To comply with the directive of the California Department of Public Health and a mandate from the County of Los Angeles, Musical Theatre West has postponed our upcoming production of Mame.

We are currently collaborating with the Carpenter Performing Arts Center to secure new dates.

As more information becomes available we will contact you regarding future dates. Exchanges will happen once new dates are announced.

Life’s a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!

“Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!” That’s the motto of Mame Dennis, one of musical theatre’s all-time greatest heroines, in this brassy, tuneful, hilarious and touching adaptation of Patrick Dennis’s bestseller, Auntie Mame. A Roaring Twenties socialite, Mame sets out to teach her orphaned nephew the nature of free living and free thinking, attempting to keep him from the clutches of the uptight world of his late father’s estate executor and, later, his fiancée. One of Jerry Herman’s most celebrated scores, features the classics “Mame,” “Open a New Window,” “If He Walked into My Life,” and “We Need a Little Christmas.”

Director

LARRY RABEN

Choreographer

KARL WARDEN

Musical Director

RYAN O’CONNELL

Honorary Producer

JOAN WELLS

Associate Producers

DENNE & ANNE GOLDSTEIN

ANONYMOUS

Youth Performance Underwriters

DON BLACK &JUDY McNULTY BLACK

RON & SYLVIA HARTMAN

ETHEL SEVERSON

Music and Lyrics

JERRY HERMAN

Book

JEROME LAWRENCE
ROBERT EDWIN LEE

Running Time

APPROXIMATELY

2 HOURS, 30 MINUTES

Synopsis: Based off the Novel by Patrick Dennis and the play Auntie Mame by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Set in New York City, Mame spans the Great Depression and World War II, and focuses on the eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis, whose motto is “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.” Her fabulous life with her wealthy friends is interrupted when her nephew arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series of creative adventures.

Theme: Letting go of your past and standing up for yourself.

Language: A few older curse words such as hussy used. Some derogatory language used.

Smoking, Drinking, and Gambling: There are many cocktail parties, where drinking is involved, bootleggers are mentioned, and characters act hungover.

Sex: Some suggestive language.

Violence: Some characters enter a Speakeasy, nothing overt results.

For Which Audiences? Recommended for 5 th grade and higher due to suggestions of violence.

Rating: If this was a movie, it would be rated PG.

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