'Cause That's How Young I Feel

Angela Lansbury, an icon of film, television and especially theatre, is celebrating her 84th birthday today. The actress is in the middle of a second coming on Broadway. After a 25 year absence, she returned to NY and live theatre with three shows opening in as many years, winning a record-tying fifth Tony Award for her crowdpleasing performance in last season's Blithe Spirit.

Starting this winter she will be seen as the droll, disapproving Madame Armfeldt in the first Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music with Catherine Zeta-Jones. This will mark Angela's first appearance in a Broadway musical since the 1983 revival of Mame, and her fourteenth Broadway credit.

We are so very lucky to have this international treasure still creating magnificent work, with no signs of stopping or slowing down. In honor of her birthday, I think it's appropriate that we should take a look at Angela, in the '83 Mame, stopping the show with "That's How Young I Feel." Enjoy:

We Need a Little Mame

SarahB and I love Mame. Period. It's got a sublime musical theatre score and a fun and funny book with immensely entertaining characters. The show hasn't been seen in NY since a failed revival in 1983, so we often discuss the necessary ingredients to successfully revive this gem of a musical. The title role is such a difficult star turn, because Mame as a character is rather static - the most that changes in the character over the course of the musical play is her wardrobe (and how); however, Mame is the embodiment of an ideal - a philosophy that life is something to celebrated, experienced and most importantly lived. In order to effectively pull off the musical, you need to find a woman who's at least in her late thirties. She needs to sing, dance, act - but she also needs to have the presence to execute Mame's joie d'vivre, while remaining a funny, boozy, lovable, classy, heartfelt, eccentric, bohemian, patrician, progressive madcap. That's no small order.

When the musical opened at the Winter Garden, a mere ten years after the overwhelming success of the original play the character of Mame was once again a unanimous audience favorite. Only this time she was supported by the stellar music and lyrics of Jerry Herman, and with a little more heart and less eroticism. Oh -and they gave Vera some of Mame's more potent zingers (that's what you do when you cast Bea Arthur). Angela Lansbury became the toast of Broadway, defying expectations and odds to come out the unlikely musical theatre star of the decade. Her Tony-winning, two year run in the original Broadway cast of Mame established her as the leading musical theatre diva of her generation, and held onto the title until 1983, when she turned her attentions to some little old TV show , and well, the rest is history.

The original production of Mame, while it didn't run as long as Hello, Dolly!, followed the earlier show's example by bringing in major stars to replace the lead. The part was so good, even Judy Garland auditioned for it (which would have been perfect, if not for the difficulties surrounding her drug and alcohol abuse). Janis Paige, Celeste Holm, Jane Morgan and Ann Miller all played the role in NY, while Angela took the show on tour. Ginger Rogers opened the London company. For as good as the ladies were considered in their roles, the part was still closely identified with Lansbury (the 1974 film need not apply).

So we were thinking that in order to bring Mame successfully into the 21st century, perhaps it was time to think outside of the box. Not update the show or make it "rock and roll" hour with Tilda Swinton. But just find something new to bring to the show to make it something audiences want to see. Broadway doesn't manufacture stars the way it once did, so it's likely that a big name star needs to be attached in order to make a successful commercial venture in NY. (Producers couldn't even get the 2006 Kennedy Center production with Christine Baranski into town for a limited run). Sarah and I have someone in mind for the show, an unlikely choice but one that we think would work gangbusters, but we're keeping a lid on that for right now.

So instead I'll put it to you: who is our Mame?

Oh - and one more thing - I pulled down my copy of the published libretto to look at the text and reread the foreward by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (who not only wrote the musical, but the play upon which it was based) The co-authors touch on the relevancy of the character and what makes Mame Dennis Burnside so indelible. I thought I'd share:

"Although our love affair with Mame spans more than a decade, we approached her as the central figure of this musical as if we were meeting the lady for the first time.

To spark the musical Mame with a life of her own, we did our best to forget we had written the play Auntie Mame. And a very pleasant miracle happened. Usually the conversion of a straight play into a musical means bleeding off the believability when the trumpets start blowing, and the musical tends to be a cartoon of the play on which it was based. But the opposite seems to have happened here.

