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| i dont think mame is a good musical and i dont think it will ever be revived on broadway k just had to say it out loud nm | |
| Posted by: GrumpyMorningBoy 08:36 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Anne Hathaway singing The Woman in White AND her NYC debut as Lili in Encores Carnival - champagnesalesman 03:19 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
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| nm means never mame | |
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| re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? | |
| Posted by: champagnesalesman 09:56 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
| In reply to: i dont think mame is a good musical and i dont think it will ever be revived on broadway k just had to say it out loud nm - GrumpyMorningBoy 08:36 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
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| It hasn't been seen in NYC since the short-lived Lansbury tour that stopped briefly on Broadway and flopped. It's actually a better show than DOLLY with a better score and alot more heart and less silliness...it demands more of its leading lady in the singing and dancing dept making it harder to cast..I predict as soon as Rudin finds a big star who wants to do it, we'll get a big revival |
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| re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 05:14 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? - champagnesalesman 09:56 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
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| "It's actually a better show than DOLLY with a better score and alot more heart and less silliness.." I disagree. I think both shows have their share of heart and "silliness" (if that's the right word for it, and I don't think it is). I used to love MAME, and still love a lot of it, but sadly, I think much of the humor in it has aged very badly. I do think the whole Peckerwood sequence is very problematic today, even though it was obviously intended as highly satirical from the beginning, because the satire has a very different ring to it in the present time. But, as I've said before, I think even more problematic is all of the intended humor involving Gooch's unwed pregnancy, which just DOES NOT work anymore. Not for me, anyway. P.S. I've seen the Broadway revival with Lansbury, the Paper Mill production with Ebersole, the Kennedy Center production with Baranski, and one or two community theater productions over the years. |
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| re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 06:31 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 06:26 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? - Michael_Portantiere 05:14 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
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| Yeah, for a comedy like this... the thing is that if it isn't funny to the audiences it's being sold to, then what is the point? You can defend portraying these problematic scenarios or antiquated issues (like plantation south / single woman pregnancy) because they happened, we have no value in erasing history or not finding themes worth exploring from times different than our current times... but if you portray them for a satirical or comedic purpose that doesn't land or isn't relevant or has been done to death by now, then there's not much to defend. Frankly the greatness in the show isn't great enough to have much value in the balance. If it bring joy to people i'm all for that. But even listening to the score again while cleaning the other day... it is so basic, so one-dimensional, so straight forward. It was fun to clean to but if the show isn't smart and funny and sharp in today's light and isn't shedding light on anything, then i can't quite imagine sitting through it as a play for 2+ hours and treating it like a worthwhile piece of theater to spend a bunch of money on. Even if you cut the plantation section. I also don't agree that it's *better* than Dolly... and while i find the story to Mame deeply felt and more engaging on paper, in execution I think the writing of Dolly lifts it above the level I've always found Mame to sit at. |
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| re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 11:44 am EDT 07/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? - Chazwaza 06:26 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
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| I wonder if it would be possible for contemporary writers to adapt the novel/play again and give us a new MAME? Aside from the rights issues involved, which I'm sure would be numerous and complicated, I wonder if this character and story could resonate with audiences today in a new adaptation that would, I would assume, either drop the more problematic episodes of the story or approach them in an entirely different way that would work better for contemporary audiences. And would anyone be interested in a MAME musical without the Jerry Herman score? Is that so ingrained that it would be too weird to hear these characters sing in any other way? I'm not saying "Cancel MAME," but rather, seeing how problematic the show feels nowadays, can these beloved characters and the essence of the story be rescued? The Peckerwood scenes certainly would be included in there and also too the character of Ito. But the approach to Gooch's pregnancy must have been daring and modern at the time and, of course, serves to showcase the Upsons' faults as the "villains" of that part of the story. They are clearly shown to be heinous people that Patrick is well rid of when he comes to his senses. I'm not sure that really needs to be looked at in the same way. |
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| re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 08:40 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? - Chazwaza 06:26 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
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| Though I do find a lot to like in the score of Mame, I would have to say that I find Dolly a better show in every way. In terms of the "silliness" in the shows' books - for me, Dolly is rooted in a comedic style that complements the story and the score, while mame seems (to me, at least) to rely much more on witty exchanges for the sake of witty exchanges, and lots of zinger punchlines for the sake of zinger punchlines. There's an "elegance" (word choice intended) to Dolly that makes the humor seem natural - in Mame it feels much more like they had a bunch of jokes they wanted to cram in. |
