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Little Me
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Little Me was the parody "confessional" self-indulgent autobiography of "Belle Poitrine" (French for "Pretty Bosom," aka "Gorgeous Tits"), subtitled The Intimate Memoirs of the Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television, by Patrick Dennis, who had achieved a great success with Auntie Mame. A bestseller when introduced in book form, the work was also later staged on Broadway as a musical.
The heavily illustrated work featured numerous photographs by Cris Alexander, who combined retouched stock photographs with original photographs taken to create Belle Poitrine's life. Published in 1961, it was considered pretty risqué at the time. (Several of Alexander's photographs were rejected by censors.) The book also featured family and friends of Dennis and Alexander, including Dennis' wife, Louise, as "Pixie Portnoy", and ballet dancer Shaun O'Brien (Alexander's life partner) as Mr. Musgrove. Actress Dodie Goodman and comedienne Alice Pearce were prominently featured. Actress Jeri Archer portrayed the often overexposed, self-centered and clueless Poitrine, and Kurt Bieber was her beefcake co-star and paramour, "Letch Feely". Little Me was reissued in 2002 with a new preface by Charles Busch and foreword by Alexander.
The plot of
Little Me tells the rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches, etc. story of Maybelle Schlumfert, an overdeveloped and self-deluded girl who rises to become Belle Poitrine. (An example of her delusion: Belle is born in 1900 and the book process with a chapter for each decade- but chapter six is titled "Frankly Forty") Throughout the book, Poitrine's character trumpets her successes (which are few) while glossing over her failures (which are many). The book was a stinging parody of the cult of celebrity and self-importance stemming from the numerous "personality overcoming obstacles" biographies of the late
1940s and early
1950s.
Little Me, the musical
"Little Me" was made into a musical, with book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman, and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, which opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 17, 1962 and ran for 257 performances. The London production opened at the Cambridge Theatre on November 18, 1964 and ran for 334 performances. The original Broadway production was made memorable by Sid Caesar in multiple roles with multiple stage accents, playing all of Belle's husbands, each of whom comes to a propitiously untimely end. Virginia Martin as Belle, won a Tony Award for "Best Supporting Actress." The best known song in the score is "Real Live Girl" which is often performed by barbershop quartets. In his memoir, Rewrites, Simon mentioned that aside from tailoring the book to the talents of Sid Caesar, the second attraction of the project was a chance to work with choreographer Bob Fosse.
The 1982 revival at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre starred James Coco and ran for 36 performances. Victor Garber, Mary Gordon Murray, and Peter Gennaro were all nominated for Tony Awards.
Little Me was revived on Broadway in 1998 as a vehicle for Martin Short, who won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.
Little Me was revived on the West End in 1984-1985 at the Prince of Wales Theatre starring
Russ Abbot with
Sheila White. It is scheduled to reappear on the West End in the summer of 2007.
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