Audience Insights Guide
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AUDIENCE INSIGHTS Goodspeed’s Audience Insights is made possible through the generosity of GOODSPEED MUSICALS GOODSPEED The Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre MAME Goodspeed Opera House April 20 - July 1, 2012 _________ MUSIC AND LYRICS BY JERRY HERMAN BOOK BY Audience Insights JEROME LAWRENCE & ROBERT E. LEE TABLE OF CONTENTS BASED ON THE NOVEL BY Show Synopsis........................................................................................................3 PATRICK DENNIS AND THE PLAY “AUNTIE MAME” BY Character Summary............................……….……………………………………...4 LAWRENCE & LEE The Novelist: Patrick Dennis..................................................................................5 LIGHTING DESIGN BY CHARLIE MORRISON Meet the Writers...............................................………...………………………..…..6 The Flame of Mame..................……........................……………………………….8 COSTUME DESIGN BY GREGG BARNES Open a New Window ...........................................................................................9 Behind the Scenes: Costume Design................................................................10 SCENIC DESIGN BY JAMES YOUMANS The Great Crash & Great Depression................................................................11 The Role of Women: 1928-1940...........................................................................13 CHOREOGRAPHED BY VINCE PESCE Resources..................................................………...…………....……………..…14 DIRECTED BY RAY RODERICK PRODUCED FOR GOODSPEED MUSICALS BY MICHAEL P. PRICE Audience Insights for Mame was prepared by Joshua S. Ritter, M.F.A, Education & Library Director and Christine Hopkins, M.A, Education & Library Assistant Audience Insights updated 04.02.12 SHOW SYNOPSIS On December 1, 1928, a woman and a young boy walk Patrick, meanwhile, has returned to school and writes Beau the streets of Manhattan. Patrick, a newly orphaned 10 and Mame as they travel on their endless honeymoon. year old from Iowa, and Agnes Gooch, Patrick’s nanny who is delivering him to his only living relative, Mame Years pass and Patrick has grown into a young man. Dennis, arrive at Mame’s penthouse apartment on 3 Sad news arrives from Babcock, the conservative bank Beekman Place. There is a bustling party taking place representative, saying that Beauregard has passed away at her lavish apartment. Mame introduces Patrick and from falling off “an alp.” Mame calls Patrick from overseas Agnes to the party guests and takes the young boy in as and Patrick comforts her. her ward. Patrick is quickly introduced to Mame’s liberal lifestyle. Back at Mame’s New York apartment, Vera prepares a new life for the recently widowed Mame. Vera convinces Patrick’s father, however, left a will stating that the Mame to write her memoirs. As they write, the two Knickerbocker Bank would share responsibility with reminisce and make a promise that whenever all else Mame in deciding where Patrick will go to school. The fails, they will always be there for each other. will states that Patrick should attend a conservative school, but Mame disagrees. She pretends to agree Mame and Vera also decide to makeover Agnes Gooch. with the will and enrolls Patrick in the Laboratory of Life, They give Agnes a low-cut dress, high heels, and lipstick an experimental school where it is acceptable for the and send her off to start making the most of her life. Agnes students to be nude. Dwight Babcock, the Knickerbocker returns six months later looking like she did before the Bank’s representative, finds out that Mame has deceived makeover, but also clearly pregnant. Seeing her friend in him and immediately removes Patrick from the school, need, Mame takes Gooch back into her care. enrolling him at a boarding school called St. Boniface, Babcock’s alma mater. Patrick, now engaged to a well-to-do girl named Gloria Upson, arranges for Mame to meet his new fiancée’s The stock market crashes in 1929 causing the beginning of parents. Mame’s recent decision to take in Agnes Gooch, the Great Depression and Mame loses her fortune. After a fallen woman, could be risky for this engagement but trying her hand at many different jobs, Mame accepts she doesn’t mention the subject to the Upsons. the role of Moon Lady in a musical which stars her best friend, Vera Charles. Mame’s sole responsibility in this role At Patrick and Gloria’s engagement party, Mr. Upson is to straddle a crescent moon as it rises for the climax suggests that, as an engagement present, Mame buy of the last act. At the show, Mame’s performance is a Patrick and Gloria the plot of land next door to the Upson’s complete disaster and it ruins the production. property so they can build a home there. Mame is nervous for what this could mean for Patrick; but, he states that he Patrick, meanwhile, has hitchhiked to New Haven to see wants this kind of life and is tired of all the flighty people Mame in the