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| re: IS "MAME" NOW UNPRODUCABLE DUE TO CHARLOTTESVILLE? | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 05:05 pm EDT 08/17/17 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 05:02 pm EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: re: IS "MAME" NOW UNPRODUCABLE DUE TO CHARLOTTESVILLE? - Michael_Portantiere 04:23 pm EDT 08/17/17 | |
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| Michael - I agree with you in general. To be honest, I didn't know Mame well until I was out of college and doing some rehearsal accompaniment work for a local production. This would have been in the late 1980's. I knew the big songs, of course, but not the book at all. I was completely underwhelmed. I found a lot of the humor more "precious" than actually funny, and was wondering even back then if the Peckerwood scene really worked anymore. (Let alone with that awful Fox Hunt song, one of Herman's very unsuccessful attempts at a counterpoint number.) The genuine humor in songs like "Bosom Buddles" shines without the tepid book along with it. And though I do hear what you're saying about Gooch's situation, I do think "Gooch's Song" is deservedly funny. But those songs (and the other wonderful songs in the score) can and do live on without productions of the show. Even though Dolly was written earlier, somehow Mame feels much more old-fashioned to me - and not in a good way. |
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| re: IS "MAME" NOW UNPRODUCABLE DUE TO CHARLOTTESVILLE? | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 05:27 pm EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: re: IS "MAME" NOW UNPRODUCABLE DUE TO CHARLOTTESVILLE? - Chromolume 05:02 pm EDT 08/17/17 | |
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| They can re-write "Mame" like the film (and presumably the original play) where Agnes' date for the evening does come back to her and claims her as his wife. Peckerwood could be solved --- hmm, as played by the cast of "Naked Boys Singing"? Seriously, things are really severely unusual in our country's history right now and tempers are flaring. "Mame" hasn't the strongest book of a musical, and Lord knows some playwright will convince a producer in the future that the book needs revisions. They've been screwing up "Pal Joey" and shows with stronger books for years. These issues will come up if someone want to produce "Mame" in the future. |
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| re: IS "MAME" NOW UNPRODUCABLE DUE TO CHARLOTTESVILLE? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:17 pm EDT 08/18/17 | |
| In reply to: re: IS "MAME" NOW UNPRODUCABLE DUE TO CHARLOTTESVILLE? - PlayWiz 05:27 pm EDT 08/17/17 | |
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| "They can re-write 'Mame' like the film (and presumably the original play) where Agnes' date for the evening does come back to her and claims her as his wife." I believe that section of the script was rewritten somewhat for the movie, by Comden and Green, to make it more palatable for the censors :-) Anyway, even if they made that rewrite for the musical, there would still be that long period, as in the movie, where the very visibly pregnant Gooch thinks she is unwed and abandoned -- and all of that's supposed to be REALLY funny. |
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