Mame — with Christine Baranski — to Be Part of Kennedy Center's 2005-2006 Season

By Andrew Gans
March 1, 2005

Tony Award winner Christine Baranski will head the cast of Jerry Herman's Mame when it plays the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts next season.

The Tony-nominated 1966 musical about the free-spirited Mame Dennis and her young nephew Patrick will be directed by Eric Schaeffer. Mame will be presented at the Eisenhower Theater, Feb. 18-March 26, 2006. Baranski, who starred as Mrs. Lovett in the Kennedy Center's mounting of Sweeney Todd, won her two Tony Awards for her performances in Rumors and The Real Thing.

The Jerry Herman musical is just one of many productions announced by Michael Kaiser — President of the Kennedy Center — for the 2005-2006 season. The season will kick off with the eagerly awaited tour of Stephen Schwartz's Wicked, Dec. 21, 2005-Jan. 15, 2006. The musical will play the Kennedy Center's Opera House, as will the tour of another Broadway musical, Little Women. The latter will play the Opera House June 27-July 23, 2006.

A new production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Subject Was Roses will be seen at the Eisenhower Theater, Jan. 7-29, 2006. No casting has been announced for the revival of the Frank D. Gilroy play, which was originally presented on Broadway in 1964.

The Royal Shakespeare Company will continue the fourth of its five-year residency at the Kennedy Center (April 11-May 7 at the Eisenhower), and the new season of Voices of the Arts — a series of conversations with Kaiser — will feature interviews with Mame's Baranski and choreographer Peter Martins.

Don DeLillo's new play Love-Lies-Bleeding will also be part of the forthcoming season. The drama, which will run June 17-25, 2006, is a co-production with the Steppenwolf Theater Company and will be mounted at the Terrace Theatre. Love-Lies-Bleeding, according to production notes, "focuses on the last years of a free-spirited artist, now left invalid after a second stroke." The production will be directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Amy Morton.

A new play for children, Whoopi Goldberg's Alice, will be presented at the Kennedy Center's new Family Theater, and Bruce Jordan and Marilyn Abrams' adaptation of Paul Portner's Shear Madness will continue its 18-year run at the Theater Lab.

Highlights of the 2005-2006 season follow:
Wicked, Dec. 21-2005 - Jan. 15, 2006 at the Opera House
The Subject Was Roses, Jan. 7-29 at the Eisenhower
Mame, Feb. 18-March 26 at the Eisenhower
The Royal Shakespeare Company, April 11-May 7 at the Eisenhower
Love-Lies-Bleeding, June 17-25 at the Terrace Theater
Little Women, June 27-July 23 at the Opera House

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