DINNER THEATRE'S MAME SERVES UP BANQUET OF BRIGHT BRASSINESS
By Nancy Stetson
Friday, December 19, 2003
"Mame" is one of thoselarger-than life musicals - and its title character a larger-than-life woman.
Then there are all the scene change and the expensive
costumes - Mame changes costumes as least as often as Cher - and all those big show-stopping numbers.
No wonder smaller theaters tend to shy away from producing it. But the Naples Dinner Theatre, which didn't flinch from putting on musicals such as 'West Side Story," Chicago" and "La Cage I Aux Folles," has brought "Mame" to Naples.
The show runs through Jan. 25.
It's a great, fun musical for the holiday season, and not just because it includes the song "We Need a Little Christmas." In addition to 'We Need a Little Christmas" there are classics such as "Open a New Window" "If He Walked into My Life," "My Best Girl," “The Moon Song" (better known to some as “The Man in the Moon is a Miss") and of course, the title song, "Mame."
Debi Guthery plays the roll of Mame with expansive dramatic flair. She comes across more as someone who’s enlightened than someone eccentric. Everyone needs an Auntie Mame in his or her life. Someone to challenge you to look beyond your tiny little world; someone who introduces you to new things, places and people; someone whose thinking isn't in a rut. "You're going to see life! she promises her young ward, her nephew Patrick (Hudson Benzing) who is suddenly in her care.
And she keeps her promise And we, the audience, get to tag along. When Guthery proclaims that famous line, "Life is banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death!" you want to stand up and cheer. Guthery has a number of strong moments in the show, belting out songs with other actors and the ensemble, but all her talent culminates in her solo near the end of Act II, when she sings "If He Walked Into My Life."
Guthery is highly theatrical as Mame. And when she's belting out a song and kicking up her heels with the others, you genuinely believe she's having the
time of her life. Several others who share the stage with her are equally as noteworthy. Kay Francis plays Mame's worldly-wise best friend Vera with sparkle and verve. On Tuesday night, when a drink she was being
served was accidentally dropped, Francis ad-libbed, staying in character and trying to lick the last remaining drops from the cup. And no one canget as many laughs by simply giving a look and rolling her tongue around one scathing word: "Piiy!
Francis is great in the over-the-top number 'The Moon Song," and she and Guthery wring much hilarity by dancing about and singing of their love-hate relationship in "Bosom Buddies."
Susan Halderman as Agnes Gooch, a depressed nanny who learns to kick up her heels, rounds out this trio of outstanding women. She's wonderfully mousy and timid, until Mame and Vera get their hands on her. Each transformation she undergoes is equally believable.
And Nell Flynn should be noted too; she has a small role toward the end of the musical, but, like Haldeman, provides great physical humor. Benzing, as the young Patrick, does an admiral, realistic job, not making his character too cute or cloying.
The sets are probably the weakest element of this production, but it doesn't matter much because your eyes are drawn to the characters. The dance numbers, choreographed by Christopher Noffke, are frisky and exuberant. The dancing during “That’s How Young I Feel" looks like so much fun you want to join them on stage as they do the Charleston and hop about.
And the singing, whether solos, or in small groups or the entire ensemble, is big and bold. The audience could hardly get enough when they sang the title song, "Mame," as it built and built: Composer and lyricist Jerry Herman cleverly made each line a statement, answering it with the name "Mame," until all they can sing at the end is her name over and over again in a rousing climax. (And look for echoes of that in "Gooch's Song," when Agnes sings her song to Mame, ding each line with Mame's married name, "Mrs. Burnside.")
The scenes with Dick Westlake playing Mother Burnside, a nasty, elderly Southernwoman, didn't get the laughs I thought it would; I wondered if anyone else in the audience realized that behind the powered face and wig it was a
man playing the role. And the musical, in its first wek of performances, seems as though it has to gel just a little more. But the bottom line is, "Mame" serves up a banquet of good times and a bright, brassy night at the theater.
By Nancy Stetson
Friday, December 19, 2003
"Mame" is one of thoselarger-than life musicals - and its title character a larger-than-life woman.
Then there are all the scene change and the expensive
costumes - Mame changes costumes as least as often as Cher - and all those big show-stopping numbers.
No wonder smaller theaters tend to shy away from producing it. But the Naples Dinner Theatre, which didn't flinch from putting on musicals such as 'West Side Story," Chicago" and "La Cage I Aux Folles," has brought "Mame" to Naples.
The show runs through Jan. 25.
It's a great, fun musical for the holiday season, and not just because it includes the song "We Need a Little Christmas." In addition to 'We Need a Little Christmas" there are classics such as "Open a New Window" "If He Walked into My Life," "My Best Girl," “The Moon Song" (better known to some as “The Man in the Moon is a Miss") and of course, the title song, "Mame."
