Goodspeed Opens the Season With Mame And A Party

The world was one big party at the Goodspeed as it opened its 2012 season with the life’s a party musical “Mame” and then threw one of its own after the show was over  at the nearby Gelston House.

The show-stopping Jerry Herman tunes and nearly 20 wardrobe changes for Louise Pitre, who plays the effervescent Mame Dennis, set the tone for a fun evening that included a lot of catching up for people who had seen each other since the end of the 2011 season.

For executive director Michael Price that meant some globe-trotting including a trip to the South Pole with a stop in South America where he bought three pair of shoes at his favorite store.

Liberty Bank president Chandler Howard spent the winter meant planning his upcoming wedding on June 29 at the Farmington Club.

Howard, and fiancée, Miriam Lopez, who works in the Hartford corporation counsel’s office, will be honeymooning in Cabo San Lucas.

More than 200 people crowded the Gelston House main dining room after the show for the opening night soiree that celebrated Pitre and the other stars including Glastonbury’s own Eli Baker. Baker plays Mame’s young nephew, Patrick Dennis.

“I love it,” said the fifth-grader who attended with his mother Jessie, and sister Eden. If he looks familiar to the Hartford crowd, there is a reason. He was featured in the Hartford Stage production o The Christmas Carol.

Opening night  was also cathartic for some, like board member Joe Smith, whose brother, fourth-grade teacher Brian Smith, collapsed and died in his New London classroom two weeks ago.

“I just thought this would be a good reason to get out,” said Smith, a member of the Mohegan tribe.

Smith said there will be a tribal memorial for his late brother.