Posted 6:54 AM by Gene

To repeat myself, when the SUPERBRAIN hacks encounter a truth it is almost always by accident. Thus again with Ben Brantley, whom not even his family would consider clairvoyant. This time he zings the taxpayer-wasting Kennedy Center's revival of Mame. We may indeed wonder why it's necessary; the show is obsolete in two ways: in the superiority the book-writing Messrs. Lawrence and Lee had to their audience, whom they obviously felt were uptight illiterate reactionaries like the Upsons; and the fact it needs a star turn -- first Roz Russell, then the proposed Judy Garland, whose physical (and mental) illnesses forced her to recuse herself, then Angela Lansbury. All the more sad because this show lives through its superior cast album, and we can't even seek comfort there because such things are the obsessions of "theater queens." And it is painfully obvious just from this one photo that Ben may be right when he says we're past the star-turn phase.