Many minds have shaped this remarkable lady: Patrick Dennis who created her in his best-selling novel, and now Jerry Herman, who has written a score which underscores the truth and warmth of the people who populate Three Beekman Place.

Mame herself seems to have plunged into the joyful work of making this musical. She is an almost unique figure in modern fiction: Mame refuses to be imaginary! She is not a fondly Remembered Mama or a Matchmaker going back to the gaslights of Fourteenth Street. Mame is more interested in torches along the Ganges and the lightning bugs of Peckerwood. She virtually pole-vaults out of the gaiety of the Twenties into lunar orbit, soaring high above depressions, war and worries, taking with her a wide-eyed little boy.

We always long for what we don't have. This seems to be the Year of the Mole - a time of blindness and confusion, of fuzzy aims and fading faith. Our theater lately has been in a dark age, reflecting only shadows. Mame somehow lifts a flame in that blackness. She has optimism! Zest! Bounce! Even when she isn't quite sure where she's going. Mame knows, by God, she'll get there!

All of us, even the most despondent and disillusioned, would like to be like Mame. Or we wish she would take us up by the hand, as she does Patrick, and convince us that our planet isn't such a shabby place. We want to hear her sing "Open a New Window" in a decade when so many of us are pulling down the blinds and locking the shutters in pretended security. Mame is fun, but not mere escapist fare: she sings out a wish to run toward life, not away from it.

We have seen Mame's indomitable spirit embodied in dozens of stars in dozens of countries. Her battles with Babcock and her romance with Beau have been eloquently expressed in the major languages of the earth. But no translation could be more fortunate than the musical language of Jerry Herman. And no one could lift the flame of Mame higher than Miss Angela Lansbury.

But the audience is always the thermometer of the theater. A blazing conception can sputter out like a match in an ice cube tray unless it sends its singular incandescence across the footlights. The flame of Mame actually comes from everyone who is warmed by her daring and set aglow by her impudent but loving laughter."

-Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee, 1967, Random House

Auntie Maim

Blessed Mother of Maude Adams, what fresh hell is this?

From Variety:

'[Director Luca] Guadagnino said he and Swinton aspire to remake "Auntie Mame" as a "rock-n-roll, super funny, super mainstream movie."

They would set their "Mame," which is about a boy growing up as ward of his dead father's eccentric sister, in the present-day.

"This is an SOS for Warner Bros. to give us the rights for this remake, which only Tilda could do justice to," he added.'

You know I have nothing against a revival of Auntie Mame and/or Mame. Or even a filmed remake of either property. However, this isn't exactly how I pictured a re-emergence of the timeless character. In any incarnation, Mame is a period piece, and continues to work well in said period. Her effusive spirit is something that comes out of the Roaring Twenties, survives the Crash of '29 and continues into the Big Band Era: living life to the fullest and fighting the Establishment and stuffy provincial bigots along the way.

Elements of Auntie Mame could work today, but I hardly consider her "rock-n-roll." Mame Dennis Burnside is more than a character, she's a force of life. A living embodiment of Bohemianism and sophistication that I think most people would love to have in their lives. Not to mention, Tilda Swinton strikes me as all wrong for the part. Swinton is certainly an eccentric personality as attested by her Hefty bag fashion sense on Oscar night, and she leads a rather Bohemian lifestyle as evidenced by her open relationship with both husband and lover. I am pleased that she considers Auntie Mame one of her favorite films, but there is no need for her to reinvent the wheel.

Is there anyone who could bring savvy sophistication like Rosalind Russell, Greer Garson or Angela Lansbury? It's harder to cast the role of Mame because the character for all it's glorious lines and costumes, is static. Mame never changes, which is essential to her Mary Poppins-esque way of popping in and out of her nephew's life. The actress who can successfully play Mame should be patrician, open-hearted and sympathetic. It takes more than a good delivery of a zinger to make a Mame.

I would rather sit through the leaden 1974 film version of Mame with Lucille Ball than see the rape of a classic.

What's My Line - Angela Lansbury

Thanks to the Game Show Network, I discovered a lot of old 50s game shows when I was living the life of a night owl at college. However, the one that I always found myself really fascinated with was "What's My Line," where a four person panel had to guess the occupation of ordinary folks. The regulars on the show were columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, TV and stage personality Arlene Francis (who brought warmth and charm to the entire series) and publisher Bennett Cerf. Many other stars made guest appearances on the panel, but these three were the mainstays for most of the original run. The host was John Charles Daly (no relation) who moderated all questions.

