THEATER REVIEW : ‘Mame’ Falls on Her Face at Old Globe Make the Grade

At times, Moonlight Amphitheatre, that ambitious and thriving community theater under the stars in Vista, can surprise audiences with the high quality of its productions.

Alas, Moonlight’s production of “Mame,” which opened Wednesday, is not one of those shows.

The company’s 12th season opener is, to put it generously, a clunker.

Under the best of circumstances, “Mame” is a challenge to produce. This 1966 Jerry Herman musical about an orphaned boy, Patrick, being brought up by his eccentric and loving Auntie Mame, is 2 1/2 hours long and much of the exposition is tedious, leaving you waiting for the three memorable songs out of the more than a dozen to come along: “If He Walked Into My Life,” “Bosom Buddies” and the title song, in which we are told that Mame “ . . . charms the husks right off of the corn.”

The husks are clinging to the corn for dear life in this version.

Daniel Yurgaitis, fresh from his successful direction of “Rumors” at the North Coast Repertory Theatre, directs here more as a traffic cop than artist. The best you can say of this job is that no one gets injured.

But to be fair, he doesn’t have much of a cast. Mame should seize the imagination with a mesmerizing, larger-than-life performance--which the dignified Cathy Gene Greenwood does not deliver. Bary Odom’s costumes do not help either. For some odd reason, Odom gave everyone but Mame flashy, colorful duds. Greenwood doesn’t emerge with an eye-catching outfit until the curtain call.

Randall Hickman seems much too young to be playing the Southern gentleman who courts her. Artistic director Kathy Brombacher, who plays Mame’s best friend, Vera, never lifts her part above caricature. The best of the lot is Theresa Layne as Patrick’s nanny, Agnes Gooch. Her plaintive “Gooch’s Song,” sung when she finds herself unmarried and pregnant, is touching and funny. The only other memorable moments belong to Brent Badgerow, the 10-year-old who plays young Patrick. He is an absolute charmer, with a sweet, high voice and a smooth scene-stealing stage presence.

As for the show’s other problems: You never know from one scene to the next how much you are going to hear because of the unevenness of the miking. The sets are ho-hum. The orchestra lacks force, and most of the singing swings on and off key.

Mame’s philosophy is to live life to its fullest and to celebrate a diversity of values and lifestyles. It’s a good message to hear in these times. If only it had been celebrated in a better show.

“MAME”

Book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Music by Jerry Herman. Based on the novel “Auntie Mame” by Patrick Dennis. Director, Daniel Yurgaitis. Musical director, James R. Cook. Choreography, Javier Velasco. Conductor, Mark Wadleigh. Sets, Don Ertel. Costumes, Bary Odom. Lighting, Steve Banneck. Sound, Stuart Holmes. Technical direction, M. Andrew Currey. Stage manager, Dana S. Begg. With Cathy Gene Greenwood, Theresa Layne, Kathy Brombacher, Doug David, Randall Hickman, Larry Corodemas, Roy Gunther Werner, Marci Anne and Brent Badgerow. At 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays, through July 19. Tickets are $8-$14, with specials for students, seniors and groups. At Brengle Terrace Park, 1200 Vale Terrace Drive, Vista, 724-2110.