Annoyance of the Week

All week long I've been extremely annoyed by the headlines like "Angela Lansbury Says Lady Gaga Perfect for MAME on Broadway."   This particular headline comes from Broadwayworld, whom I find completely irresponsible in its reporting.   The original "news" came from The Showbiz Tonight website, The Showbiz Tonight webiste, which is apparently part of Headline News/CNN.   The entire interview doesn't appear to be available, only the part they thought was "newsworthy" and it's sandwiched in with Kim Kardashian and Jersey Shore news, so that should give you the context of what kind of "news" this is (read: trash).

Here is the transcript:

Showbiz Breaks News: Is Gaga going Broadway? Lady Gaga has just had a major shoutout from an acting legend. 85 year old Angela Lansbury has just revealed to Showbiz Tonight she wants Gaga to bring it to Broadway and play MAME, one of the stage’s most over the top eccentrics. Lansbury, who won a Tony for originating the role in 1966, tells us Gaga could pull it off, more or less. [cut to Angela mid sentence]

“…she could sure wear the clothes, that’s for sure. It would be another generational type MAME. I can’t imagine that, her singing ‘If He Walked Into My Life,’ but you know, anything’s possible.”

Does this sound like an endoresment to you?   It sure doesn't to me.   That being said, if Lady Gaga, whose work many of friends admire, really wants to come to Broadway then good for her and I wish her luck.   It's an established fact that I'd give anything to see a revival of MAME and perhaps its possible that it will need extraordinary star quality to make it happen, but dear producers, please sensible about this. I believe your extraordinary star is already right beneath your noses: Donna Murphy.

This clip of "If He Walked Into My Life" is from the 1983 revival of MAME, which Angela Lansbury starred in once again.

You know what? I'd love to play Mame, Auntie Mame.

All we need now is a producer.

Happy Mame Day!

Forty-five years ago today, Jerry Herman's MAME opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre.  It starred Angela Lansbury as Auntie Mame, Bea Arthur as Vera Charles and Jane Connell as Agnes Gooch.   It moved to the Broadway Theatre on October 6, 1969.   It ran a total of 1,508 performances.  Angela took Mame on the road.  Her Broadway replacements included  Ann Miller, Jane Morgan, Janis Paige, and Sheila Smith.  It ran successfully in the West End of London with Ginger Rogers as Mame. 

MAME won the 1966 Tony Award Best for Musical for its book by Jerrome Lawrence and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman.   Jerry Herman won the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist.  Angela Lansbury won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical, her first of five.  Frankie Michaels, who played young Patrick, won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, setting a record for being the youngest person ever to win a Tony at the age of ten.  Bea Arthur won the Tony for Best Features Actress in a Musical.  The show was also nominated for Best Scenic Design (William and Jean Eckart), Best Choreography (Onna White), and Best Direction (Gene Saks).  Jerry Lanning, who played older Patrick, won a 1966 Theatre World Award.

Mame is the musical version of Auntie Mame, based on the novels by Patrick Dennis and the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.   The story is about a glamorous, live-loving, madcap single aunt who inherits her young orphaned nephew Patrick.  It's a joyous and life-affirming story, and I myself try my best to emulate Mame's philosophy:  "Life is a banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death."

MAME has only been revived on Broadway once:  in 1983, by Angela Lansbury herself.   While Angela's performance was critically acclaimed, the production was not and ran only for one summer season.    In May, 2006, a limited run of MAME was produced at the Kennedy Center starring Christine Baranski and Harriett Harris.  It was fabulous, but not quite enough so to get it moved to New York.   Last year, Jerry Herman himself stirred up talk that a revival might be in the works in an interview with Broadway World.   Since the brilliant revival of Jerry Herman's LA CAGE AUX FOLLES only recently closed and there is still word on the street that a revival of his HELLO DOLLY! is in the works, one can continue hoping that a full-fledged Jerry Herman Renaissance is in the cards and we will sooner than later get a revival of MAME on Broadway.   Donna Murphy for MAME, anyone?  

