Jeff McCarthy is Mame's Beau in Summer Kennedy Center Production

Jeff McCarthy has been cast as Beauregard Jackson Picket Burnside--the beau of the title character--in the starry upcoming Kennedy Center production of Mame, which will open at the Eisenhower Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on June 1st after beginning previews on May 27th. The show will run through July 2nd.

As the fox hunt-loving Southern gentleman who woos and weds Mame, McCarthy will join the previously-announced Christine Baranski as Mame, Harriet Harris as Vera Charles, Max von Essen as older Patrick, Emily Skinner as Agnes Gooch and Alan Muraoka as Ito.

Eric Schaeffer, the Helen Hayes Award-winning fixture of D.C.-area musical theatre, will direct the buoyant Jerry Herman musical.

Joining Schaeffer on the creative team will be choreographer Warren Carlyle, set designer Walt Spangler, costume designer Gregg Barnes and lighting designer Ken Billington.

McCarthy originated the role of Officer Lockstock in Urinetown and has also been seen on Broadway in Side Show, Beauty and the Beast, Smile and Zorba, as well as off-Broadway in Dream True.  Other theatrical credits include Les Miserables, The Opposite of Sex, City of Angels, Follies and Arms and the Man.
 
The story of a boy's loving but complex relationship with his unconventional aunt, Mame was first adapted by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee from Patrick Dennis' 1955 fictionalized memoir into a hit play starring Rosalind Russell (who also starred in the film version). Lawrence and Lee, with Herman, refashioned the piece into a musical in 1966, and it starred Angela Lansbury. She, Beatrice Arthur and Frankie Michaels all won Tonys, and the show was nominated for five others, including Best Musical. The musical was then turned into another film starring Lucille Ball, and an ill-fated 1983 Broadway revival that also starred Lansbury folded in a little after a month.

Mame will play Tuesday-Sunday evenings at 7:30 PM with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30 PM. Tickets, which range from $25 to $90, can be ordered by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-132. Visit www.kennedy-center.org for more information.