Upping the Auntie: A 'Mame' Makeover

Schaeffer thinks Spangler's Manhattan skyline design and a youthful cast are the ingredients to put a blush in "Mame's" cheek. Baranski, though, thinks it'll be the dancing.

"I'm not sure other Mames have ever danced this much," says Baranski, 54, during a lunch break. "I'm very, very physical. And I love that Warren" -- choreographer Warren Carlyle -- "has given me so much sexy dancing."

Carlyle and Schaeffer had at least two big dance transitions in mind, and after a while, they thought, "If Christine's up for it, let's just put her in this stuff." Baranski was up for it, and to hear the director tell it, some of the choreography verges on the acrobatic.

"It's not just step-touch," he says. "She's out there dancin'."

But ask Herman what's most striking to him about his work 40 years later, and the king of the show tune says . . . the lyrics.

"I'm still thought of as the Title Song Kid," he says ruefully. (Louis Armstrong's international smash recording of "Dolly," he contends in jest, is "the worst thing that happened to me.") Audiences might recognize more of the "Mame" score than they suspect, with "My Best Girl," "Bosom Buddies" and "We Need a Little Christmas" likely to ring a bell. But Herman and company are trumpeting the words.

Says Baranski: " 'If He Walked Into My Life' is an extraordinary inner monologue. It's not just some nightclub ballad. I have really drawn on much of what my life has been with my own kids -- you know, asking how did it go wrong, what could I have done better, would I be the same person?"

In the original orchestrations, that song has a big swelling lead-in before calming to introspection.

"We took that whole introductory section out," Schaeffer says. "Now it just comes out of the scene, and it has a whole different dramatic flair. No one's going to know that unless they study it or look at the score, but it changes the tenor of the show. All of a sudden it has this gut, and this heart, that perhaps wasn't as noticeable. Those are the little things that make a huge difference."

'That Actress'

First things first: More than tweaking or updating or glitz, "Mame" requires a star.

"Think about it -- who else could the Kennedy Center have used?" says Herman, whose story of getting Lansbury cast in the original production is legendary. (He twisted arms to have her heard, and when she took the stage he sneaked into the pit to accompany her himself.) "You have to find that actress. You can't do it with just a singer."

Baranski's acting chops have long been established, with Tonys, Emmys and other trophies to her credit, not to mention steady film work and household acclaim for her role opposite Cybill Shepherd in the 1990s CBS sitcom "Cybill."