Washington Post revisits "Mame"

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/1/06 at 10:29am

It closes tomorrow but the Washington Post critic went back to and wrote a new review.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/30/AR2006063001822.html

'Mame,' A Whole Month Better
Tentativeness Segued To Confident Sass

By Peter Marks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 1, 2006; C02



It might not rank with the discovery of penicillin or a new moon around Saturn, but Christine Baranski has found her Mame.

An aura of truly gleeful possibility now envelops Baranski on the stage of the Eisenhower Theater, where the Kennedy Center revival of the 1966 Jerry Herman musical, directed by Eric Schaeffer, ends its engagement tomorrow.

What had been a tentative performance has grown into something sharper, cheekier. Baranski seems untethered from doubt. Her Mame is more girlish and motherly than a month ago, when the actress appeared preoccupied with getting her high kicks right and negotiating the steps of an unwieldy staircase that is rolled on and off the stage all evening.

With a more confidently articulated central portrayal has evolved a more securely funny "Mame," a circumstance from which the cast seems to have benefited. New laughs have been minted, and the sentimental arc of the story comes through more appealingly. To take just one example: The buck-us-up song "We Need a Little Christmas" now conveys in touching, rather than mechanically kooky, fashion the idea of Mame as head of a newfangled household, one that is a buoyant haven for the others under her wing.

Some of "Mame's" potential was evident in a first viewing, especially in the mostly snazzy choreography of Warren Carlyle and dazzling costumes by Gregg Barnes. A revisit this week shows off the ripening of several pivotal characters and numbers. Baranski's scenes with the delightful Harriet Harris -- playing a Vera so pickled you can practically choke on gin fumes -- come at last to a full boil. "Bosom Buddies," their kiss-kiss-stab-stab duet in Act II, has been freshly honed to barbed-wire prickliness.

To deliver one of Herman's best punch lines, Baranski now takes a pause in "Bosom Buddies' so pregnant it's as if she's gone on strike in mid-joke. When the verbal hammer finally falls, the italicizing of the putdown gives it a scintillating zing.

The comedic work, too, of actors in a passel of background roles has developed more heft. Alan Muraoka is squeezing as much deadpan wit out of Ito, Mame's houseboy, as his contract could conceivably call for. Mary Stout's plantation battle-ax, Ruth Gottschall's country-club bigot and Ed Dixon's double duty as country gentleman and city sophisticate have grown into certifiable assets among the gallery of recognizable musical-comedy types.

First impressions are what reviewers live by and productions must live with. In some instances, a show has evolved into pretty much all it will ever be after its first audience exposures. (A major Broadway theater owner once told me that he always trusted his experience at a work's very first preview performance because "You've got what you've got.") It's also true, though, that some shows hit their stride after the tension of opening night has dissipated. In other cases, the baking process can take even more time. Confoundingly, it can be very difficult to gauge when precisely a show is cooked through.

What occasioned a second look at "Mame" was the ambition of Schaeffer's $5 million production. There was a point -- now abandoned because of the high costs of the transfer -- when producers were considering a limited Broadway run. And of course, curiosity persisted over whether Baranski could become a more vigorous centrifuge of the show. Possessed of an engaging if not quite captivating voice, she is, after all, a top-drawer comedian. Through various stage and TV roles, she's perfected a pose of serene superiority: the intimidating svelteness, the contemptuous smirk, the withering gaze all warn that humiliation can come with one tart adjective or one arched eyebrow.

For all of Mame's bohemian spirit, her advocacy of opening windows, she has to allow us to believe her warmth extends to more traditional roles, too, that the nephew who is dropped into her life fills another sort of need. Over the course of a month of performances, Baranski has tweaked her focus, infusing her Mame with a stronger sense of devotion to Patrick (Harrison Chad as a boy; Max von Essen as a young man).

Mame's scheme to wrest the besotted Patrick from the grasp of a grotesque dimwitted deb (Sarah Jane Everman) no longer is rooted exclusively in the smarmy caricaturing of suburban philistines. Now you feel more urgently Mame's maternal instinct, rather than mere disdain, as the motivating factor.

The instinct that asserts itself most impressively, however, has to do with Baranski's timing. Her lines have a new snap. She simply seems to be having more fun. In a musical that feeds on carbonation, the more fizz, the merrier.

"Mame," it must be noted, never will be a great American musical. But its formidable heroine and effervescent spirit, each properly nurtured, can for a short spell send care into the ether. It's good to know "Mame," too, can leave in a hail of bubbles.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/1/06 at 10:38am

Good for Ms. Baranski! I was really sad to hear it wasn't coming to Broadway.

[Carefree-Existence]

Posted: 7/1/06 at 5:24pm

A friend of mine had an extra ticket, and although I didn't LOVE the production when I first saw it I did like it alot so I figured I would tag along. Peter Marks review is dead on. Christine shines in the role now. Her only fault is that she may not be vocally strong enough for my taste, but her warmth and comedic timing is infectious and I can honestly say she made me forget Rosalind Russell for a while last night. The Kennedy Center was stupid to allow the reviewers to come so early.

Now I am very sad that the production will not be transferring. With the crap that fills the Broadway theatres these days- OF COURSE this production should be on Broadway. The production far exceeds 75% of the lackluster, half-baked pieces on Broadway right now. I mean if Wonderful Town with Donna Murphy can run as long as it did- there is no doubt in my mind that this Mame would have done well in NY.

Ah well!

[Incognito]

Posted: 7/1/06 at 6:36pm

"It might not rank with the discovery of penicillin or a new moon around Saturn, but Christine Baranski has found her Mame".

An incredible review when you consider the high expectations he went in with.

Updated On: 7/1/06 at 06:36 PM