musical. After the show, he goes backstage he’s had to associate with as a result of being Mame’s to offer his congratulations. Based on her disastrous ward. He states that he would like to protect Gloria from performance, Mame knows she’s lost another job and people who choose not to conform. Mame and Patrick deems herself a failure. However, Patrick encourages her argue and Patrick runs out, leaving Mame behind. and expresses how proud he is of her. Mame hosts a party in her newly redecorated apartment. It’s early December now and Mame decides to throw an The decorator, Pegeen Ryan, along with the Upsons, early Christmas to lighten the sorrowful mood caused by Babcock, Vera, and several other friends have joined the onslaught of the Great Depression. Mame, Gooch, together for the party. The Upsons leave abruptly, however, Patrick, who is home from school for the weekend, and after Agnes Gooch comes downstairs, disheveled and other household staff exchange gifts. As they celebrate, pregnant, and Mame announces that she has bought an old flame of Mame’s, Beauregard Burnside, shows up the plot of land next to the Upsons’ for the Beauregard at Beekman Place and treats everyone to a Christmas Burnside Memorial Home for Single Mothers. As the Upsons dinner. Beau expresses the desire to marry Mame, but leave, Patrick ends his engagement to Gloria. He has explains that he needs his mother’s consent first. Beau takes developed an eye for Pegeen Ryan and rediscovered his Mame and Patrick to Peckerwood, his mother’s home, appreciation for his Auntie Mame’s lifestyle. and meets many people from Beau’s life including his mother and his ex-fiancée, Sally Cato. Sally is determined Several years later, Patrick and Pegeen have a newborn to make a fool of Mame and tricks her into declaring baby boy named Peter. Years pass and Mame is off herself an expert horsewoman. Beau has his doubts, as do traveling the world again. She returns from India and many others, but he confidently states, “Whatever Mame teaches Peter many things from her travels. Peter requests says she can do, she can do.” Beau’s faith in Mame rings that his mother allow him to travel with Mame. At first she true as she becomes the first horsewoman in the Southern won’t hear of it, but after a convincing argument from aristocracy to bring a fox back alive from a hunt. Mame Mame, Pegeen changes her mind. proves herself, wins the hearts of the Burnside family, says yes to Beau’s proposal, and is warmly welcomed to the South. 3 The History of Mame CHARACTER SUMMARY The boisterous heroine of AUNTIE MAME: A glamorous and BEAUREGARD BURNSIDE: A wealthy our story, Mame, has been eccentric woman who takes her southern gentleman who marries Mame. a staple in American fiction nephew, Patrick, into her care after Together, they travel across the world since she was first introduced his father has passed away. Mame on a very long honeymoon. Burnside, in Patrick Dennis’ novel, has a bohemian and opulent lifestyle however, passes away suddenly leaving Auntie Mame: An Irreverent in which she hosts frequent parties in Mame as a wealthy widow. Escapade. In 1955, this her Manhattan apartment, goes on best-selling novel sold over a lengthy trips, and has an expensive GLORIA UPSON: A well-to-do girl from two million copies. In 1956, taste for fashion. an upper class family. When Patrick has the book was transferred grown, he becomes engaged to Gloria. into a play with the same She is an unexpected choice for Patrick title. Adapted by Jerome because, in all of her conformity, she Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, represents everything that Mame is not. the play was a huge success running for 678 performances PEGEEN RYAN: A young and pretty on Broadway. Nearly ten decorator that Mame hires to remodel years after the premier of her apartment at Beekman Place. After the stage play, Lawrence and Lee collaborated with meeting her, Patrick falls for Pegeen Jerry Herman to create and breaks off his engagement with the musical, Mame. With Gloria. Patrick and Pegeen get married Herman’s new lyrics and and have a son named Peter. a tweaked book from Lawrence and Lee, Mame DWIGHT BABCOCK: A stuffy and was an even bigger success meddlesome bank representative who CLICK HERE to watch Angela on the Great White Way, supervises Patrick’s father’s estate and Lansbury’s interview about playing his upbringing with Mame. lasting three and a half years. Auntie Mameon PBS’ “innerVIEWS” AGNES GOOCH: Patrick’s nanny and Mame’s personal secretary. Agnes is also a dedicated friend to Mame and Patrick and frequently joins them on their many adventures. Agnes has lived a relatively sheltered life and, after some convincing from Mame, agrees to go out and experience the world. PATRICK DENNIS: Mame’s ten year old nephew who, after being orphaned, becomes her ward. Patrick received a conservative upbringing, but is quickly introduced to Mame’s free-spirited lifestyle after his father passes away. VERA CHARLES: Best friend to Mame and an actress of the stage.