Debi Guthery plays the roll of Mame with expansive dramatic flair. She comes across more as someone who’s enlightened than someone eccentric. Everyone needs an Auntie Mame in his or her life. Someone to challenge you to look beyond your tiny little world; someone who introduces you to new things, places and people; someone whose thinking isn't in a rut. "You're going to see life! she promises her young ward, her nephew Patrick (Hudson Benzing) who is suddenly in her care.
And she keeps her promise And we, the audience, get to tag along. When Guthery proclaims that famous line, "Life is banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death!" you want to stand up and cheer. Guthery has a number of strong moments in the show, belting out songs with other actors and the ensemble, but all her talent culminates in her solo near the end of Act II, when she sings "If He Walked Into My Life."
Guthery is highly theatrical as Mame. And when she's belting out a song and kicking up her heels with the others, you genuinely believe she's having the
time of her life. Several others who share the stage with her are equally as noteworthy. Kay Francis plays Mame's worldly-wise best friend Vera with sparkle and verve. On Tuesday night, when a drink she was being
served was accidentally dropped, Francis ad-libbed, staying in character and trying to lick the last remaining drops from the cup. And no one canget as many laughs by simply giving a look and rolling her tongue around one scathing word: "Piiy!
Francis is great in the over-the-top number 'The Moon Song," and she and Guthery wring much hilarity by dancing about and singing of their love-hate relationship in "Bosom Buddies."
Susan Halderman as Agnes Gooch, a depressed nanny who learns to kick up her heels, rounds out this trio of outstanding women. She's wonderfully mousy and timid, until Mame and Vera get their hands on her. Each transformation she undergoes is equally believable.
And Nell Flynn should be noted too; she has a small role toward the end of the musical, but, like Haldeman, provides great physical humor. Benzing, as the young Patrick, does an admiral, realistic job, not making his character too cute or cloying.
The sets are probably the weakest element of this production, but it doesn't matter much because your eyes are drawn to the characters. The dance numbers, choreographed by Christopher Noffke, are frisky and exuberant. The dancing during “That’s How Young I Feel" looks like so much fun you want to join them on stage as they do the Charleston and hop about.
And the singing, whether solos, or in small groups or the entire ensemble, is big and bold. The audience could hardly get enough when they sang the title song, "Mame," as it built and built: Composer and lyricist Jerry Herman cleverly made each line a statement, answering it with the name "Mame," until all they can sing at the end is her name over and over again in a rousing climax. (And look for echoes of that in "Gooch's Song," when Agnes sings her song to Mame, ding each line with Mame's married name, "Mrs. Burnside.")
The scenes with Dick Westlake playing Mother Burnside, a nasty, elderly Southernwoman, didn't get the laughs I thought it would; I wondered if anyone else in the audience realized that behind the powered face and wig it was a
man playing the role. And the musical, in its first wek of performances, seems as though it has to gel just a little more. But the bottom line is, "Mame" serves up a banquet of good times and a bright, brassy night at the theater.
Mame's message rings true
_ Witty play full of talent for holidays
By MARY WOZNIAK, mwozniak@news-press.com
Published by rtews-pness.com on December 17, 2003
Do go and see "Mame" at the Naples Dinner Theatre if you enjoy a musical packed with:
•Witty, sophisticated dialogue
•Great choreography
•Seemingly more songs than the usual musical (about 13)
Don't go see "Mame" if you have a short attention span or can't sit still for about three hours. Those who appreciate a musical that pulls out all the stops will find the current Naples Dinner Theatre's production of "Mame" a treat.
— It has everything: a huge cast, a plot that spans three decades — the '20s, '30s and '40s —and the costumes to go with it.
The story of eccentric "Auntie" Mame Dennis, who tries to give her orphan nephew a taste of how to live life to the fullest, no matter what circumstances fate hands her, is uplifting and thought-provoking, but doesn't make you think too much.
S It does make you laugh a lot, at Mame's antics and the sardonic one-liners that pepper the dialogue, particularly from Mame and her best friend, theater diva Vera Charles. Mame is one of those larger-than-life characters who could easily be played over the top and turn into a caricature. But Debi Guthery treads a fine line and plays her believably as an elegant sophisticate, even in all her outrageousness.
Mame captures our sympathy and our imagination from the opening scenes of the soiree in her Art Deco New York apartment and the big production number, "It's Today."
We immediately become accomplices in her desire to raise her dead brother's son, Patrick, in the most liberal way possible — even if it does mean sending him to a school where all the teachers teach and students learn in the nude.
And Hudson Benzing, 10, of Cape Coral, a sixth-grade gifted student from Trafalgar Middle School, will win your heart as Patrick.
He and Guthery have developed a definite charisma that shows particularly in their touching rendition together of the song "My Best Girl."
