≡ Mame
By: Tim Treanor
Mame, at the Kennedy Center
It’s easy to see who the hero is in Eric Schaeffer’s immensely likeable Mame, now playing at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. In case we had any doubt, the hero’s profile looms over the final scene - over Mame herself, over her nephew, Patrick Dennis, wiser but no sadder from his aunt’s example, over the loveable lush Vera Charles, over everyone. It is the City of New York, whose irrepressible, fun-loving, rule-breaking hipness reigns superior in every way to the bluebloods, bigots and blackguards of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Georgia.
So understood, Schaeffer’s smart production is less a play than a celebration. The opening-night Kennedy Center audience, correctly generalizing Mame’s New Yorkness to take in all that is urban and cool, guffawed in delight at every expertly-executed bon mot and putdown, even a few which were familiar or lame. Mame is a monument to New York-style urban values. Walt Spangler’s gorgeous set, which features the City’s signature skyscrapers in high relief, makes that clear.
