Who would I like to see play MAME?- Page 2

[Robert16]

Posted: 1/26/19 at 9:36pm

Patti LuPone
Bernadette Peters

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/26/19 at 9:43pm

Sweet lips, Collette has done Broadway and starred in a a Broadway musical, The Wild Party, for which she was nominated for a Tony.

Updated On: 1/27/19 at 09:43 PM

[BeNice]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 12:56am

I really like Sutton as a performer but she seems too...stable for Auntie Mame? If that makes any sense. While she is out of this world talented but I want to feel like the actress playing Auntie Mame is a little quirky and narcissistic in real life.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 1:23am

So many of the suggestions are so damned old.  Mame is vivacious, and it would be a damned shame if she cant at least do the kicks that Lansbury did.  How about:

-- Anne Hathaway

-- Emily Blunt

-- Don't disagree with Sutton Foster

-- Jane Krakowski is a featured performer, not a star.  Mame needs a star to have any chance of success

-- Please no on Midler, Murphy, Peters, Ebersole...I love two of them, but they are in the too old category.

-- Collette sounds interesting; IMO she is at the upper end of the age that I want to see in that role

-- Since I am pretty convinced that she can do anything, I like the Audra idea.  She has warmth, the voice, the glamour.,etc.

-- Can Cate Blanchett sing???  Doubt she'd ever commit to a long run on Broadway, but she had the charisma, can do comedy, pathos, could do great justice to the clothes that will be required.

 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 2:35am

Thank you, Jarethan. I am grateful most posters on this board are NOT casting directors.

Toni Collette is 46; that's not a terrible age for Mame or Vera. MURIEL'S WEDDING is my all-time favorite film, but I'm not sure Collette's voice is interesting enough to my ear for what is a very lengthy and demanding score.* Audra MacDonald as "Mame" and Collette as "Vera" would be heaven, IMHO, and even worth $150-$300 for tickets!

I only know Sutton Foster from clips and TV roles, but she seems an interesting possibility. I'm not sure the actress playing Mame has to be eccentric; at heart, Mame is a devoted foster mother to Patrick. The zaniness is well written into the material itself.

* Even though Angela Lansbury never had a classically "pretty" voice, she is one hell of a musician and made magic with some of Jerry Herman's best songs. To me, she was always an exciting actress-singer, if not a maker of perfect tones.

Updated On: 1/27/19 at 02:35 AM

[JBradshaw]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 3:16am

Producer2 said: "ANDREA MCARDLE!!!!!!!!"

 

shes has played the role before. 

 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/philadelphia/article/Photo-Flash-First-Look-at-Andrea-McArdle-and-Lea-DeLaria-in-MAME-at-Bucks-County-Playhouse-20130503

 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 3:28am

Although she would sing it beautifully, I haven't seen McArdle be animated enough to be believable as Mame. But I admit I haven't seen her a lot in the past decade.

[HereAndThere2]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 10:39am

Queen Latifah as "Mame" and MoNique as "Vera".

 

 

[David10086]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 12:11pm

Megan Mullally as 'Mame'

Sean Hayes as 'Vera'

[BeNice]

Posted: 1/27/19 at 12:45pm

David10086 said: "Megan Mullally as 'Mame'

Sean Hayes as 'Vera'"

Yes. Megan. Love it.

[noradesmond]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 2:50am

Jarethan said: "So many of the suggestions are so damned old. Mame is vivacious, and it would be a damned shame if she cant at least do the kicks that Lansbury did. How about:

-- Anne Hathaway

-- Emily Blunt

-- Don't disagree with Sutton Foster

-- Jane Krakowski is a featured performer, not astar. Mame needs a star to have any chance of success

-- Please no on Midler, Murphy, Peters, Ebersole...I love two of them, but they are in the too old category.

-- Collette sounds interesting; IMO she is at the upper end of the age that I want to see in that role

-- Since I am pretty convinced that she can do anything, I like the Audra idea. She has warmth, the voice, the glamour.,etc.

-- Can Cate Blanchett sing??? Doubt she'd ever commit to a long run on Broadway, but she had the charisma, can do comedy, pathos, could do great justice to the clothes that will be required.

"

Sutton Foster, yes, I like. Not so sure about Anne Hathaway, though. 

Cate Blanchett would be brilliant, if she can sing. 

Emily Blunt is an interesting idea but I would much rather see her (in a few years) as Desiree Armfeldt.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 8:38am

There's a disconnect between the Mame of the book, the perceived Mame of the play, and the Mame in the public consciousness. The Mame people think of today is a "woman of a certain age," analogous to Dolly Levi and the idealized fusion of the nurting auntie a young gay boy would have wanted, and the fabulous dame that same boy might fantasize about being.

But the Mame on the written page in Patrick Dennis's novels is younger, sexier, more morally ambivalent. While she was "middle-aged" in the 1920s and 1930s, she ages from 35 to 50 over the course of the two books. She's what they would have called a "college widow" in that era, and today would be graciously called a cougar and bluntly called a milf. When I read the novels, Julie Bowen was my obvious Auntie Mame in my head: the perfect mix of the warmth, the coldness, the sex, the farce of it all. Does she sing, though? I doubt it.

