This week, the lights go down on another packed house at the Theatre du Chatelet, the gilded 19th century theater in Paris whose name has become synonymous with grand American musical productions. The latest hit is Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate, which ends a sold-out 10-day run this Friday.
Over the past decade, Parisians have relished such classics as Singin’ in the Rain, The King and I and The Sound of Music, all performed in English by international casts at the Chatelet. The French can’t seem to get enough of the musical genre, says Jean-Luc Choplin, the theater’s director.
“We have done Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gershwin, Bernstein, Sondheim, but we had not done Cole Porter until now, and it was time,” he says. He calls Kiss Me, Kate a fitting tribute to one of the “big five” American musical composers who was also inspired by the City of Light.
Kiss Me, Kate is the story of an acting troupe in Baltimore putting on a performance of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The Chatelet’s version is directed by Lee Blakeley, a Briton known for his grand staging of international operas. As a show within a show, Kiss Me, Kate is fun, Blakeley says — but complicated.
“But musicals, in general, are more complicated to put on,” he says. “They are more episodic than plays or operas. There are more scenes. And the cast is interdisciplinary — with different skills that come into focus at different times. We have actors who act, actors who sing, singers who dance, dancers who act.”

Blakeley has been a key part of the Chatelet’s musical success over the past six years, directing plays including Sunday in the Park with George and The King and I.