MAME
Encyclopedia : M : MA : MAM : MAME
- For the arcade emulator, see MAME. Mame is also another name for the coelacanth.
| Broadway Show | |
| |
| Mame | |
|---|---|
| Theatre | Winter Garden Theatre (1966 - 1969) and Broadway Theatre (1969 - 1970) |
| Opening Night | 24 May 1966 |
| Tony Nominations | 9 |
| Tony Awards | 4 |
| Author(s) | Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman; book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee |
| Director | Gene Saks |
| Leading Original Cast Members | Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur |
| Closing Night | 3 January 1970 |
Mame is a highly successful Broadway musical, based on the novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis. It originally opened at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City in 1966 with Angela Lansbury, and ran for 1,508 performances. It was nominated for 9 Tony Awards, winning 4. The musical's book was written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee - adapted from their play Auntie Mame, based on Dennis' novel. The musical score for Mame (both music and lyrics) was written by Jerry Herman, who also wrote the scores for Hello, Dolly!, and La Cage aux Folles. Also featured in the cast of Mame were Bea Arthur and Jane Connell. The 1969 West End production in London starred Ginger Rogers. Lansbury also starred in the successful 1983 revival on Broadway.
The plot revolves around eccentric Mame Dennis, whose madcap life is disrupted when her deceased brother's son Patrick is entrusted to her care. Rather than bow to convention, Mame introduces the boy to her free-wheeling lifestyle, instilling in him her favorite credo - "Life is a banquet, and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." Mame eventually meets and marries Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside, a southern aristocrat with a Georgia plantation called Peckerwood. Young Patrick goes off to boarding school, and Mame and Beau travel the world on an endless honeymoon. The honeymoon ends when Beau falls off an Alp, and Mame returns home to find Patrick has become a priggish snob, engaged to an empty-headed debutante. Mame brings Patrick to his senses in time, and introduces him to the woman who will eventually become his wife. As the story ends, Mame prepares to take Patrick's young son, Michael to India.
In 1966, Bobby Darin, Louis Armstrong, and Herb Alpert all charted in the United States and Canada with their cover records of the musical's title song. Eydie Gormé had a huge success with her recording of "If He Walked into My Life", another song from the show, for which she received a Grammy Award in 1967 for Best Female Vocal Performance.
A film version of the musical was released in 1974 starring Lucille Ball, Beatrice Arthur, Robert Preston, Bruce Davison, Kirby Furlong, Jane Connell, and Joyce Van Patten. Its screenplay was adapted by Paul Zindel, with direction by Gene Saks (Arthur's then husband). Released at a time when movie musicals were long out of fashion, it was a critical and commercial failure. Age had clearly taken a toll on Ball's face and her singing voice (which had never been much to begin with; she was not a singer). The very soft focus closeups on Ball were a jarring contrast to the much clearer shots in the rest of the film. The film version of the non-musical play, Auntie Mame released in 1958, starring Rosalind Russell, Coral Browne (wife of Vincent Price), Forrest Tucker, Fred Clark, Peggy Cass, Roger Smith (husband of Ann-Margaret), and Patric Knowles is widely considered to be the better film version.
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