We all know the story and most have seen both the play
and the movie Gypsy about the
struggle of an obsessed stage mother driving her youngest daughter's rise to fame
during the fading years of vaudeville.
For me, there were three reasons to see this show yet again: the music
of Jule Styne, the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim, and the character driven roles
created by Arthur Laurents who mined the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee when
creating the story.
Even with these attributes, how does one breathe new life
into the well known story? There is of
course the Maltz theatre’s reliable skill of handling musicals, but in the case
of this Gypsy there is also the
powerhouse of a performer, Vicki Lewis, who plays Rose on steroids. Her portrayal alone is worth revisiting Gypsy, along with an exceptional supporting
cast. But when Lewis is on stage, she is
a force of nature, self deluded by her unrealistic ambition for her daughters,
only to rise out of the ashes of self destruction with the colossal closing
number “Rose’s Turn.” On the other hand
she keeps the audience feeling distressed by her constant manipulations only to have our
hearts go out to her, again and again.
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| Celebrated stage, screen and television actress Vicki Lewis stars as Rose |
This is a woman with many losses in her life, her own
mother and several husbands, then June, the daughter she grooms for stardom, played
with wide-eyed innocence by Jillian Van Niel, and then the man who stood by her,
Herbie, flawlessly performed by John Scherer (seen previously at the Theatre in
La Cage aux Folles, Annie and They're Playing Our Song, as well as on
Broadway). Ultimately, we grieve as much
for Herbie, another casualty of Rose’s delusions.
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| Emma Stratton stars as Louise (Gypsy Rose Lee) |
We watch the transformation of talented Emma Stratton as
Louise (whose national tour credits include Bullets
Over Broadway and Anything Goes),
from the ungraceful neglected child into the great Gypsy Rose Lee, an accident
of Herbie booking the troupe at a burlesque theater. There we meet three of the most unlikely caricatures
of burlesque performers, who belt out one of my favorite songs, so typical
Sondheim in its word play, “You Gotta Get a Gimmick.”
There are so many people to mention, but a special call
out to Brett Thiele who plays Tulsa, whose dance and song solo with Louise
looking on in an alley behind a theatre is reminiscent of a Gene Kelly
routine, singing one of my other favorites, “All I Need is the Girl.” It is at this moment that a “performance gene”
is awakened in Louise, not to mention the spark of love. But Tulsa eventually takes June for his own now leaving
Rose with her overlooked daughter, Louise, a new project to mold into stardom.
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, whose work on revivals, new
musicals, and plays has been seen throughout the world, directed and choreographed
the Maltz production. There is a very
effective, moving scene where Rose’s troupe of child performers meld into
adults in an instant, still singing and performing the same old routines. Be prepared to be wowed by the conceit. She said the following about Gypsy: “I’m drawn to stories that
illuminate the human condition: stories about families; flawed characters with
strong ambitions and giant dreams.” And,
indeed, that is what the show is all about.
Gypsy is the show where Sondheim felt he finally came
into his own and experienced a liberating freedom in writing the lyrics. He further acknowledged that the music by Jule
Styne “supplied the atmosphere of both the milieu and of the musical theatre
itself.” It was one of the last musicals
for which Sondheim was merely the lyricist but you get the sense he was
learning the musical treatment from a master, saying “Jule’s score was redolent
of not only vaudeville and burlesque but of the old fashioned, straightforward,
character-driven musical play…of which Gypsy was one of the last examples and
probably the best.”
The list of memorable songs is endless from this
musical. In addition to the ones I
already mentioned, “Let Me Entertain You.” “Some People,” “Small World,” “You’ll
Never Get Away from Me,” “If Momma Was Married” (another personal favorite, so vintage
Sondheim), “Everything is Coming Up Roses,” and “Let Me Entertain You,” plus
others!
Although frequently performed, and indelibly etched in
our memories from the film, here is a refreshing revisit, made particularly memorable
by Vicki Lewis’ performance. The show is
playing at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre until April 9.
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Pictured from left to right: Atsuhisa Shinomiya, Johnson
Brock, Neville Braithwaite, Steve Carroll, Vicki Lewis (above), Jillian Van
Niel (below), John Scherer and Bret Thiele. All stage photos by Alicia Donelan
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