Mame needs a revival!

[darquegk]

Andrea Martin might have been right for the role a while ago. At sixty-six she is probably too old to play it ideally now, though heaven knows she still looks great and sings well.

What Mame also probably needs in today's casting tradition is a tour-de-force supporting male lead appearing as the episodic and mostly comedic male roles. Someone who can have his one moment as Beau, but also fill the Babcock et al. type roles.

[GavestonPS]

Is that how MAME is done now? As if it were LITTLE ME?

[darquegk]

More akin to the way SWEET CHARITY is done in the west end.

[Owen22]

The hard part about casting Mame is that the character is both utterly pretentious and magnificently warm. That is very hard to do. Roz did it, I'm guessing Angela did it. Lucy wasn't even close. When I saw the Kennedy Center production within half an hour I was shocked. Christine Baranski and Harriet Harris were playing the wrong roles! Baranski on paper sounds good, but she had little heart in the part. But Harris would have gotten that Roz thing down perfectly (and Christine an excellent Vera). I'm thinking Harris is a wee bit too old now, maybe, but I'd still love to see her take a shot at the role. Cher? No. Doesn't have it. Mullally? Her go at it would probably lean toward caricature... Star-wise, if she could sing, and we were going with star casting, Julia Louis-Dreyfus would be a wonderfully unique Mame, different than Harris or Roz, but still maintaining that air Mame needs. I agree, that of the current crop of typical Mames, Donna Murphy would be the choice.

[somethingwicked]

Owen, Harriett Harris (who I agree is much too old) may be an interesting idea for Mame in terms of type, but she could never sing it in a million years, now or earlier.

If her performance in the Barrington Stage production of SWEENEY TODD a few summers ago proved anything, it's that her voice really is limited strictly to character roles. Anything approaching real sustained singing is beyond her vocal capabilities, let alone something as brassy and demanding as Mame.

[Owen22]

That's a shame...but again, she is too old and reads her age on stage...

[ACL2006]

Andrea McArdle is slated to play Mame at The Media Theater/Bucks County Playhouse starting in April. Not that she's a name, but thoughts on how she'll do in the role??

[ComingUpRoses2]

Andrea will sing the crap out of that score, but she has absolutely no warmth. I've always found her to be a wonderful, but cold performer. She just has a really bad case of "bitch face" most of the time.

[somethingwicked]

I agree that Andrea McArdle will sing the score beautifully, but I also agree that I don't think she has any of the star quality required for such an enigmatic character.

I know this has been debated on this board ad nauseum, but her acting ability (for me) is pretty non-existent beyond her own persona, and I find her performances to almost always end up stiff and awkward. She tends to be rather blank in the eyes, so while this is far from an ideal vehicle for her, it's nice to see her still working after all these years.

[ComingUpRoses2]

I think so, too. I'm sure her singing will be phenomenal, but she's just too cold for me.

[GavestonPS]

"She tends to be rather blank in the eyes...."

Was this an intentional joke about the first girl to play Little Orphan Annie in a musical?