"Call Me Madam" - 16th - 19th November 2011

Directed by Jan Clemens

In November TATS staged Irving Berlin’s musical extravanza, Call Me Madam.

It tells the story of the ‘Hostess with the Mostess’ and is a good-natured satire on politics and faoreign affairs.  Sally Adams, a well-meaning but ill-informed socialite widow, is appointed US Ambassador to the fictional European country of Litchenberg.  While there, the brash American, who has scant regard for protocol, manages to charm the local gentry, especially Cosmo Constantine, while her press attaché, Kenneth Gibson, falls in love with Litchenberg’s Princess Maria.

Call Me Madam is based on Washington DC hostess and Democratic Party fundraiser Perle Mesta, who was appointed Ambassador to Luxembourg in 1949. The Playbill distributed at each Broadway performance humorously noted that “neither the character of Mrs Sally Adams nor Miss Ethel Merman [in the title role] resemble any person living or dead.”

The stage show won a clutch of Tony awards including best original score and best performance by a leading actress in a musical.  In 1953, 20th Century Fox made a film adaptation, starring Ethel Merman, George Sanders, Donald O'Connor, and Vera-Ellen.