Happy 50th Anniversary to MAME!

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/24/16 at 3:40am

Auntie Mame Dennis-Burnside made her musical debut 50 years ago today at the Winter Garden Theatre!

With a score by Jerry Herman the show was also the one that propelled star Angela Lansbury to stardom. Bea Arthur and Jane Connell co-starred and the late Frankie Michaels won a Tony Award for his portrayal of young Patrick Dennis.

Sadly the misguided film version as well as the near carbon-copy revival in 1983 both failed to garner the same success as the original but the show has had a long life in regional and summer stock, with nearly every leading lady of the theatre taking her stab at the role at one time or another.

Production Photos:

















 

Original Cast footage synced to soundboard audio (courtesy of board member 1971FolliesFan):

 

Did anyone see it in '66? Or the '83 revival?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/24/16 at 9:52am

By the time  I saw it ,Lansbury was gone and wound up seeing it with Janis Paige

 

A first class revival is in order. Midler would have been a perfect fit. Now that she will be occupied, Christine Baranski would appear to be a perfect fit or the Lupone would be good . 

Updated On: 7/11/16 at 09:52 AM

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/24/16 at 10:32am

Bette Midler would be brilliant as Gooch!!! 

Catherine Zeta-Jones would be a fantastic Mame.  

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 5/24/16 at 10:58am

I read that there were plans to do a TV version after the success of Gypsy starring Bette Midler, but it never materialized. I wonder if Craig Zadan & Neil Meron would be interested in doing Mame as a live television musical on NBC someday.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/24/16 at 11:07am

I love Mame! It's time for a revival.

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/24/16 at 11:08am

Yes, those rumors were in the mid/late 90's.  Flash forward to the spring of 1999 when Barbra Streisand's production company Barwood, purchased the rights for a tv movie of "Mame."  Then in Aug 2000, it was announced that Barbra would produce the tv movie version of "Mame," and not star in it.

And, here we are all these years later with nothing ever coming to fruition.

 

Updated On: 5/24/16 at 11:08 AM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/25/16 at 2:12am

It's strange that for as much regional traction as it gets and for what a great star vehicle it is (with lots of juicy supporting characters as well) that it hasn't seen Broadway in three decades.

Perhaps the lacklustre reception of the last revival has made people think twice. It will still always be one of my favourite Forbidden Broadway spoofs:

Did La Cage steal all our fire / And their Queeny choir / Upstage Ann Francine!?

Updated On: 5/25/16 at 02:12 AM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:28am

Here are some more gorgeous full colour photos:

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 7:48pm

Will the monster hit that is Hello Dolly help this to get revived.  For my money, it was more enjoyable than Hello Dolly, assuming the roles of Mame, Vera and Gooch were well filled. In some ways HD does not require as perfect casting, because Dolly is not as big a role as Mame, and there its no role in HD as well constructed for a second banana as Vera.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/22/17 at 3:56am

What did they do to screw up the 1983 revival?

Because despite the barns (3,000 seats where I worked) in which it played, the 1977 summer tour (with Lansbury and Connell) was brilliant!

One difference I've seen in Youtube clips was the size of the ensemble. The 1983 revival chorus looks pretty skimpy in film of the title number. That seems an odd way to economize in a Broadway revival...

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 5/22/17 at 8:25am

My favorite Jerry Herman show, and Agnes Gooch is one of my all-time dream roles. But I will agree that there are few supporting actress roles in the musical canon that are as good as Vera.

MAME might seem dated at times, but it has priceless moments of hilarity ("Bosom Buddies" and heartbreak ("If He Walked Into My Life". And, like Hello Dolly, you get the exhilarating chorus-of-men-singing-the-title-song production number.

I even think the film adaptation could have been terrific had they cast a proper actress as Mame. The score is all there, as is Bea Arthur, and I love Robert Preston as Beauregarde Burnside.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/22/17 at 11:32am

GavestonPS said: "What did they do to screw up the 1983 revival?

Because despite the barns (3,000 seats where I worked) in which it played, the 1977 summer tour (with Lansbury and Connell) was brilliant!

One difference I've seen in Youtube clips was the size of the ensemble. The 1983 revival chorus looks pretty skimpy in film of the title number. That seems an odd way to economize in a Broadway revival...

 

I saw the revival three times and loved it.  The audiences at all three performances were atypical for those days.  They showed their love adamently...SO for the title number, stomping for one more curtain call.

i think there were a  number  of reasons for its failure:

-- it was probably too early for a revival (in those days)

-- It opened with no notice...no opportunity to build up enthusiasm

-- it opened in the summer, which was very rare in those days...even rarer than now

-- The Uris was too big a theatre for Mame.  The humor got a little lost in that huge a space

-- it was done on the cheap.  The sets were mostly spangly drops.  Felt more like Summer Stock.

 

i still loved it.  Lansbury was remarkable...still did those high kicks at almost 60.  The score was just as good as ever.  The book was funny as hell (I do not think the book is dated even today)'

Hopefully, someone will take a look at it and realize that the flop of 35ish years ago was due to a lot of reasons that had nothing by to do with Make itself.