About the Play:

Auntie Mame is a full-length comedy adapted for the stage by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, from the novel by the Patrick Dennis. Roaring Twenties socialite Mame Dennis teaches her orphaned nephew the nature of free living and free thinking, attempting to keep him from the clutches of the uptight world of his late father's estate executor and, later, his fiancée. Especially recommended for school and contest use.

Auntie Mame is a fabulously successful hit hardly needs introduction. Auntie Mame is the quintessential roaring 20's Grande Dame. Her orphaned nephew, Patrick, is thrust into her eccentric life of madcap adventure and free-spirited fun after the death of his parents. While Patrick is destined to be stuffy and uptight, Auntie Mame tries to rescue him from this fate. This unlikely pair develops a loving bond that proves that life is indeed a banquet. Besides being the source for one of America's most popular musicals, Auntie Mame set a standard for Broadway comedy that's been sought after ever since.

Auntie Mame was a triumph on Broadway in 1956 at the Broadhurst Theatre, a great road success, and has become a popular choice for school and community theatre productions.

Cast: 12 female, 25 male, 3 boys (these include numerous small parts, and extensive doubling and tripling is possible)

What people say:

"Auntie Mame was a handsome, sparkling, scatterbrained and warm-hearted lady who brightened the American landscape from 1928 to the immediate past by her whimsical gaiety, her slightly madcap adventures and her devotion to her young nephew, who grew up to be Patrick Dennis. Through fortunes that rose and fell and a pleasant but brief marriage to a likable Southerner, who had the bad luck to tumble down from the Matterhorn, Auntie Mame's chief concern was that nephew, whom she raised…[the play's] central figure is a woman of spirit, innate kindness and undefeatable courage…." — New York Post

"A towering and tremendous hit…." — New York Journal-American

"Lawrence and Lee have fashioned a thunderbolt of fun from the Patrick Dennis bestseller." — New York Mirror

"A jumping joyride, I came away with a grin as big as a pumpkin's ." — New York Herald-Tribune

About the Playwright:

Jerome Lawrence (1915-2004) and Robert Edwin Lee (1918-1994) were American writers who worked for Armed Forces Radio during World War II; Lawrence and Lee became the most prolific writing partnership in radio. The duo is perhaps best know for their play, Inherit the Wind, which earned Lawrence and Lee numerous awards in the year after its production. For their work as playwrights, they won two Peabody Awards, the Variety Critics Poll Award, multiple Tony Award nominations, and many more awards.