Couple of pertinent highlights from Variety:
"Considering Jerry Herman's adoration for his leading ladies, a giant staircase custom-built for grand diva entrances seems almost a requirement of his shows. In the Kennedy Center's opulently appointed revival of "Mame," that staircase glides around to become a gateway to the world opened up by its ineffably worldly title character. There's plenty here to entice Broadway musical nostalgists, including a whole catalog of vintage-modern decor, more costume changes than a CherCher concert and enough beading to blind entire nations of garment workers -- not to mention a robust orchestra and a populous ensemble. What's lacking is heart."
"Christine Baranski delivers Mame's madcap spirit and the droll remove from a mundane world of dreary practicality, and she becomes a persuasive cultural guru to her impressionable charge. But she neglects to become a surrogate mother."
"With a blond bob and a svelte figure that makes her an elegant clotheshorse, Baranski looks the part, and she manages both vocal and dance duties with aplomb. She's an accomplished comic actress who can do deadpan disdain with the best of 'em, and her Mame seems sardonically detached from everyone in her orbit, which works except in the case of Patrick. Baranski does a fine job with the show's most heartfelt song, "If He Walked Into My Life." But her failure to etch a deep emotional bond with the boy who's grown up in her care robs her sudden loss of its poignancy."
"Baranski seems a more natural fit for Mame's archly theatrical, booze-sodden friend Vera Charles. That casting, however, would deny auds the amusement of Harriet Harris in the role. Shooting glowering double takes while wincing at the noise and movement going on around her and demonstrating the precarious balance of a habitual drunk, her Vera strikes an irresistible balance between the imperious but hammy grande dame of the theater and the blowsy old soak."
"Changing costumes onstage to become a lady astronomer in an ill-begotten "modern operetta," Harris makes Vera's "The Moon Song" one of the show's high points. Whether glaring at a chorine who momentarily upstages her or shuddering with mortification when Mame derails the performance by having a vertigo attack while suspended on a crescent moon, Harris is priceless."
"But not even she is immune to the show's overall sluggishness, particularly in some of the creaky book scenes. Dialogue that should zing and pop frequently becomes flat, laden with unnecessary pauses. From the first big number, "It's Today," it's clear that director Eric Schaeffer needs to lean harder on the accelerator; at nearly three hours, the show's second act especially starts to drag."
"While Herman reportedly has made cuts, further pruning wouldn't have hurt. Mame's song "That's How Young I Feel," which occurs during her visit to the Connecticut home of Patrick's bigoted fiancee, stops the plot. It seems dropped in merely to allow for another of choreographer Warren Carlyle's determinedly boisterous dance numbers. Conception of big production numbers like the title song and "Open a New Window" is solid, but execution generally could be a fraction tighter."
"There's some grating overacting in the large cast (of 36), making the more understated work of Emily Skinner as Patrick's frumpy nanny Agnes all the more pleasing. She does a lovely job with "Gooch's Song," an endearingly befuddled account of how Mame's exhortation to "Live, live, live!" has resulted in Agnes returning pregnant six months later. Max von Essen is an appealing, smooth-voiced presence as the college-age Patrick."
"Music director James Moore leads the 22-piece orchestra with verve, making Herman's terrific score and witty lyrics the main attraction. Even if the match of Baranski and la Dennis doesn't build an urgent case for bringing the show back to Broadway after a 23-year absence, "Mame" retains its share of sparkling pleasures."
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
