Mama is coming to Rancho Mirage — oh, and Vicki Lawrence is, too
Vicki Lawrence's alter ego, Mama, has a lot to say. But it's not likely to be about the coronavirus.
Mama is Thelma Mae Harper, a cranky senior citizen that Lawrence played on “The Carol Burnett Show” in the 1970s and her own sitcom, “Mama's Family,” in the 1980s.
Lawrence has been playing Mama live for the past 20 years, until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of most of her shows.
Now she's going out again, with a gig Saturday at The Show at Agua Caliente Casino Rancho Mirage.
In a phone interview from her Long Beach home, Lawrence said she's happy to be performing again.
“The first time I did go out onstage, it was so good to see people's faces I just started crying,” she said. “It was so nice to see people again.
“I decided that Mama would come out in a big ol' mask and spray the audience. `I don't know where you people have been,' ” she added, assuming Mama's Southern twang.
“So that was fun. But after I did that a few times I decided, I don't think I want to remind people of COVID. Let's just laugh. Let's just forget this.”
Mama's remarks are scripted. But Lawrence, 73, said, “I think more like Mama as I get older. I think you've reached the age not to mince words, just say it like it is.”
Lawrence calls her act a two-woman show. In the first half she comes out as herself and talks about her career, much the way her mentor Carol Burnett did in two recent sold-out performances at The Show. Then she puts on a loud housedress and curly gray wig and becomes Mama.
“My half of the show doesn't change as much, because it's sort of autobiographical,” Lawrence said. “I think it's all of the things that people would ask me if I were to do questions and answers, like Carol.
That doesn't change as much as Mama changes, as the world is changing.”
Lawrence's story includes how, as an Inglewood teenager in the 1960s, she was singing and dancing in the musical group the Young Americans and attracted Burnett's attention, becoming a regular on her show for its entire run, 1967-1978.
In 1973, Lawrence had a No. 1 Billboard hit with “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” a murder ballad written by her husband at the time, Bobby Russell. She said she recorded it because nobody else had faith in it.
The following year Mama was born in a “Carol Burnett Show” sketch called “The Family,” about a vicious mother bickering with her daughter, Eunice. It was edgy for variety shows at the time. Although Lawrence was 24, Burnett gave her the role of Mama with co-star Harvey Korman's encouragement.
“Mama was actually written for Carol, and Eunice was the character that spoke to her. So I just consider Mama yet another gift from Carol. Harvey said to me all the time, `Man, you got the part, kiddo. The mother is the nuts and bolts of the family.' ”
Lawrence had to rethink the character for the sitcom version, which ran 19831990.
“Mama from `Mama's Family' is a distinctly different character than the one that was on `The Carol Burnett Show.' ” she said.
“We took dramatic little slices of life and turned them on their ear by making them silly. But when `Mama's Family' came along it was really clear to everybody that Mama had to change; she had to be a sitcom star. We did two shows, and I shut it down. I said, `These aren't funny.' ”
She brought Korman in for coaching. “He said, `People aren't going to want to come home from work every week and sit and watch this old lady screaming at people for a half hour. She's now got to become silly. She's got to laugh. She's got to do silly stuff.'
“I said, she's never even smiled. I'm not sure she can laugh.
“Harvey looked at me. He said, `She is you, Vikki. You are Mama.' Which is a frightening thought.”
Lawrence said she loved doing sketches and musical numbers on “The Carol Burnett Show,” but Mama was her only recurring character.
“I got to play a dumb blonde a lot, and that was always fun. I remember saying to Harvey, because Harvey helped me so much, `Every time I play this dumb girl I get stupid for the whole week.' I said, `Why is that?'
“He said, `You will find that any part that you do really well is a part of you.' To which I said, `How come you're so good in drag?' I never did get a good answer from him.”
`VICKI LAWRENCE AND MAMA: A TWO WOMAN SHOW'
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Show at Agua Caliente Casino Rancho Mirage, 32-250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage
$45-$75 plus fees
aguacalientecasinos.com