The Theater: The Professional Amateur

One evening last week, a small, elegantly groomed man with thinning black hair, a limp, and the smile of a tired elf, took a party of friends to see the new Broadway musical, Kiss Me, Kate. The show is such a smash hit that ordinary playgoers find it impossible to get seats for any performance sooner than next April. Seats are just a little harder to get because this one satisfied customer has been buying up so many of them. At a cost of more than $1,000, Cole Porter, who wrote the music and...