Auntie Mame | |
---|---|
Written by | Jerome Lawrence Robert E. Lee |
Date premiered | October 31, 1956 |
Place premiered | Broadhurst Theatre |
Original language | English |
Genre | Comedy |
Setting | East Village, Manhattan, 1900s. |
Auntie Mame is a comedic stage play written by American playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. [1] The play was adapted from the novel of the same name first published in 1955 by Patrick Dennis. The play was a critical and commercial success, and was nominated for five Tony Awards, running for 639 performances. [2]
The play premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on October 31, 1956, and closed on June 28, 1958, after 639 performances. The original Broadway production was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Actress for Rosalind Russell, Best Stage Technician (Joseph Harbuck), and Best Scenic Design (Oliver Smith). Peggy Cass won the award for Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Agnes Gooch. Russell and Cass reprised their roles for a 1958 film of the same name, for which they were both nominated for Academy Awards. [3]
Following the Broadway production, the show went on a national tour starring Eve Arden in the title role, [4] and opened on Londons West End at the Adelphi Theatre, starring Beatrice Lillie. [5] Lillie had also taken over the role of Auntie Mame in the Broadway production. After Rosalind Russell's contract ended, the role was taken over by Greer Garson, and then Lillie. Florence MacMichael replaced Peggy Cass as Agnes Gooch in the Broadway production, and then continued playing the role on tour. [6]
Character | Broadway | Tour | West End |
---|---|---|---|
1956 | 1958 | 1958 | |
Auntie Mame | Rosalind Russell | Eve Arden | Beatrice Lillie |
Vera Charles | Polly Rowles | Benay Venuta | Florence Desmond |
Agnes Gooch | Peggy Cass | Florence MacMichael | Rosamund Greenwood |
Beauregard Burnside | Robert Smith | Brooks West | Geoffrey Toone |
Sally Cato-MacDougall | Marian Winters | Elizabeth Talbot-Martin | Helen Horton |
Doris Upson | Dorothy Blackburn | Pamela Simpson | |
Claude Upson | Walter Klavun | Willard Waterman | Donald Stewart |
Gloria Upson | Joyce Lear | Suzanne Turner | Jacqueline Ellis |
Mother Burnside | Ethel Cody | Spivy | Natalie Lynn |
Ito | Yuki Shimoda | John A. Tinn | |
Pegeen Ryan | Patricia Jenkins | Jacqueline Holt | Jill Melford |
M. Lindsay Woolsey | John O'Hare | David Lewis | Gerald Welch |
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Manhattan. The ceremony is held on the second Sunday of June.
Mary Margaret "Peggy" Cass was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer.
Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade is a 1955 novel by American author Patrick Dennis chronicling the madcap adventures of a boy, Patrick, growing up as the ward of his Aunt Mame Dennis, the sister of his dead father.
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for musicals on Broadway and in Hollywood. Although they were not a romantic couple, they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership. They received numerous accolades including four Tony Awards and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Grammy Award. Green was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 and American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. Comden and Green received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1991.
Catherine Rosalind Russell was an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and singer, known for her role as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940), opposite Cary Grant, as well as for her portrayals of Mame Dennis in the 1956 stage and 1958 film adaptations of Auntie Mame, and Rose in Gypsy (1962). A noted comedienne, she won all five Golden Globes for which she was nominated. Russell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1953 for her portrayal of Ruth in the Broadway show Wonderful Town. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times during her career before being awarded a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973.
Agnes of God is a 1979 play by American playwright John Pielmeier which tells the story of a novice nun who gives birth but does not believe she has. The child is found dead and a psychiatrist and the mother superior of the convent clash during the resulting investigation. The title is a pun on the Latin phrase Agnus Dei.
Mame is a musical with a 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 novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and the 1956 Broadway play of the same name by Lawrence and Lee. A period piece set in New York City 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.
Beatrice Gladys Lillie, Lady Peel, known as Bea Lillie, was a Canadian-born British actress, singer and comedic performer.
Samantha Jane Bond is an English actress. She played Miss Moneypenny in four James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan era, and appeared in Downton Abbey as the wealthy widow Lady Rosamund Painswick, sister of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham. On television, she played "Auntie Angela" in the sitcom Outnumbered and the villain Mrs Wormwood in the CBBC Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures. She also originated the role of "Miz Liz" Probert in the Rumpole of the Bailey series. She is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Cris Alexander was an American actor, singer, dancer, designer, and photographer.
Marian Winters was an American dramatist and actress of stage, film, and television.
Jane Sperry Connell was an American actress and singer.
The 16th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film for 1958 films, were held on March 5, 1959.
Marilyn Cooper was an American actress known primarily for her work on the Broadway stage.
Emily Skinner, also known as Emily Scott Skinner, is a Tony-nominated American actress and singer. She has played leading roles in 10 Broadway productions including New York, New York, Prince of Broadway, The Cher Show, Side Show, Jekyll & Hyde, James Joyce's The Dead, The Full Monty, Dinner at Eight, Billy Elliot, as well as the Actor's Fund Broadway concerts of Dreamgirls and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She has sung on concert stages around the world and on numerous recordings.
Mame is a 1974 Technicolor musical film in Panavision based on the 1966 Broadway musical of the same name and the 1955 novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis.
Auntie Mame is a 1958 American Technirama Technicolor comedy film based on the 1955 novel of the same name by Edward Everett Tanner III and the 1956 play of the same name by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. This film version stars Rosalind Russell and was directed by Morton DaCosta. It is not to be confused with a musical version of the same story that appeared on Broadway in 1966 and was later made into a 1974 film, Mame, starring Lucille Ball as the title character.
Morton DaCosta was an American theatre and film director, film producer, writer, and actor.
Haila Stoddard was an American actress, producer, writer and director.
Robert Cecil Smith was an American actor of the stage, television, and film.
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