THEATER REVIEW : STARLIGHT’S ‘MAME’ HAS CHARM, WEAVES MAGIC

Who can fail to adore Mame Dennis?

Thirty-two years after she first appeared in a novel by Patrick Dennis ( nom de plume of Edward Everett Tanner), she’s still the toast of Manhattan, the belle of the South, and an inspirational ideal.

“Life’s a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death,” Mame declares. She is totally immersed in her own ongoing campaign to give lively sustenance to as many poor souls as she can squeeze into her Prohibition-era social whirl.

When Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee and songwriter Jerry Herman hit New York in 1966 with a musicalized version of their successful stage adaptation of “Auntie Mame,” they had shortened the title to “Mame” but saved the very essence of this liberated lady.

The current Starlight production, although not as extravagant as an audience would love to see, does preserve ‘Mame’s” charm with careful casting and savvy staging by director Ole Kittleson.

Lainie Nelson seems too young and delicate at first appearance to play this gutsy role, which has been savored by such hearty stars as Rosalind Russell, Angela Lansbury, Celeste Holm and even Lucille Ball (in a 1974 Hollywood disaster).

But Nelson brings to the role the energy and twinkle that Mame needs to scoop everyone in her path into the exuberant joie de vivre that fuels her adventures.

With Sally Champlin thoroughly enjoying herself in the broad, meat-and-potatoes comedy of Mame’s famous friend, actress Vera Charles, and Gail Johnston delivering a terrific performance as the frumpy Agnes Gooch, this “Mame” has a good foundation from which to work its inspirational magic.

The story begins in 1928, when Mame’s 10-year-old nephew, just orphaned, arrives at the Beekman Place apartment of his only living relative--her highness, the queen of Manhattan society. The boy is quickly absorbed into Mame’s campaign, drawn into the swirl of life lived to its fullest enjoyment.

Instead of enrolling him in a proper school, as the trustee of Patrick’s estate insists, Mame sweeps her nephew off to see the world--the only way to learn, in Mame’s expansive vision.

The adventures continue as Mame loses everything in the Depression, takes on various jobs, interacts with flamboyant characters like Vera Charles, Southern charmer Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (Roy Mote) and a gauche Connecticut family that is played here like something from a Jane Curtin skit--with good effect.

All the while Patrick grows up, as little boys inevitably do. Young actor Kevin Osgood, as the 10-year-old Patrick, holds his own against the Starlight hazard of airplanes screaming through his solos, winning the audience with his martini mixing antics. Alan Schueler takes over smoothly as grown-up Patrick, a strong singer who does well enough to survive the acting demands.

Johnston really steals the glory as the newly liberated and very pregnant Gooch--a victim of Mame and Vera’s urging to “open a new window.” As Johnston sings in one of the show’s best, “Who would suppose it would be so hard to close?” And Mote is handsome and capable in his courtship of Mame.

The best of Dom Salinaro’s standard choreography is visible in “That’s How Young I Feel,” when a sea of pastel-sweatered Starlight dancers take off on a medley of ‘30s dances. When they tidy up the ragged chorus lines and jumbled spacing, these young dancers will really be fun to watch.

For now, the most fun comes with Mame and Vera’s sniping duet, “Bosom Buddies.”

There are a number of weak spots, including the irritating laugh bit one of the servants has been encouraged to produce with his every utterance.

Milton Greene’s orchestra is determined as ever, the infamous Starlight sound system blows Nelson’s belted songs all out of proportion; the flight path is unchanged; Ken Holamon’s designs for the umpteen set changes are no more than workable, burdening Mame’s ever-evolving apartment with peeling wallpaper and other unslightly goofs, and Tara’s ambitious costumes are pleasant but stop just short of dazzling.

Worst of all, when Mame and her newest young charge set off in a grand finale exit to rediscover the world--why on earth does Kittleson have them traipsing back up the stairs toward Mame’s bedroom? Did he think we’d simply enjoy the artsy pose and ignore the hilarity of the blunder?

Yet this “Mame” works its way into the heart.

It has strength where it counts the most--in the talent on stage. So many of the smaller parts are well done that there’s not room to list names, but they weave the proper psychic atmosphere for Mame’s educational philosophy to flourish.

Never mind the less-than-glorious physical setting. When does Mame’s next class begin?

“MAME”

Book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee. Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Directed by Ole Kittleson. Choreographed by Dom Salinaro. Scenery by Ken Holamon. Lighting by Bill Gorgensen. Costumes by Tara. Technical director is Larry Kane. Sound by Bill Lewis. Choral director is Fred Rigby. Music director/conductor is Milton Green. Production stage manager is Brett Finley. Featuring Lainie Nelson, Sally Champlin, Gail Johnston, J. Sherwood Montgomery, Kevin Osgood, Roy Mote, Alan Schueler. Nightly at 8:30 (except Monday) through Aug. 10 at Starlight Bowl, Balboa Park. Produced by the San Diego Civic Light Opera Assn.