The special gimmick each week was to have a mystery guest appear on the show. The panelists would be blindfolded and they would have to guess which star was in their midst. Based in NY, the panelists and guests ran the gamut from A-list movie stars to noted politicians and diplomats - practically everyone you could think of appeared on the show during its run, including Eleanor Roosevelt.

For each question wrong, the guest would receive $5, with a limit at $50. For celebrities, their winnings would go to charity. I have to warn you, it's very easy to get swept up in watching these clips. Sometimes I find myself spending an hour going from one segment to another - just so addicting and a show that I think could still work today, if any daring TV producer decided to revive it.

Anyway, while Angela Lansbury was appearing on Broadway in Mame, she made an appearance as the weekly mystery challenger. Enjoy.

There Can Never Be Enough Angie as "Mame"

Here is a series of TV reviews from the opening night of the 1983 revival of Mame. Nice chunk of professional footage of the actual production, plus the television commercial.

Not "Today"

You gotta take the rough with the smooth...so here goes. We looked at Seth Rudetsky's fantastic deconstruction of Angela Lansbury leading the company in "It's Today" from the original cast album of Mame last week. Well, I just stumbled on this clip of the same number from the notorious film version starring Lucille Ball. The film does everything it can to cater to its highly miscast star, who apparently put up the money for the project. The keys have been dropped, the tempo is erratic and the orchestrations have been muted from their brassy highs. The emotions are forced, the energy lacking, plus Onna White's choreography seems a bit much for such a cramped looking apartment. (I wonder how many people got kicked in the head during rehearsals/shooting). The most criminal thing: there is absolutely no joy. The only thing impressive about this entire mess is Lucy's hitch kick toward the end of the number (well, she was 62 and recuperating from a broken leg...)

While I'll always love Lucy, it will never be for Mame.

Seth Rudetsky Deconstructs Bea Arthur

He takes a quick look at Bea's work in "Tradition" then settles in for total deconstruction of the perennial showstopper "Bosom Buddies" from the original cast album of Mame.

At Large Elsewhere: Kiley vs. Lansbury

I posted a few days ago that Peter Filichia recently pitted the winners of Actor and Actress Tonys against each other after discussing whether or not women should be called actors or actresses. According to Filichia, there was a three to one landslide in favor of Lansbury. Here was my response, which is surprisingly posted in its entirety:

This really IS a tough call! Both were giving career-defining performances. Kiley was anchoring the Best Musical winning juggernaut. Lansbury was a revelation as the star-turn diva carrying the latest Jerry Herman vehicle. Wow, I wouldn't want to have had to choose!

However, I think that the votes would have had to go to Lansbury, as she had the bigger challenge, the bigger star turn, and the most to prove. Kiley was already renowned for his musical theatre work, but Lansbury only had nine performances as the third-billed star in Anyone Can Whistle, which wouldn't have been seen by enough of the populace to make a lasting impression. For Lansbury, it was a total transformation from respected character actress into leading lady. Both roles are hard: Kiley had to enchant an audience while making up for a libretto and lyrics that fall short of the mark, comedy and pathos. Kiley's transformation was incredible, too. However, Lansbury, sliding down the banister with a bugle, became the toast of New York with the magazine covers and spreads, and the incredible press and audience buzz. It was the start of Lansbury's Act Two as a musical theatre star/legend.

Looking back on it, La Mancha was the musical apex for Kiley, who would never have another successful musical performance after it, while Lansbury as Mame was the first of so many diverse star turns. (Even Prettybelle in its out-of-town flopping, was important enough to warrant a cast album, and Lansbury cannot herself be faulted in the least for that show's failure).


From a voting perspective, if you were going to vote Man of La Mancha Best Musical, you might be more inclined to vote for Lansbury in an attempt to honor her hard work, discipline, unexpected total triumph and also not let Mame go home without a major Tony. Thank God it's merely speculation and that there is such a thing as an ‘actress’ or we'd have so much more agita than necessary in choosing the apples and oranges of who is the best of the best.

