Our Broadway Theatre Orgy in September: Gypsy


A story of four shows in three days, and the people whose butts hurt after seeing them

Day #2: Saturday September 13th
Show: Gypsy
The Hype before the Show: It's all about Bernadette...my idol, and the performer of perhaps the single greatest performance I have ever seen on TV: her rendition of "Rose's Turn" on the Tony Awards telecast. I had heard bad things about the show from peeople having seen it in previews. And I'm not a huge fan of the show itself. I saw the famed revival in the 80's with Tyne Daly (who won the Tony by the way) and was left pretty cold. But then it got pretty stellar reviews after opening. I had to see whether Bernadette was robbed of a Tony or not!

Review:

The upside: Like I said, not my favorite show. Never understood the whole "one of the greatest American musicals" and "one of the best women roles ever" hype. This show actually made a fairly strong case for the show.

It seemed much richer to me; I was more interested in more of the characters.

The Herbie (John Dossett) is the FIRST Herbie I've ever seen that seemed like a real guy, with some character. He's usually just this guy that you start despising for being so whipped. This guy had some sex appeal going on.

The Dainty June, also usually a pretty one-dimensional character, was also more interesting in this production than any I've seen. Having read recently about the real June Havoc, and how cheated she felt by how the show 'Gypsy' portrayed her, it was nice to see the character portrayed with a little more oomph.

The orchestra was unbelievable. The Overture alone was almost worth the price of admission (except now broadway costs $100, so not really.)

And, yes, there was Bernadette. My expectations were huge, especially after her thrilling 'Rose's Turn on the Tony's. And she did not disappoint me.

Yes, her voice was not the clarion pure instrument from 'Sunday in the Park' days. This was her 8th show of the week, and she sounded tight and tired vocally. But given that she's playing a middle-aged, hard scrabbling survivor of a woman, I wasn't bothered by it. Interestingly Chris, who has never seen her live before and doesn't have a memory full of other tremendous Bernadette vocal performances, really didn't even notice vocal issues.

But if all you care about is hearing a loud brassy rendition of the Mama Rose canon, go see a Merman impersonator. This was an acting tour de force, and i've always preferred actors who can sing to singers who can say lines.

She brought so many layers to this role. You saw more than a ball-busting, steam-rolling stage-mother monster. She had different methods to manipulate those around her, not all just by sheer force of will. You believed that she and Herbie had a hot sexual relationship. You believed that she believed she loved her kids and was doing it FOR them...until the end when she comes to searing self-realizations.

When one of the strippers says 'she could have been a great stripper' you BELIEVE it. When Louise tells her at the end that she could have been great...you BELIEVE it. Any of that stuff about unrealized dreams becomes TRAGIC, not PATHETIC when you believe she could have been a star. That's why this is a great tragic role...because of the missed chances for redemption, not because of pathetic self-delusion.

Her performance of 'Roses Turn' literally stopped the show and received a mini-standing ovation. I believe it is probably the longest mid-show ovation I've ever seen a performer receive.

It was a very visceral experience. I was literally shaking after the show for quite some time because I was so excited.

And we all (Chris, Laura and I) agreed that a) we never had to see 'Gypsy' again...because we could never replicate the experience and b) it was crazy to recommend the show to others with the strong praise I've just dished out, because it was hard to believe that same experience could be recreated every night.)

The downside:

Well, you know I'm picky, so there were things I didn't like about the production.

Tammy Blanchard is not an experienced stage actress, and it shows. She barely made an impression until the last couple of scenes. And frankly her voice is a bit thin. She does pull off the adult Louise stuff pretty well...being strong not just bitchy. (And I liked that they cut the moment where Louise slaps Rose and had her throw a chair instead...the slap always has seemed wrong to me.) But all in all, this is stunt casting...which you'll read more about in my review of 'Nine'

I wasn't so excited by the strippers either. I've seen that number done better, that's all.

Buy the Soundtrack at Amazon

Posted: Fri - October 3, 2003 at 06:13 PM       EmailFeedback

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