B'way Review: Gypsy

Joy Woods and Audra McDonald in
Gypsy.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

The sixth Broadway production of Gypsy, the classic musical based on the memoirs of legendary stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, is a theatrical miracle. Not only does it outfit an oft-produced warhorse with totally new, shining armor, but also provides Audra McDonald, the winner of six Tony Awards, with the means to achieve an unprecedented seventh by  delivering a towering interpretation of the King Lear of female musical theater roles, the unstoppable Mama Rose. Both were thought to be impossible feats, but director George C. Wolfe and McDonald have done the impossible.

Let’s tackle the first accomplishment. Gypsy (1959) is the Holy Grail of Broadway musicals. Every leading lady worth her salt has tackled it. But up until now, all five previous reproductions have largely employed Jerome Robbins’ original direction and choreography. The late book-author Arthur Laurents, recreating Robbins’s work, has directed every Main Stem restaging with the exception of the 2003 production which was helmed by Sam Mendes. All of five have employed Robbins’ 1959 dance steps. George C. Wolfe has applied his prodigious theatrical imagination to the smart and insightful book by Laurents and evergreen score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, while retaining Robbins’  basic flow of scenes and framing them as acts in a vaudeville show. Wolfe has placed his own clever stamp on such iconic moments as the transition between Baby June and Her Newsboys from tots to teens, the riotous “You Gotta Get a Gimmick,” Rose and company’s trek from Seattle to L.A., employing a delightfully delapidated vintage automobile, and many others. Santo Loquasto’s suggestive backstage sets, Toni-Leslie James’ versatile costumes, and Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer’s jazzy lighting all contribute to creating the atmosphere of an endless series of one-night stands and cheap boarding houses.

Audra McDonald and Joy Woods in
Gypsy.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Camille A. Brown has the distinction of being the first new choreographer for the show since Robbins and she also plants her own flag on familiar territory. Her dances are inventive and fresh, particularly her staging of Gypsy’s racy interpretation of “Let Me Entertain You,” climaxing in an erotic rite set in the Garden of Eden, marking her arrival as the star of the strip tease. Brown’s quirky, angular moves, sensuously executed by Joy Woods as Gypsy (Louise) and a lively chorus, evoke Josephine Baker’s eccentric banana dance that made her the toast of Paris in the 1920s. Brown’s staging of “All I Need Is the Girl” is more elaborate than Robbins’, and Kevin Csolak as Tulsa makes it in a show-stopper in an evening of musical explosions. Brown even incorporates Woods as Louise into the number correctly. She is still clumsy, but joyfully joining Tulsa in the big finish, not immediately picking up the steps but following along as best she can. (Woods and Csolak are prime candidates for the 2025 Chita Rivera Awards for Best Broadway dancers.)

Now for the second, even greater feat: taking the well-worn role of Mama Rose to new dramatic and musical heights. Ethel Merman set the benchmark for Rose in 1959 and no one dared touch it until a quarter-century later when Angela Lansbury approached the role as less a steamroller with a theater-filling belt than as a frustrated woman taking out her broken dreams on the world. Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, and Patti LuPone followed in a similar vein. McDonald goes even further, finding Rose’s pain and anger and using them to drive her intense arias of blighted show-biz ambitions. Her range is totally different from that of her predecessors, but her operatic soprano is clearly and neatly incorporated into all of Rose’s spectacular numbers. Kudos to Andy Einhorn credited with Music Supervision, Music Direction and Additional Arrangements.

Danny Burstein, Joy Woods, and
Audra McDonald in Gypsy.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

McDonald has decided not to use Rose’s charm as Bette Midler did in the TV-movie version (and as Linda Lavin did as Daly’s replacement). She is a fighter who will cut the arm off of anyone that crosses her, even her beloved boyfriend-manager Herbie (Danny Burstein in a sterling supporting performance). Casting the keepers of the backstage keys with white actors (Andrew Kober and James McMenamin are marvelously sleazy in multiple roles) adds a subtle touch of racism to Rose’s battles. (There are also several other unspoken ironic comments in Loquasto’s set such as faded billboards proclaiming prosperity and dreams coming true in Depression-era America.) When she has won all the struggles and her child is a star, McDonald unravels spectacularly in a “Rose’s Turn” for the ages, climaxing a devastating performance.

Mylinda Hull, Joy Woods, Lesli Margherita,
and Lili Thomas in Gypsy.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Although McDonald is unquestionably the raison d’être of this production, she is surrounded by a sterling cast. Danny Burstein finds depths in the seemingly subservient Herbie. Joy Woods beautifully details Louise’s journey from awkward, ignored child to self-assured diva. Jordan Tyson conveys June’s suppressed anger at caving in to her mother’s constant demands. Lesli Margherita, Lili Thomas, and Mylinda Hull are brassy and sassy as the three strippers who teach a willing Louise the tricks of their trade. At the performance attended, Marley Lianne Gomes was a dazzling delight as Baby June and Summer Rae Daney gave dramatic life to Baby Louise. 

Everything is indeed coming up roses for the best Gypsy and the best musical revival in years.   

Opened Dec. 19 for an open run. Majestic Theater, 245 W. 44th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 55 mins. including intermission. telecharge.com.