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| Kennedy center production was first class. | |
| Last Edit: dramedy 12:13 am EDT 07/06/20 | |
| Posted by: dramedy 12:11 am EDT 07/06/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? - champagnesalesman 09:56 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
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| It was considered to transfer to broadway in 2006 I saw it. I like Baranski who did a good job but just not memorable. I do think hello dolly is better music. Both are showcase for a leading lady, but I think the overall Show and humor lands better in dolly. I just watched the Bernadette Peters as dolly last night on YouTube. I enjoyed it last night, but Bette and channing are better. Could Sutton Foster do mame? I do know anything about key range for singers. She at least can handle comedy ina show like mame without ruining it. And she is the proper age. |
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| Link | https://www.playbill.com/article/christine-baranski-mame-will-not-play-broadway-com-133437 |
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| Catherine Zeta-Jones for MAME | |
| Posted by: Genealley 06:35 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
| In reply to: Kennedy center production was first class. - dramedy 12:11 am EDT 07/06/20 | |
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| that Kennedy Center production was beyond horrible! | |
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| re: More like business class or premium economy | |
| Posted by: champagnesalesman 12:20 am EDT 07/06/20 | |
| In reply to: Kennedy center production was first class. - dramedy 12:11 am EDT 07/06/20 | |
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| It was a good production but the sets were cheap...cheap enough to be used again later in a stock production in Pittsburgh with Michele Lee Sutton could probably do it..or....wait.... here comes another MAME thread LOL |
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| re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 10:16 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? - champagnesalesman 09:56 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
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| Anti-Mame? Was that deliberate, lol? ;-) | |
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| re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 06:47 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 06:33 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? - Chromolume 10:16 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
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| I saw Mame in stock with Lansbury, and again when she returned briefly in the ill-considered 80s revival. Original sets, costumes, and glorious star, still delivering. I'm a staunch defender of all things Jerry Herman, including this show's overture but believe Mame's moment in Manhattan's crepuscular sun is over. The character's glittering bag of eccentricities has been cherished for decades, but we live in a world where a rich woman's elite hedonism doesn't feel connected to the zeitgeist. Her philosophy, party til you drop, aim for tolerance, be true to your self, has a quaint whiff of appropriated bohemianism. It's easy to live, live, live when you can afford servants to bring hangover breakfasts and chic changes of wardrobe. Her wealth isn't earned, and she spends her days merely recovering from revelry. She inherits a young male child who barely spends a few months with her before he's whisked away to conservative hell. Yet the impression made is indelible; genetics and lifestyle-modeling triumph. To survive post Depression, she marries Old South money and woos a posse of moss-draped antebellum stereotypes that were cringe worthy in the 60s; now, they'are closer to Al Capp than Patrick Dennis's gimlet eye. For no discernible reason, the lot of them lose their minds over the kind of Yankee they'd eschew like a Smithfield ham left in the cellar. The show is built on a one percenter's travails, a woman whose heart may be big but whose predisposition for celebrating her own entitlement doesn't exactly model agency. I must admit it's all done with a light touch. None of that would matter if the central relationship -- this outre woman and her quietly wide-eyed heterosexual nephew -- didn't feel bathed in the glow of retro-camp sensibilities. I've always found it intriguing that a musical with an enormous gay male following has zero gay characters, and it spans decades. The show is iconic in the gay world, but is that reason enough to mount it as an earnest drag show? People will disagree -- most posters focus only on the unfixable plantation sequence -- but to me the problem is greater: that core relationship doesn't have much emotional punch now. Patrick is an oddly bland presence in the musical, a tabula rasa onto which a wannabe iconoclast projects greatly. You'd think this kid was destined for great things. He just, you know, grows up. Well, she saves him from Republicanism, about the only relevant thing in the show. Too harsh? Probably. I dearly love Russell's film Mame, as much as ever, and savor it's lush Eisenhower era widescreen excess. But the musical's return requires a way in, a certain leap into era(s) that we're proud to have transcended. It's a relic, an artifact that has become a Rorschach test -- "Why don't you (still) like Mame?" It's supposed to reveal some snotty overly PC sensibilities. My post above probably earns that criticism. But the show's not coming back. |
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| This, and the the post below, are all that need to be said about "Mame". N/M | |
| Posted by: MistressAndy 10:28 am EDT 07/07/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? - Delvino 06:33 pm EDT 07/06/20 | |
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| NM | |
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| MAME is as dead as Aunt Jemima | |
| Posted by: Jax 02:12 am EDT 07/06/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How many ANTI-MAME people have ever actually seen a first class production onstage? - Chromolume 10:16 pm EDT 07/05/20 | |
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| The title song, an antebellum hymn, is unproducable on any respectable stage in this era of Black Lives Matter. Even without the song (unthinkable) it's a very old fashioned show. Not nostalgic or of it's time, but dated and not of interest to today's public. But don't let me stop you from posting about Audra McDonald doing it at Lincoln Center |
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