GYPSY 2024 by armen pandola

There’s a new Gypsy on Broadway, with a stripped down set and a spruced up emotional kick.

Gypsy has been one of my favorite musicals since I first saw the 1963 film starring Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood. I have seen most of its revivals on Broadway, my favorite being the Patti Lupone revival directed by its book writer Arthur Laruents.

This Gypsy has a predominantly Black cast, but there is no reference to the race of the cast - and no real changes in the script. Open casting is a great idea and there is no reason why any of the characters have to be a particular race.

The set is very spare, with flying flats that suggest more than present a location. 

The costumes, likewise, are spare, with coats and dresses made from curtain-like cloth - of course, Rose comments on how certain drapes would make nice coats.

The emphasis on this Gypsy is on family. While Audra McDonald plays the uber-stage mother, she does so with an emphasis on being a mother. Danny Burstein and she have a real relationship, even with hints of a close physical attraction - they have real chemistry. Joy Woods as Louise/Gypsy makes an effortless transition from gawky child to burlesque diva. Jordan Tyson is an effervescent June.

The real star of the show is the music. Jule Styne has commented on how working with Stephen Sondheim was the delight of his career. Working with a partner who was as knowledgeable as he was about music forms, Styne said that Sondheim always knew exactly what he was trying to do with a song and always shaped the lyric perfectly to his music.

The beginning is a little rocky. McDonald's voice is ill suited to B'way tunes of the type in Gypsy and it shows in the classic anti-home-is-where-the-heart-is powerhouse, Some People. It's done here a little too slow, a little too from the head and not the heart. It doesn't ever hit the high point of 'well they can stay and rot, but not Rose!' It loses that exclamation point.

The Rose - Herbie duets are enhanced by the relationship built up between them in this version. Small World and You'll Never get Away From Me are done as well as they have ever been done. Together is better performed than I have ever seen.

Once again, another song, Have an Eggroll Mr. Goldstone , that calls for mayhem is a little too precise -it should be like the Kentucky Derby in sport - the most exciting two minutes in theater. It's OK, just not that exciting.

The bits with the kids and all that vaudeville stuff is done very well. But with If Mama Were Married, we are back again in problem territory - the song has to be as funny as it is smart and these lyrics are as smart as any:

Momma, we'll buy you the rice

If only this once

You wouldn't think twice

It could be so nice

If Momma got married to stay.

But Momma gets married

And...

Married

And...

Married

And never gets carried away

This Gypsy’s ode to burlesque, You Gotta Get a Gimmick , is both hot and funny. I have never seen a production of Gypsy in which this showstopper doesn't stop the show. Lesli Margherita , Lili Thomas and Mylinga Hull pull out all the stops. It's funny, it's sad ('Take a look how different we are') and mostly it's great theater.

And now we come to the two BIG closings, Gypsy's and Rose's.

For Let Me Entertain You, Gypsy starts with the usual shy dance that any 10 year old could perform. Then, this production inserts a Josephine Baker-like erotic Garden of Eve scene with male dancers who have less on than Gypsy. It works.

Rose's Turn is more problematic. McDonald has played the role more motherly than any other Rose I have seen which is all good. But transferring from Lady Madonna to Lady Godiva during the course of one song  is a bit of a problem, especially with her operatic chops. She has to say a lot of the big emotional lines in the song because she can't sing them in her own style. It's powerful but I sense that McDonald is not close to reaching her peak and finding her way to do that turn as her own. It will be interesting to see how it evolves over what I assume will be a long run. 

So I would suggest seeing this show a few months from now - I’m sure it will still be playing.

All in all, it is VERY worth seeing in-spite of my reservations. George C. Wolfe does an excellent job in creating a Gypsy that is unique.