For me, Gypsy is to musicals what Macbeth is to Shakespeares. I've seen it so often that I am somewhat inured to its genius. I've seen the movie version, the tv version, a high school production (in which my sister was the balloon girl), the Tyne Daly production, and a couple of independent productions. But when Patti LuPone brought her Mama Rose to the Encores series, everyone said she was fabulous and definitive. I lamented that I could not get to New York to see her. Then lo! The production came back to Broadway, and opened just in time for my current business trip to Manhattan. I snapped up an orchestra ticket and prepared myself for greatness.
The lights went down at the St. James Theater, and the orchestra started the overture behind a scrim. This seemed to urge the sold-out house to talk even more loudly about their dinners and their hotels. (The absence of overtures from new musicals will kill the genre, I swear.) But then something magical happened: the trumpet came in, and everybody shut up. They sat rapt, as if they'd never heard a bawdy little tune like that before. (And from the conversation going on behind me -- "So what is this play about, anyway?" -- they had not.) The overture ended, the audience went wild. My expectations were shining like the top of the Chrysler Building. Oops, wrong musical.
I have to be honest and say that the first 45 minutes of Act I were flat. Of course, when Patti Lupone comes storming down the aisle toward Baby June, everyone goes wild again. She freezes her pose on stage for what seemed like 2 minutes. But "Some People" did not thrill me - the pace was lugubrious, the big notes not so big. I worried that Patti was ill. No one around me seemed to notice. Then - God help us -- Baby June has to cover some major set and costume changes. I laughed the third time she came out with her high kick; I checked my watch the sixth time. (Though props to her for dancing on point!) Boyd Gaines seemed a little hammy in his lust for Rose during his first scene, but at least it made clear the sexual attraction that keeps him hanging around.
But then Louise grows up, and is played by the marvelous Laura Benanti, and things definitely look up. From "Little Lamb" (yes, I said "Little Lamb") through "If Mamma Was Married" and "All I Need Is the Girl," we see a vulnerable, yearning, frightened, desperate young woman. And then Patti comes on with fire for "Everything's Coming Up Roses," giving us our first glimpse of her madness as she maniacally shreds June's letter and bangs on the scenery. It is a song about a mother's vengeance, and it scares the hell out of you. Act I ends, and insane applause ensues as Louise and Herbie cower upstage.
Act II was perfect. I can't imagine it being better. Loved “Together Wherever We Go.” “Gotta Get a Gimmick” was sublime, with the ingenious idea that Electra is an ancient stripper who can barely move, so she relies on her lights. I laughed so hard I cried. And Alison Fraser as Tessie Tura was a delight. Gypsy's big striptease sequence was credible and fresh, despite the fusty old jokes. And then -- get some Heinz 57 for the scenery -- "Rose's Turn." After a chilling dressing room scene, where you see the mother in the daughter, Patti comes back on. Oh. My. God. It's an interpretation for the ages. Raw. Lewd. Vicious. Sad. I had goosebumps and tears. And then, she goes and breaks down when Gypsy tells her that all she wanted was to be noticed. It was wrenching and honest and thrilling. My hands still hurt from applauding.
I am so gay.