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Lee Meriwether is Mame at Reagle

WALTHAM, MA: TV star and one-time Miss America is everyone’s favorite aunt!  She’s a former Miss America. She is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee. She was Buddy Ebsen’s co star on the hit series Barnaby Jones for a popular eight year run. She is a veteran of The Today Show desk. She was the original Catwoman in the 60’s Batman film. She has appeared in multiple television series including The Time Tunnel, The Munsters Today and The New Andy Griffith Show - as Andy’s wife. She even joined the Mission Impossible team. Recent appearances have seen her as a regular on the daytime sudser All My Children. Through it all, she brought her beauty queen warmth, grace, class and charm to each of her characters.

Soon, she will be charming the husk right off of the corn in Mame. As the wealthy, eccentric, lovable Mame Dennis Burnside of Beekman Place her life is transformed when she assumes guardianship of her nephew, Patrick. With her delightfully bohemian bent and the world as her classroom, Mame opens new windows for the boy. Together, they journey through The Roaring Twenties, speakeasies, The Great Depression and Southern plantations in a series of adventures and misadventures. Ever the survivors, Mame and Patrick prevail.

The Reagle Players’ summer salute to Broadway lyricist-composer Jerry Herman would be incomplete without Mame. Based on the hit novel, play and film Auntie Mame, the musical version ran nearly five years on Broadway, revitalizing the career of Angela Lansbury. It led to her astonishing twelve year run as an American Agatha Christie type sleuth in Murder, She Wrote.

Mame’s infectious score is reason enough to draw audiences to the show. Besides the syncopated title song, the score produced winners like; “If He Walked Into My Life,” “We Need A Little Christmas,” “It’s Today,” “Open A New Window,” “My Best Girl,” “The Moon Song,” “That’s How Young I Feel,” “Gooch’s Song,” “Bosom Buddies” and more.

Boston performers include three time IRNE Award winner, Maryann Zschau as the First Lady of the American Musical Theater, Vera Charles. As Mame’s adder tongued, cocktail swigging, bosom buddy – Vera’s razor sharp wit keeps things crackling through the years. Maureen Brennan, Tony nominee for Broadway’s Candide, plays the hilariously drab and decidedly repressed nanny, Agnes Gooch, who eventually ends up opening some windows of her own. Dedham’s Troy Costa plays the young, impressionable 10 year old Patrick while onetime Boston actor and Boston College alum Curly Glynn plays his adult counterpart. The large seventeen character show is peopled by an array of delightful denizens who keep posh Beekman Place buzzing through the decades.

Directed by Frank Roberts and choreographed by Susan Chebookjian, the show features a full orchestra, handsome sets and costuming, clever choreography and wonderful production numbers including the incredible title song, “Mame.” An ensemble of 40 fills out this gem of a show which promises spectacle, joy and miles and miles of heart.

It’s the perfect antidote to depression. With Mame - anything goes - laughter rules - and life is a banquet! Now’s the time to open a new window and celebrate today. Mame’s back in town.

Mame plays July 16-25 at The Robinson Theater at 617 Lexington Street, Waltham, MA. Call 781 891 5600 for tickets or visit online at www.reagleplayers.com.  Tickets range from $32-$54. Senior and youth discounts may apply. Attractive group discounts also available. The air conditioned Robinson Theater has plenty of free parking and is wheelchair accessible. The final production of The Jerry Herman Summer Salute is August’s La Cage aux Folles with members of the original Broadway cast, Jamie Ross and David Engel.