Mame

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. The musical opened on Broadway in 1966, starring Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur. The production became a hit and spawned a 1974 film version with Lucille Ball in the title role, and Arthur reprising her supporting role; as well as a London production, a Broadway revival, and a 40th anniversary revival at the Kennedy Center in 2006. The musical was inspired by the success of the 1956 Broadway comedy and subsequent 1958 film version starring Rosalind Russell, as well as the 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis. According to Stephen Citron, in Jerry Herman: Poet of the Showtune, the “kudos [for Auntie Mame] made all involved immediately think of musicalizing the play.”[2] Dennis wrote several more comic novels, including a sequel, Around the World with Auntie Mame, and Little Me, which was made into a Broadway musical starring Sid Caesar. The success of that musical may have prompted Lawrence and Lee to turn Mame into a musical.
Rosalind Russell didn’t want the role, Mary Martin backed out after her initial acceptance, and Ethel Merman declined. The producers “heard from—or considered…Eve Arden, Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball, Kaye Ballard, Constance Bennett, Georgia Brown, Kitty Carlisle, Barbara Cook, Bette Davis, Doris Day, Olivia de Havilland, Phyllis Diller, Irene Dunne, Nanette Fabray, Arlene Francis, Judy Garland, Greer Garson, Mitzi Gaynor, Dolores Gray, Tammy Grimes, Julie Harris, Susan Hayward, Katharine Hepburn, Lena Horne, Lisa Kirk, Margaret Leighton, Beatrice Lillie, Gisele MacKenzie, Jane Morgan, Patrice Munsel, Geraldine Page, Ginger Rogers, Dinah Shore, Simone Signoret, Maggie Smith, Elaine Stritch—and…Angela Lansbury,” who was eventually cast.”For its second run, Jerry Herman wanted to cast Judy Garland, but that request was denied by the producers of the show, who deemed her a liability. According to Herman it took six months to write the score.