On my way to see "Mame" this weekend, I absently wondered whether I'd wind up leading my review by talking about the gimmick of the production or the show itself. I found my answer under the Fresnel lights, where the gimmick was the best thing about the show.

The twist on Minneapolis Musical Theater's staging of the vintage 1966 musical is that company co-founder Kevin Hansen plays the title character, a bon-vivant woman ahead of her time who suddenly finds herself the custodian of her deceased brother's son. It's far from Hansen's first time in heels and hose: The one-time "Miss Bible Belt" in the company's oft-revived "Pageant," Hansen also logged a memorable turn as Albin in MMT's 2006 staging of "La Cage Aux Folles."

Where those earlier roles were well-done drag, Hansen here achieves something more: There are a few winks and nods to the audience, but in the main, his Mame plays it straight — if you'll pardon the expression. His is a well-sung, multi-faceted and sensitive performance and just the right size of larger-than-life-ness. It's not just a good performance for a guy playing a woman. It's a good performance, period, and the unquestioned highlight of what is otherwise a middle-of-the-road staging.

Director/choreographer Steven Meerdink and vocal director Lori Maxwell give Jerry Herman's score a nice look and lustily enthusiastic voice, but when the music stops, Meerdink has trouble pumping much in the way of velocity into Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's script, which has not aged nearly as gracefully as has the music.

And looking down the cast list, it seems that for every winning supporting performance, there's one that's wanting. Karen Wiese-Thompson, for instance, plays Mame's boozing, bosom buddy Vera Charles with enough vinegar to pickle both Minneapolis and St. Paul. The character isn't on stage all that much, but Wiese-Thompson infuses her with so much presence that when she's gone, you wonder what she's up to.

Crystal Manik, who plays the straight-laced nanny Agnes Gooch, has the right incongruous blend of astigmatic squint, stoop-shouldered meekness and a huge musical-theater voice. Her transition from wallflower to fallen woman is effervescent and fun to watch.

The same can't be said for Christian Unser, who plays Mame's southern-fried suitor, Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside. His character probably has a little less stage time than that of Vera, but Unser's listless turn makes Beauregard's presence a long, slow, dreary one. While a decent singer, Max Wojtanowicz — who plays Mame's nephew Patrick as a grown-up — doesn't come close to articulating his character's battle between his aunt's free-thinking ways and the more buttoned-down world of his boarding-school chums.

Big musicals like "Mame" test small companies like Minneapolis Musical Theatre. This time around, the resulting show sneaks by with a passing grade, but only just.