Mame
OPENING: May 24, 1966
CLOSING: January 3, 1970
Seen: June 1967
LOCATION: Winter Garden
Happy New Year Theatre Kids! I hope 2023 brings you happiness and prosperity.
This next entry is very bittersweet to write. Not because this show is depressing – quite the contrary. And also not because it’s obscure, confusing, or odd. This entry is bittersweet because the show is Mame – or rather, the classic which won Angela Lansbury her first Tony Award and solidified her place in Broadway history.
Mame was not in fact originally a musical. It was originally a 1956 Broadway play called “Auntie Mame” which starred Rosalind Russell, based on a novel of the same name. Auntie Mame ran on Broadway for a year and a half and was regarded as charming. It had a respectable run by any standard. But something must have been eating away at writers Lawrence and Lee because they decided they weren’t finished with the story and that it could work well as a musical.
They were right.
Part of it may have been luck. Playing the role of Mame was the early career Ms. Lansbury. Playing her frenemy Vera was Bea Arthur, later of Golden Girls fame. And playing the young boy Patrick was ten year old Frankie Michaels, who critic Stanley Kauffmann described as “no saccharin, complete conviction, a good enough singer, and even dances a little (a tango!)” (Kauffmann, 1966). But to add to these incredible performers was a heartwarming plot with a happy ending – something audiences of the sixties loved and Broadway was beginning to edge away from. All three of these incredible aforementioned performers earned Tony awards. The creatives, however – were not so fortunate. Mame only took home acting awards because another show that season came out of seemingly nowhere and became a runaway hit – more to come on this show in a few weeks.
But if Mame has had any kind of lasting legacy, it must be credited to Angela Lansbury. We lost her this year, a few days shy of her 97th birthday. Her career was long; her first film credits date back to 1944 when she was a mere eighteen years old. One of these films, National Velvet, also featured a twelve year old Elizabeth Taylor. I actually own this DVD and every time I revisit it, I am awed by how young Ms. Lansbury was and how her career endured over decades. Her last Broadway appearance was in 2012 when she was eighty six years old. Mame, while not her Broadway debut, was both her first nomination and Tony win. She would go on to rake in six more nominations, winning four of those. Her next win would even be awarded to her while Mame was still running. Years later, she also established herself on the small screen as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. She even immortalized a Disney character – to anyone who saw the recent Beauty and the Beast 30th Anniversary celebration, I’m so sorry but Shania Twain, while talented, just could not hold a candle to Angela vocally in the title number as Mrs. Potts.
By the time my dad saw Mame in June of 1967, Ms. Lansbury had already won her Tony and was still captivating audiences. I can only imagine what the energy in that theater felt like. She would continue in the role until the following April, at which point she had been in the role for almost two years. It was a great run.
Mame was truly the launch pad for Ms. Lansbury. She had been well known in the theater community prior to this, but she only really attained star status with Mame. Though she was not in the film (Lucille Ball played the role) – she may never have become the star she was, and Mame certainly would not be the standing classic it is regarded as now. The two would have gone nowhere without each other.
The world lost an icon this past October. I know that my aunt would not be the theater lover she is without having seen her on the stage, nor would many others. Rest in Peace, Ms. Lansbury. You played your life well.
May her memory be a blessing.
CAST: REPLACEMENT
PATRICK DENNIS, AGE 10: Stuart Getz
AGNES GOOCH: Jane Connell
VERA CHARLES: Beatrice Arthur
MAME DENNIS: Angela Lansbury
RALPH DEVINE: Ron Young
BISHOP: Jack Davison
M. LINDSAY WOOLSEY: Ray MacDonnell
ITO: Sab Shimono
DOORMAN: Art Matthews
ELEVATOR BOY: Stan Page
MESSENGER: Gene Kelton
DWIGHT BABCOCK: Willard Waterman
ART MODEL: Jo Tract
DANCE TEACHER: Johanna Douglas
LEADING MAN: Jack Davison
STAGE MANAGER: Art Matthews
MADAME BRANISLOWSKI: Charlotte Jones
GREGOR: John Taliaferro
BEAUREGARD JACKSON PICKETT BURNSIDE: Charles Braswell
UNCLE JEFF: Clifford Feral
COUSIN FAN: Ruth Ramsey
SALLY CATO: Margaret Hall
MOTHER BURNSIDE: Charlotte Jones
PATRICK DENNIS, 19-29: Jerry Lanning
JUNIOR BABCOCK: Tommy Karaty
MRS. UPSON: Johanna Douglas
MR. UPSON: John C. Becher
GLORIA UPSON: Laurie Franks
PEEGAN RYAN: Diane Coupe
PETER DENNIS: Michael Maitland
MAME’S FRIENDS: Diana Baffa, Jack Blackton, Henry Bronjes, David Chaney, Pat Cummings, Jack Davison, Hilda Harris, Nicole Karol, Gene Kelton, Nancy Lynch, Art Matthews, Tod Miller, Stan Page, Roger Allen Raby, Ruth Ramsey, Betty Rosebrock, Bella Shalom, Roy Smith, John Taliaferro, Jo Tract, Marilyn Wilbur, Jodi Williams, Kathy Wilson, Mary Zahn.
Bordman, Gerald. “American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle.” New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1978.
Internet Broadway Database. “Angela Lansbury”. www.ibdb.com. Accessed December 2022.
Internet Broadway Database. “Mame”. www.ibdb.com. Accessed December 2022.
Internet Movie Database. “Angela Lansbury”. www.ibdb.com. Accessed October 2022.
Kauffmann, Stanley. “Theater: ‘Mame’ Is Back With a Splash as Musical; Angela Lansbury Stars as the Zesty Aunt Frankie Michaels and Beatrice Arthur Excel” New York Times, May 25, 1966. https://www.nytimes.com/1966/05/25/archives/theater-mame-is-back-with-a-splash-as-musical-angela-lansbury-stars.html?searchResultPosition=20
Playbill. “Auntie Mame” Accessed December 2022. https://playbill.com/production/auntie-mame-broadhurst-theatre-vault-0000002069
Tony Awards. www.tonyawards.com. Accessed December 2022.
