Book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Based on the Novel by Patrick Dennis, and the play "AUNTIE MAME" by Lawrence and Lee. Produced by special Permission from Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc.
Who is MAME? Some of Mame's wild, adventurous spirit is inside everyone who lives for the moment and believes that "life is a banquet!" It's the height of the 1920's and Auntie Mame becomes the guardian for her ten-year-old nephew, Patrick.
Special songs include Mame, It's Today, Open a New Window, If He Walked into My Life, We Need a Little Christmas, Bosom Buddies and That's How Young I Feel. Her life is turned up-side-down, many of her priorities change, but she still lives life to the fullest. Ten-year-old Patrick needs his aunt, and to be needed is something new for Mame. It changes her life and brings her into sharp conflict with her best friend, Vera Charles, who can’t stand children. Mame’s fiance is willing to take on the boy as a bonus, but Mame does not think she will have time for marriage: "I’ll be too busy being a mother!"
Agnes Gooch, Patrick’s nanny, doesn’t approve of the wild and irrepressible things which go on in Mame’s penthouse, yet she inevitably falls under Mame’s spell. With the onslaught of the Depression, Mame loses all her money and goes through jobs as quickly as she finds them. In a brief adventure as a manicurist, she meets Beau, a wealthy scion of the South. Beau takes Mame to meet his family, all of whom are captivated by her exploits, and Beau proposes.
Act Two rushes headlong into the Thirties. Vera stands by her "Bosom Buddy' when Mame returns to New York after Beau’s sudden death. The newly-liberated Gooch agrees to help Mame write her memoirs, and the maturing Patrick seems to be slipping away from Mame’s idea of freedom. When Patrick proposes to a blonde with the IQ of a dead flashlight battery, Mame is in despair. The indefatigable Mame manages to save the boy from a life of drabness and snobbery. Soon Mame is introducing her brand of living to the next generation of youngsters. Mame defies any and all generation gaps!
Awards (1965-66)
3 Tony Awards for Actress, Featured Actress and Featured Actor
2 Outer Critics Circle Awards for Performances
History
MAME played originally for 1,508 performances on Broadway at the Winter Garden and Broadway Theatres and starred Angela Lansbury, Beatrice Arthur, and Frankie Michaels. It played for 443 performances in London at the Drury Lane Theatre. It was revived on Broadway in 1983, again with Angela Lansbury starring as Mame Dennis.
MAME will be directed by Jamie Taylor.
