Mame is a
musical with the book by
Jerome Lawrence and
Robert Edwin Lee and music and lyrics by
Jerry Herman. Originally titled
My Best Girl, it is based on the 1955
novel Auntie Mame by
Patrick Dennis and a 1956 Broadway play, by Lawrence and Lee, that starred
Rosalind Russell. Set in
New York and spanning the
Great Depression and
World War II, it focuses on eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis, whose famous motto is "Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death." Her fabulous life with her wealthy friends is interrupted when the young son of her late brother arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series of adventures.