Subber has often been described as conceiving of the show while working as a stagehand on a production of The Taming of the Shrew starring the real-life husband and wife Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and noticing that the couple "quarreled almost as much off stage as they did in the play".
[8]) However, Subber maintained that his role as the stage manager for Lunt and Fontaine inspired the idea, and he wrote the original book at the insistence of his lifelong friend, Montgomery Clift, who locked him in a hotel room until the work was completed.
Book in hand, Clift then introduced Subber to Cole Porter who wrote the music for "Kiss Me Kate" in 10 days.
Subber also received Tony nominations for Best Play as producer of both William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Paddy Chayefsky's The Tenth Man, each of which also ran for more than a year on Broadway.
[9] He eventually became associated with Neil Simon and produced seven of his plays on Broadway: Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, The Star-Spangled Girl, Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The Gingerbread Lady, and The Prisoner of Second Avenue.