All That Chat - re: Kiss Me Kate——The greeting card version

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re: Kiss Me Kate——The greeting card version
Posted by: beyondhope 10:04 pm EST 03/01/19
In reply to: Kiss Me Kate——The greeting card version - winters 09:48 am EST 02/24/19

I have been a lifelong fan of Alfred Drake, and I was fortunate to see him in both KEAN and a Lincoln Center summer production of KISMET, both in the early 1960s. I wish I had been older at the time so that I could truly appreciate his gifts, but the voice was so beautiful, warm and expressive and not amplified. The Hallmark KISS ME, KATE was broadcast during a strike of some sort, and I seem to recall hearing that Drake felt it was not a good performance for him. Could have fooled me. The reprise of "So in Love" is so poignant and subtle. Worth listening to several hundred times!
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The Hallmark Hall of Fame KMK and the strike
Posted by: AlanScott 09:13 pm EST 03/02/19
In reply to: re: Kiss Me Kate——The greeting card version - beyondhope 10:04 pm EST 03/01/19

What happened was that a strike of some sort against the networks looked very possible. Videotape was new at the time. Normally it would have been done live, but NBC was nervous because of the possible strike. So they decided to shoot it on videotape before the strike might happen. Because the technology was so new, things kept going wrong, and they had to do multiple takes of almost everything. I don't recall having heard or read Alfred Drake express disappointment in the results, but George Schaeffer definitely felt that it suffered from being done on videotape rather than live, just because they'd had to do so many takes of so much of it. He felt that the performers lost spontaneity. Maybe it would have been better live, but Drake is transcendently great in it. The best male musical comedy performance I've ever seen.
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