MUSICAL THEATRE

FACTSHEE
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STUDENT NAME

AUNTIE MAME: A glamorous and eccentric woman who takes her nephew, Patrick,
into her care after his father has passed away. Mame has a bohemian and opulent
lifestyle in which she hosts frequent parties in her Manhattan apartment, goes on
lengthy trips, and has an expensive taste for fashion.
PLOT: When the curtain rises on Mame, it is just before the stock market crash of
1929. Mame is living a fanciful and extravagant life in the USA. She is wealthy,
unmarried, does not work, and has frequent parties. However, after the stock market
crashes, she loses everything, and is forced to enter the lower-working class. After
trying her hand at many different jobs, Mame accepts the role of Moon Lady in a
musical. At the show, Mames performance is a complete disaster and it ruins the
production. Her nephew, Patrick, comes and tells MAME how proud he is of her. Its
early December and Mame decides to throw an early Christmas to lighten the
sorrowful mood caused by the onslaught of the Great Depression. Soon after, an old
flame, Beauregard, turns up and proposes to her. Even though others try to stop
them, they marry, and she goes back to her flamboyant lifestyle. Eventually Patrick
marries too, has a son, and allows Mame to take his son off travelling to teach him
about the world.
Adaptation: a transition or conversion from one medium to another (for
example, book to musical). Adaptation implies a process that demands
rethinking, reconceptualization, and understanding of how the nature of
drama differs from the nature of all other literature (Brown 179).
The musical, Mame by Jerome Lawrence, Robert. E. Lee, & Jerry Herman is a 1966
adaptation of Patrick Dennis 1955 bestseller entitled, Auntie Mame: An Irreverent
Escapade. Dennis book is a fictional work inspired by his eccentric aunt, Marion
Turner. Dennis used experiences with Turner to write the novel.