Seth Rudetsky Deconstructs "It's Today"

Seth has been doing 30 reconstructions in 30 days for Broadwayworld.com, and for April 17, he takes on "It's Today" from the original cast recording of Mame, which introduces the audience and listener to Angela Lansbury as Auntie Mame (with that bugle blast and a slide down the banister). Even though it's actually the second number of the show, I think this does more to establish the tone for the evening and ultimately is more of an opening number than "St. Bridget." The original cast album of Mame is a joy to hear from those opening chords of the overture to the very last "Mame!" during the curtain call/finale. The album is one of my all-time favorites and one that I would cherish as a desert-island top 5.

Kiley vs. Lansbury

Peter Filichia was taken to task by some of his readers over the claim that Keith Carradine was the only person to have won a Best Song Oscar and to have been nominated as Best Actor in a Musical. They reminded him that Barbra Streisand is a Tony-nominated, Oscar-winning (for the song "Evergreen") star. However, as he correctly points out that he said "Best Actor in a Musical" but not Best Actress. One reader pulled the PC card on him saying that it's not actress, but "female actor." The article then goes onto speculate which winner of the respective Tony races would take home the award if they were pitted against each other. At the end of the article, he lists what he considers the toughest call: Angela Lansbury as Mame or Richard Kiley as the Man of La Mancha. Be sure to check it out, and drop him a line with your opinion!

I'll withhold my vote until he posts the results, but I'm sure you can guess...

Angela Lansbury as Mame

This was how she was billed when she took on her second Broadway musical in 1966. She fought very hard to even be seen for it, as the powers that be felt she was always playing "somebody's mother." It took a lot of hard work and effort on her part, but with the help of composer Jerry Herman, she won the role. It's a well-known fact that Angela Lansbury didn't get to make the film version of Mame in Hollywood. Lansbury, who won her first of an unprecedented four Tonys for Best Actress in a Musical, gave a star turn for the ages and she reached a new level of stardom in her career. But her performance, seen for two years on Broadway and later on national tour, wasn't enough for her to land the part when Warner Bros. got the film up and running. She didn't go down without a fight: some say her showstopping production number of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" on the '68 Oscar telecast was an audition of sorts for the Hollywood establishment. Lucille Ball made the film, and the rest is unfortunate history (have you seen the film...? yikes).

In 1983, Lansbury revived the show for what proved to be an ill-advised and short-lived flop revival of her signature role. The show, with little fanfare, set up shop in the behemoth Gershwin Theatre for a disappointing run of 41 performances. Anne Francine (Bea Arthur's replacement and a cabaret star), Jane Connell, Willard Waterman, Sab Shimino all reprised their original roles opposite Lansbury. While the response to the revival was tepid, Lansbury was nothing short of sensational. Have a look...

"It's Today"



"Mame"



"That's How Young I Feel"



"If He Walked Into My Life" plus the staged curtain call

Another Snowy-Blowy Christmas

We are expecting a major winter storm here in the NY area tomorrow and Christmas is only one week away. This year the season itself seems to be flying away so rapidly that I can hardly believe it. It's been a dicey holiday season given the times in which we live. People are worrying about employment, the economy, our, well, everything. Anyway, for the first time in a long time I have been swept up in the season so I thought I'd give a very brief list of some of the my personal favorite musical theatre-related Christmas songs. If there's anything you think I've overlooked, feel free to comment (and no, "I Don't Remember Christmas" from Starting Here, Starting Now does not count).

"Twelve Days to Christmas" - She Loves Me. This song is a brilliant summation of Christmas in retail - from the perspectives of both the employees and consumers. The advancement of the plot from December 13 through the evening of the 24th is your typical Bock & Harnick - charm, wit and (very importantly) plot and character development. The song starts in a leisurely tempo, with book scenes interspliced showing how the two lead characters are growing fond of each other, but each time we go back to the song the tempo picks up pace until it becomes a full out patter verse complete with malapropisms on Christmas Eve. It's a beautiful way to build the show to its inevitable and breathtakingly simple finale between Amalia and Georg. (And if you recall, I listen to the cast album every Christmas Eve).



