GYPSY

Theater opinion

Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Arthur Laurents
Suggested by the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee

Directed by Arthur Laurents
Original choreography by Jerome Robbins, recreated by Bonnie Walker
Music Directed by Vaccariello
With Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, Boyd Gaines, Leigh Ann Larkin, Tony Yazbeck, Alison Fraser, Lenora Nemetz, Marilyn Caskey

At the St. James Theatre, New York City.

A funny thing happened on the way to the masterpiece. With the latest revival of Gypsy taking three out of the four acting awards at 2008 Tony Awards, including a Best Actress win for star Patti LuPone, I was prepared to take in what is widely hailed as the definitive production of what some consider the best musical of all-time. Right upfront, I will say that I am a big Patti LuPone fan and I rank Gypsy among my Top Ten favorite musicals. Furthermore, I saw the much-criticized 2003 revival starring Bernadette Peters and directed by Sam Mendes, and I loved it. For better or for worse, I had difficulty not comparing this current production to that recent revival, but having read many reviews, it seems that most professional critics couldn’t keep from making comparisons either. That being said, I disagreed with most of the critics in 2003, and I disagree with most of the critics in 2008.

In short, I preferred Bernadette Peters to Patti LuPone, I thought the supporting actors were better in the 2003 company than the current one, and I felt that Sam Mendes did a far better job of directing than Arthur Laurents did.

To be clear, Patti LuPone was terrific, a fine Mama Rose, doing the belting and chewing the scenery as everyone expected her to do. But that’s the thing: Ms. LuPone played Mama Rose exactly as expected, with few surprises save a handful of strong, different but ultimately distracting choices when singing her songs. I missed the coyness and vulnerability of Ms. Peters’ Mama. For Ms. LuPone, Mama’s breakdown happens in “Rose’s Turn,” the tour de force closing number, but the break doesn’t feel earned; instead, it feels that Mama breaks down at that point because that’s where “Rose’s Turn” arrives in the script. In 2003, Mama Rose’s true break happened earlier in the show, when she volunteers her daughter Louise to take the place of a stripper in the burlesque show. I remember the audible gasp in the audience when Ms. Peters did that, her face open to the audience, the others (especially Louise) arranged beautifully to react to this mother essentially prostituting her daughter. Louise somehow rises from this debasing low-point to achieve stardom, on her own terms, and this is what begins Mama Rose’s downward spiral, so that “Rose’s Turn” is the rock-bottom of a slow, agonizing descent of recognizing that she was wrong all along. And Ms. Peters broke your heart when she sang it because you felt that yes, Rose could have been somebody -- maybe -- had she had someone like her to encourage and nurture her. In 2008, Mama’s self pity feels unearned, though you do feel bad for her because her daughters are so nasty to her.

Laura Benanti won a Tony for playing Louise in this production. Tammy Blanchard did not win a Tony for playing Louise in the 2003 production. Those facts should be switched around. Ms. Benanti does have a few touching moments, most notably in “Little Lamb,” a poignant song that communicates everything the audience needs to know about Louise’s childhood. But her transformation from fragile child to queen of burlesque is not believable, mainly because Ms. Benanti plays awkward as stilted and buffoonish. The story requires Rose to transform into Gypsy Rose Lee over the course of a series of “Let Me Entertain You” numbers, a fault in the book, in my opinion. Tammy Blanchard managed to pull it off in 2003, though, because her Louise when from gawky to graceful, innocent to risque. You felt that she could break, emotionally and physically, at any moment. In 2008, Laura Benanti’s Louise goes from dorky to bitchy, sheepish to angry. By the time Benanti’s Louise screams at Mama near the end of the show, I felt only that I was watching a Tony winner “play angry” in a way that they could see way up in the balcony.

I had other problems with this production. Boyd Gaines also won a Tony for his Herbie, but he didn’t much register for me. The Junes, Dainty (Leigh Ann Larkin) and Baby (Sami Gayle), gave downright poor performances. Baby June must have been directed to give grotesque smiles, and maybe they looked cute from way up there, but from up front they were disturbing. And grown-up June just pissed me off with her cruelty to Louise, her strange voice modulations, and unprofessional breaking character. Tulsa (Tony Yazbek) danced well, but as my esteemed colleague [name removed to protect his anonymity] noted, he looked way too old and “he played Tulsa like he was retarded.” Also, I felt that I had seen Tulsa’s dance before because, well, I had, in every single professional production of Gypsy. “Original choreography by Jerome Robbins” is a phrase I have come to loathe, though I suppose one can argue that choreography is as much a part of constructing a musical story as the book, music and lyrics are. But for the love of God, Jerome Robbins Estate, please relent and let some other choreographer take a crack at interpreting the works that the man directed and choreographed!

"You Gotta Have a Gimmick" is a can't-miss number, and it didn't miss in this production. In fact, Tessie Tura (Alison Fraser), Mazeppa (Lenora Nemetz), and Electra (Marilyn Caskey) were, besides Patti LuPone, the best part of the show. Ms. Fraser did go through about ten accents, from Bronx to Irish to Grizabella the Slut Cat, but I didn't care too much. Ms. Caskey's Electra was my favorite because she played the character as if she'd been shocked by her electric suit more than once. The way she stiffly moved and stared at the audience, ozone-eyed, was hilarious. The set was alright. I liked how everything looked very, very cheap, including the curtains and costumes. The large orchestra was placed on the stage behind a scrim, perhaps because this is a tradition for productions transferred from Encores at City Center. It didn’t work, especially when Mama makes multiple references to the conductor in front of the stage, directing her instructions instead to the front row of the house.

So, I was very disappointed, but I can’t say that Gypsy was a bad production. The show, especially that terrific score, is just to strong to fail that easily. It is indeed worth seeing for Patti LuPone’s performance. She doesn’t let you down when she belts out “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “Rose’s Turn.” But Mr. Laurents needs to get back to work and freshen up these performances, or perhaps let an assistant director take a crack at it. Mr. Laurents will soon be directing a long-overdue revival of West Side Story, "with original choreography by Jerome Robbins." (Hear my plea, Jerome Robbins Estate!) One twist is that Mr. Laurents wants the Sharks and their girls to speak and sing in “some” Spanish. (I would love to hear Mr. Laurents talking Stephen Sondheim into revisiting his lyrics in Spanish translation.) I hope that Mr. Laurents devotes himself to updating that script and decides to let someone else tackle directing responsibilities. His fine writing work deserves a strong director to truly make it come alive.

GRADE: C