[ActorGuyIL]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 11:02am

Kate Baldwin - Mame

Rachel York - Vera

Jennifer Simard - Gooch

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 12:07pm

I second Loretta Swit

[Producer2]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 2:18pm

JBradshaw....I'd love to see Andrea Mcardle play it on Broadway, in fact I recently spoke to her after her show at 54 Below and she wants to play the part on Broadway as well!!!!!!!!

[Robbie2]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 3:33pm

Producer2 said: "JBradshaw....I'd love to see Andrea Mcardle play it on Broadway, in fact I recently spoke to her after her show at 54 Below and she wants to play the part on Broadway as well!!!!!!!!"

Andrea Mcardle!? ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Toni Collette is MAME on BWAY and Lea DeLaria as Vera.

Updated On: 1/28/19 at 03:33 PM

[Luscious]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 3:42pm

I actually think an all-male version spoofing the material could be fabulous.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 4:16pm

noradesmond said: "Jarethan said: "So many of the suggestions are so damned old. Mame is vivacious, and it would be a damned shame if she cant at least do the kicks that Lansbury did. How about:

-- Anne Hathaway

-- Emily Blunt

-- Don't disagree with Sutton Foster

-- Jane Krakowski is a featured performer, not astar. Mame needs a star to have any chance of success

-- Please no on Midler, Murphy, Peters, Ebersole...I love two of them, but they are in the too old category.

-- Collette sounds interesting; IMO she is at the upper end of the age that I want to see in that role

-- Since I am pretty convinced that she can do anything, I like the Audra idea. She has warmth, the voice, the glamour.,etc.

-- Can Cate Blanchett sing??? Doubt she'd ever commit to a long run on Broadway, but she had the charisma, can do comedy, pathos, could do great justice to the clothes that will be required.

"

Sutton Foster, yes, I like. Not so sure about Anne Hathaway, though.

Cate Blanchett would be brilliant, if she can sing.

Emily Blunt is an interesting idea but I would much rather see her (in a few years) as Desiree Armfeldt."

 

Your last recommendation is brilliant; but as long as we are hoping, why not hope for her in something soonish and ALNM in anywhere from 10 to 20 years from now (although nature may force me to miss the latter).

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 4:41pm

My vote goes to Megan Mulally.  

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/28/19 at 10:53pm

DMsquared2 said: "My vote goes to Megan Mulally."

I have to agree. Best suggestion in the thread. And, as anyone who has her solo albums knows, she is a FIERCE singer!

[Lot666]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 9:25am

RuPaul (seriously)

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 10:20am

Though I wasn't a big YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN fan, Mullaley was sensational onstage.  A big presence with a huge, terrific voice.  She's the exact right type to pull of a madcap sophisticate who eschews having children only to find that she melts into the role of being Patrick's Auntie Mame.  She would nail every last bit of comedy (and probably find laughs that might not even be there, as she does on Will & Grace) and she can deliver on the vulnerability needed to bring the house down on If He Walked Into My Life. 

[BwayGeek2]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 11:28am

Catherine Zeta-Jones seems like such an interesting choice, but I think it could really work!

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/1/19 at 6:40am

Jarethan said: "So many of the suggestions are so damned old. Mame is vivacious, and it would be a damned shame if she cant at least do the kicks that Lansbury did. How about:

-- Anne Hathaway

-- Emily Blunt

-- Don't disagree with Sutton Foster

-- Jane Krakowski is a featured performer, not astar. Mame needs a star to have any chance of success

-- Please no on Midler, Murphy, Peters, Ebersole...I love two of them, but they are in the too old category.

-- Collette sounds interesting; IMO she is at the upper end of the age that I want to see in that role

-- Since I am pretty convinced that she can do anything, I like the Audra idea. She has warmth, the voice, the glamour.,etc.

-- Can Cate Blanchett sing??? Doubt she'd ever commit to a long run on Broadway, but she had the charisma, can do comedy, pathos, could do great justice to the clothes that will be required."

Blanchett would be a fabulous MAME if she sang, but you curiously suggest Collette, three years younger than Blanchett, is almost aged out of the role.

As for Collette not having an interesting enough voice, really?  REALLY!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv8iwpWRdAs

A Collette/Delaria Mame/Vera is bonkers - and kind of wonderful.

But my dream casting would be Kristen Johnston as Vera to Collette's Mame.

Updated On: 2/1/19 at 06:40 AM

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 2/1/19 at 8:41am

Carmel Cusack.

I've liked her work elsewhere and the clip from Call Me Madam tells me she'd be a fantastic Mame in a NFP production or concert that wasn't dependent on a star.

The trickiest, and most thankless role, IMO is Adult Patrick. He's so underwritten that the show lacks an emotional throughline. That's a problem of the source material and would require revising as much as casting.