The St. Louis MUNY 2005

MAME            The MUNY, 2005                        Scenic Flow
Director:                        Paul Blake
Scenic Designer:            Steve Gilliam

 Preshow:            BOOM 1, Mame Show Curtain

 Act One

 Scene 1:            Boom 1, NYC, 1928.
“Pattern of terrifying lights of the City: A hug, gartered girl’s leg kicking,  a bubbling champagne glass, a flashing red arrow which points God- knows-where.”
“Mystery of the big city.”
“New York is like a foreign country.”
“… I’ve read about what happens after dark in New York – to unmarried girls and innocent children!”

ST. BRIDGET

Scene 2:            Mame’s Apartment, Dec. 1, 1928.  FLAPPER
Bohemians,
“A Cocktail party of the Twenties is at its inebriated height.”
Sweeping staircase, bar, rolling piano, ottoman, rolling sofa, banquet table.

IT’S TODAY
“Light the candles” “Fill the punch bowl”  “Throw confetti” “Pour the scotch out” 
“Mame has been perched on the piano as it is propelled around the apartment.”
“Mame … sounds the bugle again and slides down the banister.”
“Mame leads Patrick to an ottoman and perches herself on the arm of a couch which rides offstage.”

Scene 3:            Mame’s Apartment, Dec. 15, 1928. 
Lighting change to signify passage of time. PARTY IS CLEARED.
All furniture, side units, etc. cleared, as this is a short scene.

 Scene 4:            Mame’s Bedroom, Dec. 15, 1928
Revolve turns quarter plus to reveal the bedroom.
“Plush and feminine Empress-size bed.  Mame slumbers blissfully on a mountain of pink pillows.”
Bed, closet, window with blinds, door from rest of the apartment.

 Scene 5:            Mame’s Apartment, Dec 15, 1928.  Same time.
Furniture, sofa, bar
OPEN A NEW WINDOW

Boom 1.
NYC.  Through a Window.  Parade of fancifully costumed Manhattan characters.

ARTIST’S STUDIO
MODERN DANCE CLASS
FIRETRUCK
SPEAKEASY  w/exotic tango
POLICE PADDY WAGON

Scene 6:            Mame’s Apartment, 1929.  Change to “Room filled with pictures and statues of mothers and madonnas.”
Kitchen door.  Telephone. 
Boom 1 closes during scene as Vera steps forward to prepare for her show

THE MOON SONG

Scene 7:            Boom 1.  SHUBERT THEATRE
“Cut-out of a mountain peak and a sky-drop filled with twinkling stars.”
“Mame sneaks onstage … moon rises, a crescent moon, with Mame draped in it … her hat falls off and she ends up clinging to the undersideof the crescent.”
“Vera, in a rage, beats her telescope against the moon … she throws her telescope at the conductor … and storms off.”
Curtain call and bows.
“Strike the set.”  “Work Lights”

MY BEST GIRL

Scene 8:            Boom 1.  SALON POUR MESSIEURS
Barber chair, backroom, manicurist’s table/tray, area for Mame to get her coat and hat.

 Scene 9:            Mame’s Apartment, 1929.  Bare.  No extravagant furniture.  Blank walls.
Couch. 

WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Christmas decorations.  Holly, tree, Christmas stockings, candles, string of lights, tinsel, fruitcake.

 Scene 10:            Boom 2.  Peckerwood, Georgia
“Portico and front lawn”  Spanish moss, weeping willow trees, magnolia trees, camellia blooms, and goubain villas.
Family gathering (lawn furniture???)
Rooster crows and light change indicating dawn

THE FOX HUNT

MAME

Intermission:            Boom 1.

Act Two

Scene 1:            Boom 1.  Prep School Study Room 

OPENING ACT TWO
“Like figures in a Swiss clock, the SMALL BOY, small desk and small typewriter rotate out of sight, to be replaced by a larger desk, a larger typewriter and a considerably larger PATRICK …”
Singapore.   Mame and Beau lighting.

REPRISE:  MY BEST GIRL

Scene 2:              Mame’s Apartment.  1937
Furniture covered.  Packing boxes and barrels.
Dictaphone and Typewriter.
“She uncovers a monstrosity of a dragon chair from the Orient and quickly covers it again”

BOSOM BUDDIES

 Scene 3:            Mame’s Apartment.  1937 Six Months Later
The apartment “has been transformed into a literary shrine.”

 GOOCH’S SONG

Scene 4:              Upson Barn, Mountebank, MA.  1937
Revolve turns quarter plus to reveal the Upson Barn
Bar Cart.  Colonial style “barn” or, perhaps, a patio.

THAT’S HOW YOUNG I FEEL

 IF HE WALKED INTO MY LIFE

 Boom 1 ????   To revolve to apartment????

Scene 5:            Mame’s Apartment.  1937/8  ULTRA-MODERN
“Low Japanese-style sofa”
Large Mobile with hanging pieces.
Avant-Garde

IT’S TODAY  Reprise

“Pegeen, still atop the ladder, is struggling with the mobile … Patrick starts up the ladder, which sways.  Patrick throws his arms around
                        Pegeen to keep her from falling.”

MY BEST GIRL Reprise

Boom 1 closes to allow for change over to 1946 apartment????

Scene 6:            Mame’s Apartment, 1946
“A huge Jackson Pollock-like style painting indicates that even the absent Mame is keeping up with the times.”
Apartment might should aspects of India.

OPEN A NEW WINDOW Reprise

Curtain Call            Boom 1 closes for bows until it opens for Mame’s Bow.

Mame’s Apartment  Mame enters down the staircase.