ABC, Barbra raise ante with 'Mame'

Herman reunites for TV tuner

By MICHAEL FLEMING

NEW YORK -- In what will be ABC's biggest-budget event movie ever, Barbra Streisand and Cis Corman's Barwood Prods. will join forces with Storyline Entertainment to turn the Jerry Herman musical "Mame" into a three-hour film for next season.

The musical originally opened on Broadway in 1966 and ran five years, with Angela Lansbury winning a Tony for her role as an eccentric aunt who takes charge of a young nephew by exposing him to her liberated lifestyle. Since the character is custom-made for a star of Streisand's caliber, it's hoped that once a top-flight director is brought in, Streisand will also agree to star in the movie. Streisand has never starred in a TV musical.

At this point, Streisand is content to be executive producer with Corman and Storyline partners Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. "When the script is delivered, she'll consider it, but she's made no commitment at this point other than to exec produce," a Streisand spokesman said. "Mame" will be Barwood's first musical production since "Yentl."

The project marks the first reteaming of Streisand and Herman since she starred in the 1969 feature adaptation of his musical "Hello, Dolly," which was Streisand's second film musical, following her Oscar-winning performance the previous year in "Funny Girl." "Mame" is based on the play "Auntie Mame" by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, which was itself inspired by a Patrick Dennis novel.

"Mame" will be the second telepic produced by Barwood and Storyline, following the Emmy-winning "Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story," which aired on NBC in 1995 and starred Glenn Close. Storyline also produced the ABC musical "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella" and the upcoming "Double Platinum," which stars Diana Ross and Brandy and airs on ABC during the May sweeps. In June, Storyline will start shooting an adaptation of the musical "Annie" for ABC.

"Mame" will be produced by Walt Disney Television and ABC. The project was shepherded by Susan Lyne, ABC executive VP of movies and minis, and supervised by ABC veep Quinn Taylor. On the Disney side, Walt Disney Television prexy Charles Hirschhorn and Disney topper Michael Eisner were instrumental in pairing the prestige project with the players.