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.