Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and a book by Bella and Samuel Spewack. 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.
Joan Maud Littlewood was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of Modern Theatre". Her production of Oh, What a Lovely War! in 1963 was one of her more influential pieces.
Theatre Workshop is a theatre group whose long-serving director was Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company, many of its productions were transferred to theatres in the West End, and some, such as Oh, What a Lovely War! and A Taste of Honey, were made into films.
Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor, noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. His best-known screen roles include Dr. Zaius in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes and Maurice on Bewitched.
Dance with a Stranger is a 1985 British film directed by Mike Newell. Telling the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain (1955), the film won critical acclaim, and aided the careers of two of its leading actors, Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett. The screenplay was by Shelagh Delaney, author of A Taste of Honey, and was her third major screenplay. The story of Ellis has resonance in Britain because it provided part of the background to the extended national debates that led to the progressive abolition of capital punishment from 1965.
Kitchen sink realism is a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as "angry young men" who were disillusioned with modern society. It used a style of social realism which depicted the domestic situations of working-class Britons, living in cramped rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs, to explore controversial social and political issues ranging from abortion to homelessness. The harsh, realistic style contrasted sharply with the escapism of the previous generation's so-called "well-made plays".
Sarah Marshall is a stage actress working primarily in the Washington, D.C. region. She has been nominated for the Helen Hayes Award seventeen times and won the award in 1989.
Clifton Jones is a Jamaican actor known for his roles in British television.
"Hand in Glove" is the debut single by English rock band the Smiths, written by singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. It was released in May 1983 on independent record label Rough Trade. It peaked at No. 3 on the UK Indie Chart but did not make the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart, settling outside at No. 124.
Beverly Marshall is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Upon her introduction on 6 July 1987, the character was played by Lisa Armytage. Following Armytage's decision to quit the role in 1988, producers chose to recast the role to Shaunna O'Grady. O'Grady relocated from Sydney to Melbourne for filming and her first scenes as Beverly aired on 16 March 1989.
"Girlfriend in a Coma" is a song by the English rock band the Smiths, written by singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. It was the first of three UK singles from the band's fourth and final studio album, Strangeways, Here We Come. Inspired by the song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", "Girlfriend in a Coma" features a lilting acoustic guitar line performed by Marr and lyrics about a hospital-bound lover sung by Morrissey.
Strange Interlude is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Strange Interlude is one of the few modern plays to make extensive use of a soliloquy technique, in which the characters speak their inner thoughts to the audience.
Murray Melvin was an English actor. He was best known for his acting work with Joan Littlewood, Ken Russell and Stanley Kubrick. He was the author of two books: The Art of Theatre Workshop (2006) and The Theatre Royal, A History of the Building (2009).
A Taste of Honey is a 1961 British New Wave drama film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Robert Stephens and Murray Melvin. It is an adaptation of the 1958 play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney. Delaney wrote the screenplay with Richardson, who had directed the original Broadway production of the play in 1960. As with the play, the film is an exemplar of a social realist genre of British media known as kitchen sink realism.
Frances Cuka was an English actress, principally on television, whose career spanned over sixty years. In her later years, she was best known for playing Grandma in the sitcom Friday Night Dinner from 2011 to 2018.
Frederick Combs was an American film, theater and television actor, playwright and director.
Shelagh Delaney FRSL was an English dramatist and screenwriter. Her debut work, A Taste of Honey (1958), has been described by Michael Patterson as "probably the most performed play by a post-war British woman playwright".
The Lion In Love is a 1960 play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney. It was her second written play. It was premiered at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry on 5 September 1960 With a cast from the English Stage Company, the play commenced a run at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 29 December 1960. The work has been described as a "follow up" to Delaney's 1958 play A Taste of Honey but did not achieve that earlier play's success.
Geoffrey Hibbert was an English stage, film and television actor.
Rowan Robinson is an English actress. She is known for her roles in the film A Haunting in Venice (2023) and the ITV thriller Passenger (2024).