Reviewing the Revival of MAME

Thanks to Matadorbell for compiling and uploading various television reviews of the 1983 Broadway revival of MAME starring Angela Lansbury.   It's clear that everybody loved Angela as MAME, even 17 years after the original production fo MAME, if they didn't love the revival itself.   That just goes to show you that most of the time, it takes more than a star to make a hit show on Broadway - even the star who launched it to begin with.   The production ran at the Gershwin where it previewed on July 20, 2983 , opened on July 24, 2983 and closed  on August 28, 1983 after only 41 performances.  Just a little over a year later, on September 30, 1984, the pilot of Murder, She Wrote aired.  And that, as they say, is "all she wrote."   At least it was for the next 12 years...with a movie or two thrown in as well as a few more Broadway shows too.   

So, let would-be producers be warned - a fabulous actress and a fabulous production of MAME is needed to make this thing happen. 



Bonus:  It's interesting that the first reviewer is Pia Lindstrom, daughter of Ingrid Bergman, with whom Angela did her very first movie and received her first Oscar nomination for - Gaslight.  Angela appeared on an episode of What's My Line during the run of the original MAME and Pia was one of the celebrity panelist who actually guessed Angela's idenity.  Angela is happy to remind her that she remembered her as a "little sprig of a thing" during that film.  (I sometimes see Pia on the bus and her sister Ingrid on the subway - I like think they have a tacit agreement not to take the same form of MTA transportation.)

St. Bridget, Deliver Us to Beekman Place

Today, I saw a very enjoyable staged reading of the York Theatre's Mufti of the 1969 musical Coco which starred Katharine Hepburn about Coco Chanel with Chris Caggiano and Kevin Daly.   Andrea Marcovicci starred as Coco.  Even if she wasn't the best voice (come on, neither was Hepburn),  she was perfectly costumed, although "Mufti" translates to street clothes and we were told that the actors used their own wardrobe. I loved her clothes and sparkly accessories - very Coco Chanel!  I enjoyed her witty delivery very much.   Andre Previn's score is lovely as well, even just on piano accompaniment.  It was a bonus that the delightful Lewis Cleale and Charles Kimbrough were members of the company.

After dinner, Kevin and I went in search of Beekman Place, which is off 51st and 1st Avenue.   It's a swanky little street tucked just above the FDR and north of the Union.  Best of all, Beekman Place is where Auntie Mame "lived!"   I could fairly here the strains of a bugle. I've been meaning to pilgrimage there for years and today was finally the right day to do it.   Katharine Cornell lived on Beekman Place too.   The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg's travel office is at 17 Beekman Place, and although we didn't see the sign about it, Irving Berlin once lived there!

After, we stepped across the street and up a block to 49th Street, between 2nd & 3rd Avenue, aka Katharine Hepburn Place. Her town home - 244 East 49th Street - is available for rent for only $27,500 per month.    Kevin and I passed on filling out the lease for at least now.

Mame as Wall Decor

I bought this poster of Mame some years ago at Triton Gallery and Angela Lansbury signed it for me when she was starring in Deuce on Broadway.   I was just watching the Van Buren Boys episode of Seinfeld and lo and behold, there's the Mame poster!   But, their's isn't signed!   

Happy Mame Day, Part 2!

And then just hours after I waxed on about my desire for a revival of MAME, Broadwayworld reports:  "[Jerry Herman] has very exciting news to impart: "There's a great interest in doing a new Mame. I have wonderful producers who are interested in doing it and we're going to have a couple of meetings next month to see if we can come up with a star. It's so difficult to cast that show. Of everything I've ever written, I think that's the toughest one. It's because she has to do everything. She has to, first of all, be a LADY and then she has to be a comedienne, then she has to sing her ass of, then she has to dance her ass off. She also has to be a beautiful, sensitive actress. Now where do you find all that in one person if it's not Angela Lansbury? It's very tough."

I say - Jerry, talk to Donna Murphy!

Happy Mame Day!

Last night, at the 55th Drama Desk Awards, Angela Lansbury presented composer/lyricist Jerry Herman with a Drama Desk special award to recognize excellence and significant contributions to the theater, specifically for "enchanting and dazzling audiences with his exuberant music and heartfelt lyrics for more than half a century". 

On this day, in 1966, his musical MAME opened at the Winter Garden Theatre where it ran until October, 1969.  It transferred to the Broadway Theatre where it ran another six months until January, 1970.   It played a total of 1,513 performances.   It garnered five Tony Awards, including Best Actress for Angela Lansbury, Best Supporting Actress for Bea Arthur, Best Musical, Best Composer and Lyricist for Jerry Herman, and Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Frankie Michaels.

