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Mame
Mame
is a musical with the book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin
Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman.
Originally titled My Best Girl, it is based on
the 1955 fictional novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and a 1956
Broadway play, by Lawrence and Lee, that had starred Rosalind
Russell. Set in New York and spanning the Great Depression and
World War II, it focuses on eccentric bohemian, Mame Dennis, whose
famous motto is "Life is a banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches
are starving to death." Her fabulous life with her wealthy
friends is interrupted when the young son of her late brother
arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series
of adventures.
In 1958, a film titled Auntie Mame, based on the
play, was released by Warner Brothers once again starring Rosalind
Russell in the title role. Russell was nominated for an Academy
Award and won a Golden Globe for her portrayal.
A musical version entitled Mame starring Angela
Lansbury and Beatrice Arthur opened on Broadway in 1966. The production
became a hit and spawned a 1974 film with Lucille Ball in the
title role, as well as a London production, a Broadway revival,
and a 40th anniversary revival at the Kennedy Center in 2006.
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