Lea DeLaria to Co-Star with Andrea McCardle in MAME

DeLaria will be Vera Charles opposite McArdle's MAME at the Media Theatre in Pennsylvania, according to her Facebook page.

Certainly... interesting casting to say the least. Completely preposterous and inappropriate, in my opinion, but definitely interesting.

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Updated On: 3/7/13 at 10:43 PM

Well that's one production I'll make a point to avoid like the plague.

I think Delaria would make a great Mother Burnside or even Mr Babcock. She might even make a good Ito. Not even with the wildest imagination could she pretend to be the First Lady of the theatre.
As for Ms.Mccardle. She's a great singer but a comedienne she is not.
Best worst casting ever.

AMEN.

I'm looking forward to a slightly more effeminate post-Bea Arthur Vera.

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This has FAIL written all over it. Road trip!

Are they really going to have Lea DeLaria sing "Bosom Buddy"?

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^Delaria was a fantastic Hildy in the Park; her larger than lifeness couldn't survive On the Town's move to Broadway (nothing else in or about that production did either).

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This may in fact be a disaster, but I also have to say:

if this were early 1966, a great many of us would be screaming that the tough, vulgar, butch, "ethnic" giantess Bea Arthur was COMPLETELY, PATHETICALLY MISCAST as the grand dame first lady of the American theater, and that the hard as nails, B-list Hollywood "character actress" Angela Lansbury, best at arch and bitter roles (she was good in Anyone Can Whistle, superb in The Manchurian Candidate, but Mame? - WTF?!), was not only COMPLETELY, PATHETICALLY MISCAST as the warm, madcap, classy, patrician, loving, eccentrically maternal Auntie Mame but would, furthermore, never sell a single ticket.

That is until those legendary performances began and history was made.

My point - and I do have one - is that truly great and highly successful casting sometimes pushes the envelope, is surprising, and that all too often what people on bww seem to demand is the safe, the predictable, the commercially prepackaged and the boring.

Updated On: 3/8/13 at 10:59 AM

I completely agree. But when it comes to Delaria, the last thing she should be doing is musical theater. She might be very talented in other areas, but this one ain't for her.

I have seen her do her combo be bop jazz/comedy shows and they are great.

I've also seen McCardle be quite warm in shows.

But I guess the message in this thread is "Don't try anything risky; things that look good on paper always work out for the best!"

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"But I guess the message in this thread is "Don't try anything risky; things that look good on paper always work out for the best!"

EXACTLY. lol

Then I would soooo find a way to get there.

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FINE. I'll play Mother Burnside. My Agnes Gooch notes are a little shaky these days.