| Mame in Mothballs | |
| Posted by: Jax 06:02 pm EDT 05/13/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Speaking of Auntie Mame ... - StageDoorJohnny 03:45 pm EDT 05/13/18 | |
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| It's probably heresy to suggest it on this board, but it might be time to give AUNTIE MAME a rest. It's a busy, lavish show from another era, but it's questionable if today's audiences would respond to it in sufficient numbers to make it viable. The Roundabout did a revival of THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER about a decade ago with Nathan Lane...and it had just aged out. You've got the movie, with Rosalind Russell, and Technicolor, and the Orry-Kelly dresses and I think you should be happy with that. Beyond that, the casting would be impossible. Annette Benning has done ELECTRA and THE CHERRY ORCHARD on stage in L.A. Why would she leave her home and family to do a 60 year old chestnut? (albeit a funny one.) Holland Taylor, pardon me, is ancient, and Harriet Harris, pardon me again, has no glamour. The major film stars -- Benning, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchette, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Meryl Streep -- who could sell tickets for this kind of show are not interested in playing this kind of paper doll heroine who changes her costume in every scene and whips around a cigarette holder. In this moment for women, they are looking for more varied, interesting roles. Their ideas of modern comedy are what we see in "Big Little Lies" or Pfeiffer's odd turn in "Mother." AUNTIE MAME is a great old movie. Long live AUNTIE MAME. |
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| Previous: | re: Speaking of Auntie Mame ... - StageDoorJohnny 03:45 pm EDT 05/13/18 |
| Next: | A story of elitism, re-framed as an iconoclast's courageous stand to save a child; in truth, Mame is a survivor but not terribly heroic. - Delvino 10:18 pm EDT 05/13/18 |
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