A brief history of High Society

High Society started out as the romantic comedy play The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry in 1939, which became a (non-musical) MGM film, also called The Philadelphia Story in 1940, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stuart.

This was then converted into a musical film, High Society, in 1956, starring Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. The film also starred Louis Armstrong as himself and as the highest grossing film of the year.

Grace Kelly was engaged to Prince Rainier of Monaco when High Society was filmed and she wore her actual engagement ring in the film, which was her last film before retiring from acting and becoming Princess Grace of Monaco. She and Bing Crosby received a platinum record for the million-selling hit "True Love" - although she was in fact the second choice for the part of Tracy Lord, with first choice Elizabeth Taylor heving been unavailable.

A UK stage musical version had a revised book by its director, Richard Eyre, and starred Trevor Eve, and Natasha Richardson, with Ronald Fraser as Uncle Willie. It was tried out at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre in late 1986 and was tansferred to the West End where it ran from February 1987 to January 1988 at the Victoria Palace Theatre.

A Broadway production eventually opened at the St James Theater on 27th April 1998 and ran for 144 performances. This version introduced new Cole Porter numbers such as "I Love Paris", "It's Alright with Me" and "Let's Misbehave" and had a new book by Arthur Kopit, with some additional lyrics by Susan Birkenhead.

There was also a West End production at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 2005, transferred from the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, starring Jerry Hall until she withdrew to recover from glandular fever. There was a UK tour of High Society in 2007 and there has just been another London revival in 2009/2010 at 'Upstairs a the Gatehouse', Highgate Village.

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