Enemies to lovers is one of my all time favorite tropes, so I suppose it stands to reason that Taming of the Shrew has always been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. There’s just nothing like that fiery passion, the witty banter and fighting that turns into the heat of something much more schmexy.
My top 5 favorite Taming of the Shrew movies/adaptations are:
1. Atomic Shakespeare – Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd with the cast of Moonlighting put on one of the hands down funniest versions of this play I have ever seen. I think this came out in the 80s. We watched it in one of my English classes in high school and 20 years later I still laugh watching it.
2. Taming of the Shrew – Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton – well who doesn’t love these two together? It’s definitely a more classical production, sticking to the actual play with none of the slapstick tomfoolery of the Moonlighting version. I’ve read a couple scathing reviews of this version, but I still found ample laughs and plenty of entertainment!
3. 10 Things I Hate About You – Julia Stiles and the amazing Heath Ledger – this is a modern retelling of this tale, and has become a total 90s classic rom com with a huge cult following. And Heath Ledger *happy sigh*
4. Deliver Us From Eva – Gabrielle Union and LL Cool J – another modern retelling that varies from the classic tale a bit more than the others but is still a great adaptation of this play. And I’m a huge LL fan so I just gotta love it :-D
5. Okay, I think I’ve only seen these 4 movies versions of Taming of the Shrew (although I have seen the production live once) so I’m going to throw in an extra gif from Atomic Shakespeare because seriously, I just love this show!
Do you like Taming of the Shrew and if so, do you have a favorite version? I would REALLY love to see Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson in a movie version of this. Those two are gold together and killed it in Much Ado About Nothing!
Don’t miss Michelle’s newest release,
How to Lose a Highlander
Out Now!
Forced into marriage by their king in order to stop years of inter-clan feuding, Sorcha Campbell and Malcolm MacGregor are each determined to drive the other away. Malcolm knows he can never trust his new shrewish wife, despite the fact that everything he observes seems to prove that she’s not only trustworthy, but utterly perfect for him. Sorcha knows she can never let her guard down around the man she believes betrayed her father, yet the longer she’s with him, the more she discovers he is nothing like she was led to believe. They’ll have to fight their way through past prejudices and their own determination to destroy their union in order to gain their perfect HEA in this Taming of the Shrew meets How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days tale.
Michelle McLean is a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl who is addicted to chocolate and goldfish crackers and spent most of her formative years with her nose in a book. She has a B.S. in History, a M.A. in English, and loves her romance with a touch of suspenseful mystery. She resides in PA with her husband and two amazing children.
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I like the traditional with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. I really enjoyed those two together.
My favorite is a staging by ACT of San Francisco, from the 1970s, that was recorded and aired on PBS. Its cast was mostly unknown, but its Petruchio, Marc Singer, went on to be the Beastmaster. :-) Staged in commedia dell’arte style, highly physical, active, and funny, it did the best job of justifying the Petruchio/Katarina relationship of any production I’ve ever seen. (And I’ve seen at least a dozen stagings of this play.)
I hadn’t seen it in 20 years when I mentioned it to a friend, and it turned out she’d seen it, too. And we were able to discuss scenes in detail. That’s the kind of impression it made on us.
It’s available on DVD, and it’s well worth discovering.