Runaway Stage’s Mame puts hard work into Bohemian living

Mame Dennis is an eccentric bohemian type living the high life in Manhattan just before the Great Depression when her brother dies, leaving her to raise his 10-year-old son, Patrick. Does she give up her “Live! Live! Live!” lifestyle for solemn guardianship?

Are you kidding? She welcomes the boy to her fabulous world, telling him, “Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death.” She intends to feed him well.

The story progresses through what is essentially a series of anecdotes. There’s the time she scared off a bigoted family of interlopers by serving pickled python and sheep spleen as hors d’oeuvres. And the time she sent little Patrick off to a school where students and teachers alike studied in the nude. The humorous shock value of those two stories is diminished these days by fears of food allergies and sexual predators.

It is clear a lot of hard work went into this production. The dancing (choreographed by Darryl Strohl-De Herrera, who also directs) is impressive and the live orchestra (a little ragged at times) is another plus.

Ruth Robbins-Phillips, an excellent singer who conveys her character’s unfailing joie de vivre, is outstanding as the outsized Mame. Lauren Ettensohn is endearing as young Patrick’s nanny, Agnes Gooch. And Brent Null is a standout as the stuffy estate executor Dwight Babcock. Nathaniel Grandinetti is game as the young Patrick, though his inexperience shows. The stronger Travis Hoffman has considerably less stage time as the older Patrick, but brings some dimension to his role.