MAME kinda sucks

About every two days, someone posts a "who can we cast in MAME?" thread...or posts on another thread. Why? This show is a dated, overlong relic from the dreaded sixties with a good-not-great score that would be like boarding the Titanic for any actress who would dare try.

Last year it was "Ebersole needs to do MAME" this year its "LuPone needs to do MAME".

Thoughts?

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Bette Midler needs to do Mame.

Unfortunately in this Broadway climate it needs a huge star to bring in the audiences. Let's not forget that even in the original Angela Lansbury had Jerry Herman rehearsing her. The producers didn't think Lansbury could carry the show.

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Has anyone actually seen MAME in the last ten years or so? Not the movie! Its.....bloated quaintsy-waintsy. It don't work.

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I agree Joe-
Mame isn't all that dated, it's a pretty solid period piece, remember it starts right around 1929, and ends 19 years later in 1949. The score is a gem, and with the right actress it's a fantastic evening.

The thing is, you need someone who is in the middle of that age range, yet young enough to be believeable in the first act, but not too old that she comes off as old at the end of the show.

My vote still goes to Lauren Graham.

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Mame sucks? Sorry, I can't agree. I still find it funny and smart and dramatically plausible - with the exception of a few moments - and ultimately quite touching. Mame is great Leading Lady, why would you want to be without her?

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So it was dated when it came out?

GothamPC-
To be dated it means that a piece has historically inaccurate stereotypes in it, or contains references or material that were so time specific, they don't hold as much resonance today.. The "silly" accent as you call it is reasonably typical of someone who spoke an Asian language (I forget Ito's nationality), and has learned English secondarily. And, while I don't even have a housekeeper, are you assuming that there are NO Asian housekeepers in America?

Personally, I think it just adds to Mame's kookiness and endearingness. There isn't a single racial slur about him, or anyone else said by Mame, Vera, or Patrick, and one could reasonably argue that Mame stands up against those with racial prejudice.

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Please...lets NOT have Ms. Lupone ruin this show. The thing is...the character of MAME is a kind, fun-loving, free-spirited woman. And Lupone can only play the mean-spirited, driven, insane, selfish woman that she is in real life.

To me Mame is a pleasant musical with some very good songs, but without any good raison d'etre.

But put the play Auntie Mame onstage and I'll be there in a heartbeat.

Roz Russell called the play, "Our revue without music".

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"Looking at Mame from a British perspective I don't understand why she "makes the South revive again". Why do they all get so excited about her in the title song? What was so wrong with the South that it needed to revive again and what did she actually do to achieve this?"

She won his family over. It's a metaphor for winning the South over.

As to what is so wrong with the South....spend some time there. I lived in Georgia for awhile. The South has never gotten over the Civil War, and probably never will as they are so stuck in their own little "woe is me" paradigm.
Frankly I only go to the South when I need to.

I'd rather spend time in Liverpool than our South.

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I've only seen the film...

I think Mame is a good musical with a few standout numbers that make it classic. I'd like to see it revived and think that, with the right creative team, it could be phenomenal.

"I don't understand why she "makes the South revive again".

It's a cheap lyric that Herman didn't think twice about.

Since the American Civil War (in the South called The War of Northern Aggression), there has always been a bit of rivalry on the part of the southern states. Herman is (mistakenly) saying that Mame is so wonderful, gracious, etc. that she has won over the South. However, if Jerry Herman had ever spent 10 seconds in the South, he would have realized that Southerners are very proud people. To praise Mame, a New Yorker, above a genteel Southern belle would never be done by Southern people.

eta: After the Civil War, the South remained poor for many years. Herman's lyric is trying to say that this wonderful bit of fresh air has brought joy to these impoverished Southerners.

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Updated On: 8/11/08 at 03:50 PM

I say Bette Midler as Mame with Lily Tomlin as Vera

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