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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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