Largely because of the themes addressed in The Taming of the Shrew (marriage, duty, identity, family, and so on), the play has experienced great popularity through the years, although tracing the play's exact performance history is difficult. Little evidence of early productions survives, though we know the play was popular at least into the 1630s. Dramatist John Fletcher created a sequel to Shakespeare's work with his 1611 play The Woman's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed wherein Petruchio, now a widower, marries for a second time only to have his wife treat him much the way he initially treated Kate. Aside from contemporary spin-offs, in 1663 the Restoration stage became home to a popular production of Shakespeare's Shrew. After 1663, though, The Taming of the Shrew slipped off the boards, and we have no record of a production in its original form again until 1844.
In the meantime, however, a number of adaptations flourished. John Lacy's Sauny the Scot (1667), a crude farce, was popular for about a century. Although Lacy opted not to include the Christopher Sly scenario, Charles Johnson included it in his 1716 largely political work, The Cobbler of Preston. It wasn't until David Garrick's abbreviated version of Shrew entitled Catherine and Petruchio (1754) that Lacy's Sauny was fully replaced. Garrick's work eliminated the Induction, as well as the Bianca subplot. This adaptation also maintained its popularity for about a hundred years. Noted Shakespearean actor John Phillip Kemble also produced an abbreviated version of Shrew which competed directly with Garrick's and featured what would become one of Petruchio's trademarks during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: cracking a horsewhip to demonstrate his ability as shrew-tamer.
Shakespeare's version of The Taming of the Shrew was revived in 1844, over 180 years after it had last been produced. By the end of the nineteenth century, Shakespeare's Shrew was favored over adaptations by audiences all over the globe. Since then, Shrew has been produced countless times for the stage, as well as for film and television. Although the advent of feminism has caused some audiences to question the relevance of Shrew, the play's eternal popularity suggests that this well-written and developed play possesses a timelessness which delights audiences, generation after generation.