During the run, Celeste Holm, Ann Miller, Jane Morgan, Janis Paige and Sheila Smith all had a go at playing Mame.   Angela Lansbury herself took it on the road, including a long sit down in Los Angeles. 

MAME has had one revival.  In 1983, an attempt was made to revive it, again with Angela Lansbury.  She was 17 years older and although as fabulous as ever, perhaps couldn't kick quite so high.  For whatever reason, the stars didn't align again and it only ran for a disappointing 48 performances. 

In 2006, the Kennedy Center produced a production of MAME starring Christine Baranski as Mame and Harriet Harris as Vera Charles.   I loved it and hoped it would transfer, although it was not to be.   

However, I've been hoping for a revival ever since.  I know its imperative for a revival to be at least as good as its original, if not better at least completely different.  And for a role of this stature it has to be somebody who transcends the ordinary leading lady.   After seeing Donna Murphy in the Encores! production of Anyone Can Whistle at City Center earlier this year,  I've launched a grass roots campaign to see her star as Mame in a revival.

Last year, Jerry Herman was also honored with a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.  Given the fact that his La Cage Aux Folles is a hit on Broadway, it's time the current generation to get a taste of his other shows (his Hello Dolly! was the first big "Broadway" show I saw on tour circia 1995 and its original star, Carol Channing was still touring in it).  If there ever was a time to do it, the time is now - Jerry Herman deserves a renaissance.

Blessed Mother of Maude Adams, NO, Tilda, NO!

I had to read this Variety article, Swinton feels the love for 'Mame', twice. You can guess what I did. Yes, that's right. I VOMITED IN MY MOUTH. Talk about ghastly. Blessed Mother of Maude Adams, is there nothing sacred anymore? "[Luca]Guadagnino said he and [Tilda] Swinton aspire to remake 'Auntie Mame' as a 'rock-n-roll, super funny, super mainstream movie.'"

Uh, didn't you notice that Auntie Mame is already a "rock-n-roll, supper funny, super mainstream movie." If you think it's not, then I can't help you. Ever.

George is Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside, oh my!

George Hearn is Uncle Beau in Willsboro Drama Club's production of "Mame" this weekend! As soon as I got the news, I immediately mapquested Willsboro, New York. Hmmm, it's kind of far for even for this Yankee who just had five weekends of traveling in a row, even if I did take Auntie Mame's horse Meditation, er Lightening Bolt. Aw, maybe I'll just stay put at Beekman Place this weekend. Sigh.

I'm going to buy two and wear them as earrings...

Broadway Cares is selling Angela Lansbury as Mame Christmas ornaments! I don't decorate for Christmas, but I think I'll buy two and wear them as earrings.

All Aunts Considered

NPR's All Things Considered In Character Series is more like All Aunts Considered today. Bob Mondello calls Auntie Mame, "An Antidote To Social Caution." He says, "Mame is all about trying things, thumbing your nose at convention, taking roads less traveled because they are bound to be more interesting. And if that's all she stood for, she'd probably still be everyone's favorite aunt." You know there's nothing I like more than being an aunt to my own little loves and I hope they learn a thing or two from me about life being a banquet.




(Thanks to Vicki who gave me the heads up on this one.)

Darling, it's your Auntie Mame?

OH my goodness. There's a rumor floating about the interwebs that Roundabout is planning a revival of Auntie Mame that will star Harriet Harris. Based on Patrick Dennis' best selling books about his favorite aunt (who, turns out, he just made up), this is the precursor to the musical Mame. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee wrote the play. Starring Rosalind Russell, it ran for 639 performances from October 1956 until June 1958 at the Broadhurst Theatre. There has never been a Broadway revival, although it became a wildly popular and Oscar nominated movie of the same title also starring Rosalind Russell. Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the screenplay.

I was just thinking to myself the other day that it would be fabulous if Jerry Herman's Mame and the play Auntie Mame shared a stage, in repertory - same stars, set, costumes. Matinees would be Auntie Mame and evening performances would be Mame. Producers would save on pit musician costs and the stars would get a little bit of vocal rest three times a week. The book of the musical, also written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is basically the same as the play. I think it will work. Hey Producers, what do you say? If I had $20,000,000, I'd do it myself.