But Mame loses everything in the stock market crash. Her pal, Vera Charles, exclaims, "Oh, thank God I never put anything aside!"
No one in the audience laughed.
Maybe in this downturned economy, the wisecrack hit too close to home.Maybe the audience had ingested too much tryptophan during dinner.
Maybe the first act was just too long. In any case, the audience was slow to wake up and didn't seem to pick up on most of the repartee that the boozy and oh-so-bored Charles, played by Kay Francis, was dishing out.
The audience really started to perk up with the song, "We Need A Little Christmas," in which Mame, Patrick and other cast members decorate a barren apartment and exchange early Christmas gifts during the Depression.
By the time the musical's signature song, "Mame" closed the first act with its traditional high-kicking chorus line, weak and much-deserved bravos were being thrown out.
A word about choreographer Chris Noffke. Director Michael Wainstein needs to bottle and sell this guy's energy.
Noffke's choreography was excellent and he also played two small parts in the show. He practically stole Scene 8 in the Salon Pour Messieurs, as he plays the swishy "Gregor" introducing Mame to the man who turns out to be her next husband, Beau. He also plays the older college student Patrick's roommate, "Junior Babcock," and dances up a storm.
Let me nominate "Mame" as a replacement, or at least an alternative, to the tried-and-true, but tired "It's a Wonderful Life," this holiday season.
Sure, only one scene pertains to Christmas, but the idea of seeing life as a bounty and making the best of what you have is a holiday message with staying power to last throughout the year.
As Mame says, "Life is a banquet — and most poor suckers are starving to death."
_ Witty play full of talent for holidays
By MARY WOZNIAK, mwozniak@news-press.com
Published by rtews-pness.com on December 17, 2003
Do go and see "Mame" at the Naples Dinner Theatre if you enjoy a musical packed with:
•Witty, sophisticated dialogue
•Great choreography
•Seemingly more songs than the usual musical (about 13)
Don't go see "Mame" if you have a short attention span or can't sit still for about three hours. Those who appreciate a musical that pulls out all the stops will find the current Naples Dinner Theatre's production of "Mame" a treat.
— It has everything: a huge cast, a plot that spans three decades — the '20s, '30s and '40s —and the costumes to go with it.
The story of eccentric "Auntie" Mame Dennis, who tries to give her orphan nephew a taste of how to live life to the fullest, no matter what circumstances fate hands her, is uplifting and thought-provoking, but doesn't make you think too much.
S It does make you laugh a lot, at Mame's antics and the sardonic one-liners that pepper the dialogue, particularly from Mame and her best friend, theater diva Vera Charles. Mame is one of those larger-than-life characters who could easily be played over the top and turn into a caricature. But Debi Guthery treads a fine line and plays her believably as an elegant sophisticate, even in all her outrageousness.
Mame captures our sympathy and our imagination from the opening scenes of the soiree in her Art Deco New York apartment and the big production number, "It's Today."
We immediately become accomplices in her desire to raise her dead brother's son, Patrick, in the most liberal way possible — even if it does mean sending him to a school where all the teachers teach and students learn in the nude.
And Hudson Benzing, 10, of Cape Coral, a sixth-grade gifted student from Trafalgar Middle School, will win your heart as Patrick.
He and Guthery have developed a definite charisma that shows particularly in their touching rendition together of the song "My Best Girl."
But Mame loses everything in the stock market crash. Her pal, Vera Charles, exclaims, "Oh, thank God I never put anything aside!"
No one in the audience laughed.
Maybe in this downturned economy, the wisecrack hit too close to home.Maybe the audience had ingested too much tryptophan during dinner.
Maybe the first act was just too long. In any case, the audience was slow to wake up and didn't seem to pick up on most of the repartee that the boozy and oh-so-bored Charles, played by Kay Francis, was dishing out.
The audience really started to perk up with the song, "We Need A Little Christmas," in which Mame, Patrick and other cast members decorate a barren apartment and exchange early Christmas gifts during the Depression.
By the time the musical's signature song, "Mame" closed the first act with its traditional high-kicking chorus line, weak and much-deserved bravos were being thrown out.
A word about choreographer Chris Noffke. Director Michael Wainstein needs to bottle and sell this guy's energy.
Noffke's choreography was excellent and he also played two small parts in the show. He practically stole Scene 8 in the Salon Pour Messieurs, as he plays the swishy "Gregor" introducing Mame to the man who turns out to be her next husband, Beau. He also plays the older college student Patrick's roommate, "Junior Babcock," and dances up a storm.
Let me nominate "Mame" as a replacement, or at least an alternative, to the tried-and-true, but tired "It's a Wonderful Life," this holiday season.
Sure, only one scene pertains to Christmas, but the idea of seeing life as a bounty and making the best of what you have is a holiday message with staying power to last throughout the year.
As Mame says, "Life is a banquet — and most poor suckers are starving to death."