I like everything about Mame, from the original Book by Patrick Dennis to the Glorious Film Classic of 'Auntie Mame" starring Rosalind Russell to the 1966 Broadway musical Mame is a musical with the book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Starring Angela Lansbury (I have the CD) and even the 1974 Film, based from the musical and Starring most of the original cast (Bea Arthur and Jane Connell) and Not with Angela Lansbury, but with Lucille Ball. The Best moments were when she wasn't singing (Save 'Bosom Buddies).I had never seen performed on stage before and when I heard that it was playing at my old stomping grounds of Lakewood Theatre in Lake Oswego, OR and directed by my old Pal, John Oules (Founder of Live On Stage). In fact I first met Oules, right here at Lakewood (known at the time as the Lake Oswego Community Theatre) back in 1990. I was already part of the family from doing Lighting at a previous show a year earlier.
So here I am back and ready to see Mame and am delighted to see Jennifer Goldsmith (seen in LOS's Spring Awakening in 2013) as Mame. Her performance in Act One was awkward as Mame goes from an IT Girl to broke and almost Human and then by Act 2 we see the Glamour and the Bitchiness of Mame that suits Goldsmith better as it did with Russell and Ball.
Here is a short summary if you not familiar with the story: The madcap life of eccentric Mame Dennis (Goldsmith) and her bohemian, intellectual arty clique is disrupted when her deceased brother's 10-year-old son Patrick (Hudson Hale) is entrusted to her care. Rather than bow to convention, Mame introduces the boy to her free-wheeling lifestyle, instilling in him her favorite credo, "Life is a banquet, and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." Also figuring in the story line are Mame's personal secretary and nanny-in-law, Agnes Gooch )Leslie Gale) ; her "bosom buddy" Vera Charles (Anne Du Fresne), the baritone actress and world's greatest lush; and Dwight Babcock (David Sargent) , the stuffy and officious executor of Patrick's father's estate. Mame loses her fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and tries her hand at a number of jobs, with comically disastrous results, but perseveres with good humor and an irrepressible sense of style.
Mame eventually meets and marries Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (The wonderful, Ron Harman) , a Southern aristocrat with a Georgia plantation called Peckerwood. The trustees of Mame's late brother (Patrick's father) force Mame to send Patrick off to boarding school. Mame returns home a wealthy widow to discover that Patrick has become a priggish snob engaged to an equally priggish debutante, Gloria Upson (Catherine Olson), from a bigoted family. Mame Schemes to get Patrick back from the edge of snobbery!
The Set by John Gerth starts with a Basic set of a spiral staircase and not much decor. Then from poverty and bare bones to a stylish posh look by Act 2.
The Choreography by Laura Hiszcynskyj was Fab, especially in "It's Today" and "Young I Feel".
The Costumes by Jamie Parker were Super Fab.
It was great to be home and I strongly urge you to check out this classic.
"Mame" Continues Through June 14th at the Lakewood Theatre in Lake Oswego, OR. Click HERE for more info and Tickets.
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