Gypsy(5) in My Soul

Gypsy is one of the all-time great musicals and I’m not the only one who thinks so. It is perfectly structured, with wonderful music and clever lyrics and has a starring role for a woman-of-a-certain-age with the once-in-a-career opportunity to blow away audiences. When Patti LuPone was announced as the next Mama Rose I groaned. Love the musical; not a fan of LuPone’s…what to do, what to do? So I did nothing, planning on letting it slide past me into the night since it’s a special run of only 20-odd performances under the Summer Encores umbrella and it would soon disappear, unlamented by me, no regrets. But circumstance interfered with a ticket offer not refused.

As most of my half-vast circle of friends and family know I have seen every Broadway production of Gypsy…starting with Ethel Merman and continuing through Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters. Everybody always asks who I thought was the best and the answer has always been: Angela. After seeing the current production the answer remains the same. However…

…and this is a BIG “however” for me; Ms. LuPone, after a shaky first act, brought home the bacon in the second. But I think she got lucky because this production has a supporting cast to die for: Laura Benanti as Gypsy; Leigh Ann Larkin as June; Boyd Gaines as Herbie, Tony Yazbeck as Tulsa and the show-stopping trio of “ecdysiasts,” Marilyn Casky, Alison Fraser and Nancy Opel. Where Ms. LuPone faltered they were so solid it didn’t matter. I think my personal attitude towards this actress is based on the fact that every time I’ve seen her on stage it feels like she’s going to go flying out of control and hurt herself vocally, physically or emotionally (or some combination of the three) and that makes me uncomfortable. And she has personal tics and moves (not enough to count as shtick, maybe, but that’s my own evaluation…are there levels of shtick?) that have become so much a part of her stage persona it is difficult (for me) to blend them into the characters she plays. Somehow she let all of that go in her big finish, the “Rose’s Turn,” climax, which I was afraid would send her over the edge, but she controlled her instinct-to-mug convincingly.

One staging choice I have never seen that I want to mention here is at the end of that finale and when we, the audience, give her the ovation she deserves, she uses our applause to take a few bows but she does it in a way, in character, that conveyed the fact she was not acknowledging our appreciation but was, instead, bowing to the imaginary ovation in her head. It was a brilliant moment; done brilliantly. So I have to say Bravo, Patti…I didn’t think you had it in you to play Mama Rose, but you do.

But still, see my preference above, Ms. Lansbury wrecked me in that same number those many years ago; so much so that it seemed like my tear ducts tapped into some other source of liquid supplemental to the normal amount stored behind my nose. So, Angela still takes my first prize for Mama Rose. But, hey, Patti…good show!

Okay now, who’s next!