Auntie Mame - Acting Edition
by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. LeeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1964-01-01
ISBN: 0822217309
Number of pages: 72
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
Book Reviews of Auntie Mame - Acting Edition
Book Review: Is Everyone Lit? A Famous Character and a Famous Play
Summary: 5 Stars
Patrick Dennis' famous AUNTIE MAME, a comic novel about a 'madcap' woman and her long-suffering nephew, was originally published in 1955 and became an immediate best seller. It was followed with a 1956 highly praised state adaptation starring Rosalind Russell; Russell's reprise of the role in a highly praised 1958 film version; and in 1966 as a phenomenally successful stage musical starring Angela Lansbury. Unfortunately for all concerned, Hollywood took a crack at filming the stage musical in 1974, and the result was an out-and-out disaster, with most reviews attributing the film's failure to an aging Lucille Ball, who could not sing, could not dance, and was who was photographed in outrageously soft focus in an effort to conceal her age. The motion picture was such a debacle that it seemed to kill all interest in both character and story for forever and all time. But Mame has a knack for overcoming disaster. The novel slipped out of print, but over time interest returned, the book enjoyed a reprint, and it became popular all over again. This led to a renewed interest in both the stage versions, and once more Auntie Mame is as wickedly humorous, excessively flamboyant, and laugh-out-loud funny as she was when she started out on her journey.
The non-musical, adapted from the novel by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, trims away a few of Mame's adventures but stays close to the novel. The story covers some twenty years and begins in the 1920s, when Mame Dennis is a wealthy, flamboyant, and bootleg swilling woman of bizarre taste and odd interests who surrounds herself with everyone from drunken actresses to cutting-edge philosophers. She has also "inherited" her nephew Patrick from his recently deceased father. Mame and Patrick take to each other immediately, but it seems that there is a little problem in the will: Patrick's father has specified a conservative education and upbringing, and Mame is soon preoccupied with attempts to snatch the child away, and is further embattled when the stock market crash of 1929 wipes out her fortune. But Mame is a woman who can rise to almost any occasion: she not only meets an eligible millionaire, she lays seige to his deep-south family, who are far from keen to have their leading man marry some damn Yankee gal. Fifteen years or so later she is a rich widow and welcomes Patrick home from college--only to discover that he has become precisely the sort of petty snob she herself despises. Can she save him from himself, not to mention an extremely ill-advised marriage? Well, this IS Mame Dennis, after all.
The play is a huge undertaking, with a large, male-heavy cast; period costumes; and numerous and complicated sets. Given this, one seldom sees it performed--after all, if you're going to all that much trouble, why not just go ahead and do the equally complicated musical? But the non-musical has strengths of its own, including some of the most clever dialogue this side of Noel Coward, and while no one would argue against the musical's songs, their absence here gives a broader canvas for the characters that swirl in and out of Mame's life: her shrill best friend, hilariously alcoholic actress Vera Charles; her loyal servants Nora and Ito; her husband's deep south family, and so on. It's all a tremendous amount of fun, vividly rendered. Whenever I review a playscript I like to mention that plays are not really written to be read: they are blueprints for directors, actors, artists and technicians, and as such it is often hard for the layman to read a play and have any idea of how it works on stage. But that isn't the case here. Mame really does transcend every problem, and the play is as entertaining on the page as it is on the stage. Recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
In Memory of Roscoe, Faithful Companion
1999-2011
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