Review: Kennedy Center 'Mame' Rises Above Miscast Star

In the famous Act One finale of Mame, the musical's irresistible title character captures a fox and single-handedly revives the drowsy South, sending its courtly gentlemen and Georgia peaches into an ecstatic serenade of acceptance and very high octaves. It's a rousing number in the Kennedy Center's gorgeously-mounted production, but it's hard to find the same kind of enthusiasm with Christine Baranski filling Mame's jodhpurs.

The show is like a mint julep with plenty of flavor and buzz; its miscast leading lady has just skimmed off some of the texture.

It doesn't exactly hurt that a physically spectacular staging has been built around one of the most intoxicating shows of Broadway's Golden Age. Based on Patrick Dennis' comic memoir Auntie Mame and the classic play it inspired, Mame boasts a witty and almost criminally catchy score by Jerry Herman as well as a zinging book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (who crafted the play). There's nothing remotely innovate about Mame and sure, it's a little dated, but it represents the kind of sophistication and craftsmanship that is all too rare on Broadway today.

And of course, Mame, originally played by Angela Lansbury and now channeled by Christine Baranski, is one of the great leading lady roles. She's the glamorous, larger-than-life whirlwind of a woman whose unconventional upbringing of her young nephew Patrick (Harrison Chad)—including enrolling him in a clothing-optional school and teaching him how to mix the right martini—whets his appetite for the Bohemian banquet of life in which Mame delights. She also has her own adventures sprinkling Yankee sunshine over the faded South of her husband Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (a charming Jeff McCarthy) and keeping the older Patrick (Max von Essen, in a solid, sweet performance) from marrying a nouveau riche peroxide blonde (Sarah Jane Everman).

Eric Schaeffer, whose staging is fleet and bright, has ensured that the comic hijinks and production numbers are wrapped in a sumptuous staging, as Mame zips along from the 20s to the mid-40s. Set designer Walt Spangler and costume designer Gregg Barnes, with the aid of Ken Billington's lighting, have struck the perfect balance between the elegant and the garish (a description that might apply to the musical itself). Flapper gowns drenched in sequins give way to genteel Georgia fashions, just as the semi-abstract sets change from neon skyscrapers and chrome to a bougainvillea-draped manor to an apartment streaked with Op Art-esque designs. Mame brims with visual wit. "The Man in the Moon is a Lady," sung by Mame's bosom buddy Vera Charles (Harriet Harris) to the rhythm of big plastic bubbles, is a hilariously insipid show-within-a-show production number out of a low-rent Ziegfeld Follies.

As Mame, Christine Baranski is growing into a role which was not ideal casting to begin with. Oh, she's in fine voice and dances with limber grace. She has presence, comic timing, energy and the ability to look great in a blond bob and slinky costumes. For an actress who has gained a reputation for playing acid-tongued and aloof roles, Baranski gives Mame a certain warmth. Yet she's playing a character whose name has become a synonym for free-spirited eccentricity, and there are few moments in her performance that aren't controlled. As of now, there's too much Upper West Side and not enough of wild Beekman Place.

She's also lacking in emotional connection with Chad, who while a fine young performer, plays Young Patrick with a poise that borders on the blasé. Mame certainly doesn't have the tear factor of say, Carousel, but it's not unsentimental, and the production feels a little hollow at times. Yet its exuberant other parts are almost enough to make one forget that it's not as touching as it could be.

But who wants to get too teary when consummate scene-stealers Harriet Harris and Emily Skinner, as Vera and Agnes Gooch, respectively, are on the loose? Both manage to monopolize laughs with the comic grandeur of their performances.

As the booze-blooded musical comedy star whose age lies "somewhere between forty and death," Harris seems in a hazy stupor at all times. Mame may describe her voice as that of a frog, but it's more of a slurred quack as she uses it to dispense withering one-liners. Harris also has fine chemistry with Baranski, and their snarky duet "Bosom Buddies" is charming. Skinner, at first in full frumped-out attire, has too much charisma for socially awkward secretary Gooch, but her transformation from mousy to foxy—as well as her subsequent regret--is shamelessly funny.

Credit should go to Mame's excellent ensemble for keeping the production's spirits up with such vigor. Warren Carlyle's choreography is rich with humor, color, detail and diversity. His staging of "It's Today" is particularly dynamic; it's the kind of number that make one want to prescribe musical theatre to the sick.

Baranski tries valiantly and if she applied the same talents to a different role, she could be quite wonderful. The show is terrific, stylish fun but a miscast Mame just keeps the husk clinging a little too tightly to the corn.

Visit www.kennedy-center.org for tickets and more information.

Photos by Joan Marcus
1) Christine Baranski and Ensemble
2) Harriet Harris and Baranski


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