"Pine Cones and Holly Berries" - Here's Love. This musical adaptation of Miracle on 34th Street opened in late 1963 to less than stellar critical response in spite of a cast that included Janis Paige, Craig Stevens and Laurence Naismith (others included Fred Gwynne, Baayork Lee and Michael Bennett). Written and composed by Meredith Willson, the show wasn't his best effort, but did feature a showstopping opening - a march overture that segued into an onstage recreation of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Willson incorporated his already popular "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas," but he turned it into a quodlibet by adding this song as a counterpoint. (Interesting note: many people know that "Seventy-Six Trombones" and "Goodnight My Somone" were written to complement each other, but did you know that a contrapuntal reprise of "My White Knight" and "The Sadder-But-Wiser-Girl" was originally written for the scene prior to Harold's arrest?) Apparently, this is a favorite Christmas number for the Osmonds.

"We Need a Little Christmas" - Mame. Nothing like the world's favorite aunt declaring an early holiday in order to raise everyone's spirits. However, given our current economic state, the song is as timely as ever. But it is a sheer joy to see and hear; especially as delivered on the original cast album by Angela Lansbury, Jane Connell, Sab Shimino and Frankie Michaels, which remains the definitive recording of this ever-popular holiday favorite. Here is a clip of the replacement cast led by Jane Morgan (Helen Gallagher is Gooch!!) performing the original staging on the Ed Sullivan Show.



Here's the real thing:



"Who Says There Ain't No Santa Claus?" - Flahooley An utterly enchanting little Christmas song from this flop score by Sammy Fain and Yip Harbourg. Jerome Courtland and the effervsescent Barbara Cook in her Broadway debut lead this gem.

"Be a Santa" - Subways Are For Sleeping. Note how many of these Christmas songs have many of our best Jewish composers behind them. Irving Berlin led the way with "White Christmas," "Happy Holiday". We also have Sammy Fain and Jerry Herman represented here. Now it's Jule Styne; with his steady collaborators Comden & Green. The show is most famous now for David Merrick's publicity stunt and for Phyllis Newman's Tony-winning tour de force as Miss Martha Vail (particularly in that 'musical dramatic playlet written and directed by huhself', "I Was a Shoo-In"). Sydney Chaplin leads this company number (once again we have Michael Kidd staging) in which Salvation Army Santa Claus' dancing up a storm.

And of course, that perennial favorite from Promises Promises. "Turkey Lurkey Time" I know I posted this video last year, but hell, it's Christmas and to steal from my friends at [title of show], this is something you want to enjoy 24-7.

"I Was Never in the Chorus"

I post this rare shot of Anne Francine and Angela Lansbury performing "Bosom Buddies" in Mame for my own Moon Lady and fervent Mame/Lansbury enthusiast, Sarah, who I think will appreciate this more than anyone else. In talking about the character of Vera Charles with a friend of mine, I decided to google image Ms. Francine and lo and behold, this shot popped up. Francine, born into a wealthy Main Line Philadelphia family, was a noted actress and sophisticated nightclub singer who replaced Tony-winner Bea Arthur as eternally inebriated Vera about a year into the original run. She toured with Lansbury in 1968 and subsequently returned for the remainder of the show's Broadway run . She also reprised the role in the short-lived revival, again with Angie, in 1983. She considered this the favorite role of her career. Other Broadway appearances included By the Beautiful Sea, Tenderloin, The Great Sebastians and the 1987 Lincoln Center revival of Anything Goes. Her film work was scarce (she was in Juliet of the Spirits, The Savages and Crocodile Dundee); however, some of you may recognize her as Barbara Eden's archnemesis Flora Simpson Reilly on the TV series "Harper Valley, PTA."

Now, getting down to business, who should play Vera in the next revival...?

"It's simply that who else...?"

Sure, we've seen this before. But what the hell, life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death! With the recent glut of posts on Auntie Mame and Mame in the blogosphere, it just felt like the right thing to add to the mix. Figure it will tide us over 'til we get our revival. Angie and Bea recreated the song on the 1987 Tony telecast, complete with some of the original Onna White choreography, particular the burlesque bump-and-grind rideout from the "Bosom Buddies" reprise that unfortunately didn't make it onto the original cast album.

I dedicate this one to my fellow bloggers...