# Auntie Mame (play)

Auntie Mame is a comedic stage play written by American playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The play was adapted from the novel of the same name first published in 1955 by Patrick Dennis. The play was a critical and commercial success, and was nominated for five Tony Awards, running for 639 performances.

## Production history

The play premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on October 31, 1956, and closed on June 28, 1958, after 639 performances. The original Broadway production was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Actress for Rosalind Russell, Best Stage Technician (Joseph Harbuck), and Best Scenic Design (Oliver Smith). Peggy Cass won the award for Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Agnes Gooch. Russell and Cass reprised their roles for a 1958 film of the same name, for which they were both nominated for Academy Awards.
Following the Broadway production, the show went on a national tour starring Eve Arden in the title role, and opened on Londons West End at the Adelphi Theatre, starring Beatrice Lillie. Lillie had also taken over the role of Auntie Mame in the Broadway production. After Rosalind Russell's contract ended, the role was taken over by Greer Garson, and then Lillie. Florence MacMichael replaced Peggy Cass as Agnes Gooch in the Broadway production, and then continued playing the role on tour.

## Original cast and characters

| Character | Broadway | 1st Tour | 2nd Tour | California Tour | West End |
| Character | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1958 | 1958 |
| Auntie Mame | Rosalind Russell | Constance Bennett | Sylvia Sidney | Eve Arden | Beatrice Lillie |
| Beauregard Burnside | Robert Smith | Mark O'Daniels | Mark O'Daniels | Brooks West | Geoffrey Toone |
| Vera Charles | Polly Rowles | Jane van Duser | Shannon Dean | Benay Venuta | Florence Desmond |
| Dwight Babcock | Robert Allen | Blaine Cordner | Leo Lucker | Robert Allen | David Bird |
| Patrick Dennis | Robert Higgins | Michael Thomas | William Berrian | Ray Fulmer | Dinsdale Landen |
| M. Lindsay Woolsey | John O'Hare | Kendall Clark | Phil Arthur | David Lewis | Gerald Welch |
| Agnes Gooch | Peggy Cass | Bernice McLaughlin | Sudie Bond | Florence MacMichael | Rosamund Greenwood |
| Young Patrick | Jan Handzlik | Robert Lindner | Guy Russell | Dennis Joel | John Hall |
| Gloria Upson | Joyce Lear | Dorothy Sefton | Francesca Trantum | Suzanne Turner | Jacqueline Ellis |
| Pegeen Ryan | Patricia Jenkins | Martha Randall | Laura Lee | Jacqueline Holt | Jill Melford |
| Doris Upson | Dorothy Blackburn | Dulcie Cooper | Ruth Holden | Dorothy Blackburn | Pamela Simpson |
| Claude Upson | Walter Klavun | Arthur Barnett | T. J. Halligan | Willard Waterman | Donald Stewart |
| Brian O'Bannion | James Monks | Gerald Metcalfe | Philip Bosco | Manning Ross | Patrick Holt |
| Norah Muldoon | Beulah Garrick | Ann Sullivan | Betty Sinclair | Isabel Price | Anita Sharp Bolster |
| Ito | Yuki Shimoda | Yoji Matsuoka | Yoshi Naka | Yuki Shimoda | John A. Tinn |
| Sally Cato MacDougall | Marian Winters | Fayne Blackburn | Winifred Ainslee | Elizabeth Talbot-Martin | Helen Horton |
| Mother Burnside | Ethel Cody | Dorrit Kelton | Joan Davenport | Spivy | Natalie Lynn |
| Ralph Devine | Grant Sullivan | Otis Bigelow | John Granger | Loren Tindall | Tom Gill |