandfather James Cole was an industrial age tycoon said to be the richest man in Indiana. As a young boy Cole took violin and piano lessons as his way into music. His family shipped him off to a prep school back east from which he entered Yale in 1909. He sang with Yale’s famous a capella group and was in several music clubs and the glee club.
He graduated in 1913 and, urged onward by his grandfather who wanted him to be a lawyer, entered Harvard law school. While in Cambridge, Porter roomed with future Secretary of State Dean Acheson with whom he’d been friends at Yale. By this time, he was a prolific songwriter and soon dropped out of law school knowing full well it wasn’t for him. He had his first song on Broadway featured in a revue in 1915.
He moved to Paris two years later when the U.S. entered WWI and worked with a relief agency. While there he met and married a wealthy American socialite. His first big success came in 1928 with a musical called Paris, but a couple of follow-ups did less well. He wrote his best-known song “Night and Day” for a musical featuring Fred Astaire in 1932. His first big Broadway hit was the musical Anything Goes in 1934. Reviewing it, a critic from The New Yorker said that as a composer Porter was simply in a class by himself. In 1939 Porter moved back to the U.S. permanently as fascism spread over Europe.
After WWII, in something of a comeback, he wrote the music for Kiss Me Kate that in 1949 won the very first Tony award for Best Musical. He also won the award that year for best composer and lyricist. Kiss Me Kate ran for more than 1000 performances from December 1948 through July 1951.
About a year from now, you can see it close out the Waco Civic Theater’s next season. Don’t miss this part of American musical history.
