Patti LuPone drives a superb Broadway revival of musical 'Gypsy'
NEW YORK - The drive and determination are still there - only more so.
Patti LuPone gave a virtuosic display of both in last summer's thrilling City Center revival of "Gypsy," the enduring show-biz saga of the world's quintessential stage mother.
Now that production, decked out with a bit more scenery, has made its way to Broadway's St. James Theatre, where LuPone continues to be a major source of theatrical electricity. Heck, she probably could light all of Manhattan.
The role of Rose is a perfect fit for LuPone, a performer of unstinting energy and inventiveness. It is wondrous to see what she has done to deepen her portrait of a woman desperate for recognition but who channels that desire through her daughters - first, June, and then Louise, who will grow up to become the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.
Of course, LuPone is blessed with superb material, possibly the best musical of Broadway's Golden Age, the two decades after World War II. The brash, tough-minded score by Jule Styne (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) is rich in character and atmosphere.
Most indelibly, there is character in the big numbers for Rose that close each of the show's two acts. In the first, "Everything's Coming Up Roses," Rose's coarse, indomitable spirit is on display; in the second, "Rose's Turn," her anger boils over into high-octane rage as she realizes show business and her daughter have escaped her grasp.
LuPone tears into both songs, particularly "Rose's Turn," which director Arthur Laurents has directed as if the disappointed Rose is unleashing all her furies in one blazing musical moment.
But then, Laurents also wrote the book for the show, which is based on Lee's memoirs. And what is particularly exciting about this revival is the care with which those book scenes are played. Rarely, in musicals, do you see people of such depth and complexity.
"Gypsy" may be emotional, but it is not sentimental. Still, Laurents laces the tale with humour and heart, most emphatically in the blossoming of Louise, whose ugly duckling transformation into a young woman of assurance is beautifully handled by Laura Benanti.
The relationship between Rose and Herbie, the even-tempered candy salesman, benefits from the obvious rapport between LuPone and the marvellous Boyd Gaines. They elevate the couple's romance into a major component of the story, not just a sideline before Rose and her daughter have their major faceoff.
Laurents has cast "Gypsy" with care all the way down the line. Leigh Ann Larkin's June, the favourite sister, also gets a moment to shine in her duet with Benanti, "If Momma Was Married." And has there ever been a more full-proof show stopper than "You Gotta Get a Gimmick," the number in which three strippers teach Louise about the fine art of disrobing in public? As played by Alison Fraser, Marilyn Caskey and Lenora Nemetz, these ladies earn their thunderous applause.
Jerome Robbins' original choreography has been lovingly recreated by Bonnie Walker, a "Gypsy" veteran. It runs the gamut from the hilarious vaudeville numbers for Baby June and her coterie of newsboys and farm boys to the meltingly romantic "All I Need Is the Girl."
That number, in particular, shows Robbins at his most theatrical. As Tulsa (played with genial good-guy appeal by Tony Yazbeck) demonstrates the dance he hopes will get him out of vaudeville, the love-smitten Louise follows every turn - behind his back.
"Gypsy" has been a regular visitor to Broadway in the nearly 50 years since it first opened there in 1959 with Ethel Merman as Rose. Actresses as different and distinct as Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Linda Lavin and Bernadette Peters have taken on the role. LuPone is a more-than-worthy successor, doing glorious and equal justice to both story and song.
One last note about the score, which is played by an on-stage orchestra that periodically comes into view. Right from the start, some two dozen musicians, expertly conducted by Patrick Vaccariello, do full justice to Styne's extraordinary music. Listen to the show's exciting overture and you cannot help being elated.
The joy does not stop until the final curtain comes down.