Deconstruction # 3--The "Overture" From "MAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                          Just think, girls, our third deconstruction is also our first instrumental!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                          Within the pantheon of Broadway overtures, three, I think, stand out.  The toss-up seems to be whether the Overtures to "Candide" or "Gypsy" top the other, but then there is also the one to "My Fair Lady."  I would say those are the BIG Three.  But some lesser musicals have great Overtures--"Funny Girl, " "Camelot," "Henry, Sweet Henry," "Annie," and "Merrily We Roll Along," to name a few.

                              But MY absolute favorite has to be the Overture to "MAME."

                              First of all, "MAME" is a growing gay boy child's dream musical--being shipped off to sophisticated Manhattan, at a posh New York apartment, on Beekman Place, no less, with an aunt, who can belt out a song like "If He Walked Into My Life," like it is nobody's business.  Especially if said Mame is played by Angela Lansbury!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                No other Overture, other than this one, gives me completely the idea of imagining sitting in the very theater where "Mame" played--the Winter Garden--and seeing it come alive before me.  The rest of the recording follows suit, which testifies to its quality, but the "Overture" sets the pace!

                                 Imagine, Vera--the house lights going down, the spotlight hitting the conductor, who raises his baton, and then--a burst of brass that segues into the opening notes of the title tune, alternating with strings, then back to brass for a second chorus of the title tune, then that relenting boom-boom, as the orchestra now segues into "Opening A New Window," (with triangles, no less!!) where the underscoring in the part "the fellow you oughta be is three dimensional" just blows one away.  The strings segueing nicely, with the bells, into "My Best Girl," and then, THEN, the crowning part of the work, the "If He Walked Into My Life" section, with the strings going at it, and that trombone solo--oh, my GOD!!!!!!!!!!  You have got to hear this, darlings, it will simply deliver chills.  How do you come down from this?  How do you top it? You can't.

                                 But the "Overture" doesn't end there. To a strum of Southern banjos the orchestra segues into a short section of "That's How Young I Feel," again, with lots of brass, which helps, because, while it fits the "Mame" score, if I had to choose my least favorite song, this would be it!  But it works for the show!  Then the orchestra climactically rises, then comes down on, the title tune, lingering, with the brass, on each loving note, as if, by caressing the song, the character is being caressed.  The whole thing closes with a whirlwind explosion of drums, brass, strings and crashing symbols that comes to a crashing halt, and leaving one exhausted, but satisfied, over what one has just heard.  And what is to follow!

                                So, here it is!  Listen, and you will know what it is like to be in Musical Theater Heaven!  The premier orchestrator of the day, Philip J. Lang, did wonders here, and I think it is his best work!    Chills and thrills, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                "MAME" has the greatest "Overture," as far as I am concerned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 You hear that, Seth????????????????????????