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1.) Mame is among that herd of musicals with big productions and deliberately hummable tunes. Characters burst into song for no reason at all, and the plot begins to wrap up with deus ex machina expediency right around the two hour mark. You've seen this all a hundred times, and it will make the same parts of your brain hurt as Oklahoma or Gypsy. Yet these warhorses are what it takes, it seems, to put bodies in seats reliably and keep small theaters alive.
Theatre Works is a living cliche': an old barn made into a small theater. There are only 121 seats, none of which are farther than sixty feet or so from the stage. It is a great spot for subtle, intimate theater. Mame, however, as all the subtlety of a giant, armored stallion. The production crams every inch of the small stage, and props spill out from backstage into the lobby. The recorded music diminishes the emotional punch of many of the songs. Choreography is crowded and restricted, and any mistake is glaringly obvious.
When you adjust for those two factors, Mame turns out to be fairly solid community theater. There are awful moments, of course, every community production has them (part of the fun). But they are sparse, and generally outweighed by the moments that actually work.
Kim Haveman has the title role of the eccentric heiress around which the plot loosely centers. Mame Dennis is a party hostess and world traveller who seems to serve no other purpose on Earth than to show those around her how to get the most out of their lives. Haveman is a veteran of mercenary theater, singing and dancing with outfits like Custom Corporate Entertainment. She seemed thrilled not to have to sing songs about sales meetings.
Thomas Porter, who played Patrick Dennis, a young boy Mame sort-of adopts, put in a fine, controlled performance on level with any of the adults. G.C. Santos added something quite different to the role of Vera Charles, Mame's best friend. Other standouts were Jacque Collins (Agnes Gooch), Kendall Lee Linn (Burnside), Michael Brooks (Older Patrick), and veteran character actor Jim Driskill as the relentlessly obnoxious Claude Upson.
The rest of the cast, and there were a lot of them, were credited under "also appeared".
The plot loosely about Mame attempting to educate Thomas in the "Laboratory of Life", careens haphazardly. Mame's sudden loss of fortune is a side issue to Thomas being sent away against her wishes to another state for boarding school. Mame can't hold a job. A rich bachelor (Burnside) falls in love with her, and they travel to his southern plantation called Peckerwood.
At Peckerwood Plantation, the show bottoms out. The fine penthouse set is covered by small backdrop pieces crudely painted on bed sheets. Some of the attempted southern accents are actually painful. There's a misguided number called "Foxhunt" which is muddled and poorly timed. Mame wins the hearts of her soon-to-be in-laws by doing the preposterous, and then they sing about it. I was glad when it stopped for intermission.
Following intermission, the show climbs out of the Peckerwood hole. A grown Thomas falls in love with a snob of whom Mame does not approve. That is the plot of the second half. They also find an excuse to sing "Bosom Buddies", the closest thing this production has to a show-stopper. The best moment of the musical has only two people on stage (Haveman and Santos) - the small barn effect.
The penthouse set is the biggest technical achievement of the show, being striking, versatile, and well executed. The show's best moments occurred there, and its worst elsewhere.
The tight quarters made most of the movement seem designed to avert collisions. There were a truckload of eccentric period costumes, and the quality was not consistent. I could see all the faces, hear all the voices, and could generally tell what was going on. That's all that really matters.
Theater Works has a solid base of talent and resources. It is a shame, though, that they were forced to stretch them until the gaps were clearly visible, trying to make a big horse do tricks in a very small stable.
Show reviewed 9/24/95, 7pm.
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