You either got it, or you ain’t
and Audra’s got it!
Every legendary performer brings their own set of talents and skills to the parts they play. Rose, in Gypsy, is a major challenge. Not solely due to the demands of the role, but also to the parade of musical comedy legends and lesser stars who have trod the boards in Rose’s slippers. So let’s preface our discussion of George C. Wolfe’s new production of the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents masterwork with the word:
Yes!
When Rose was written to order for Ethel Merman in 1959, the goal was to give the star a score she could sing in her distinctive clarion manner while hoping that she could navigate the acting demands. Which she did, more suitably than could have been expected from other musical comedy leading ladies of the day (Mary Martin, Gwen Verdon, Julie Andrews, Judy Holliday). Revivals have featured the likes of Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Imelda Staunton and more, plus screen renditions by Rosalind Russell and Bette Midler.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
And now there’s Audra McDonald, who came out of Juilliard in 1994 and immediately astounded Broadway with her performance as Carrie in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Carousel. Color-blind casting was still controversial, but as soon as Audra launched into “Mister Snow” she won the audience and a quick Tony Award as well.
But it was the following year, in Terrence McNally’s drama Master Class, that the extent of her talent was revealed. Standing toe-to-toe with Zoe Caldwell, one of the most potently powerful stage performers of the time, McDonald was more than able to hold the stage—complete with a bravura performance of the letter aria from Verdi’s Macbeth. (She was playing a conservatory soprano, opposite Caldwell’s rendition of a non-singing Maria Callas.) Two years, two remarkable performances, two Tonys in two different acting categories. And McDonald was still only 25.
Her career has shifted from musical to drama to television to film to concert hall, to the extent that we can only sit back and marvel at whatever challenge she chooses to undertake. The point being that McDonald is not a singer who acts, nor an actor who sings; she is actor and singer and artist. That combination is at the heart of her exceptional performance in director Wolfe’s production of Gypsy at the resplendently reappointed Majestic.
Yes, this is a somewhat different rendition of Rose. McDonald sings the songs, sure, but she places equal emphasis on the acting demands of the piece. This can be seen from the very beginning. “Some People” is typically delivered like a cannon shot, which is how McDonald starts and ends the song. But during the extended interlude—the first hearing of that recurring “I had a dream” theme—she turns away from the audience, ignoring us while she attempts to fast-talk her father out of the 88 bucks she needs to get “some new orchestrations, new routines and red velvet curtains.” Later, in her scenes with the agent Herbie, we very clearly see that these two have a vibrant physical relationship off-stage when the children aren’t watching. Which is not explicit in the dialogue, and has not necessarily been apparent with other Roses.
The acting understandably influences her delivery of the two barnburners. She doesn’t just stand up and launch “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” She starts subsumed by the sudden desertion of her favored child, who has just fled (“thanks a lot, and out with the garbage”). We watch as she struggles to visualize, before our eyes, a new dream on the shoulders of her ugly duckling daughter. So no, the song doesn’t immediately take off like a house on fire, or like the imperishable show-biz anthem it has become. McDonald’s Rose first has to conjure up this dream before she truly believes that Louise can do it: “Momma is gonna see to it!,” she spits through gritted teeth.
This similarly applies to “Rose’s Turn”; it’s not just Ethel or Angela standing up there and hand-delivering this supremely masterful soliloquy in song. Audra lives it, and feels it, while she sings it. If the emphasis, the phrasing, the timing is not precisely what we’re used to, that’s not a detriment. This is Audra’s Rose, and altogether thrilling.
Supporting her every step of the way is Danny Burstein as Herbie, protecting her from the harsh realities of a diminishing world (as 1920s vaudeville underwent its final gasp); and at the same time protecting everyone else from the excesses of Rose herself. The role is underwritten—the originator of the part could not sing—but the masterful Burstein is ever-present and in control until Herbie inevitably walks out.
The third cog in the Gypsy triumvirate is not so successfully rendered. Louise (Joy Woods, from The Notebook) has always been a difficult role to maneuver. (Laura Benanti, Broadway’s most recent Gypsy, figured it out; but Benanti is a unique talent in her own right.) Louise spends the first act in the shadow of her flamboyant baby-blonde sister until that key moment—during the “All I Need Is the Girl” number—in which we first see her dream of stepping out from her overpowering sister’s shadow.
But choreographer Camille A. Brown all but overlooks the moment, which might be part of the reason this Louise doesn’t ever quite emerge. Inevitably, the time must come when “original” choreography might need be retired; for the first time in memory, Jerome Robbins’s name is omitted from the credits. But that doesn’t mean you should blithely alter the dramatic narrative of the dance. The second act transformation of the title character is unconvincing as well. Woods’ Louise seems less like Gypsy Rose Lee at Minsky’s than Josephine Baker at the Folies. And that’s a different musical.
Lesli Margherita is especially good as Tessie Tura, the central member of the “Gotta Get a Gimmick” trio. (Every Tessie Tura we’ve ever seen has been especially good, so perhaps some credit is due the writers?) She is matched by the Mazeppa of Lili Thomas, who demonstrates a mightily impressive embouchure; and by Mylinda Hull as a wryly non-electrifying Electra while doubling as a very funny executive secretary.
Wolfe’s production captures the proper Gypsy flavor. No overwhelming Broadway-style scenery here; instead, we get sets by Santo Loquasto and costumes by Toni-Leslie James flavored with the faded dinginess of the final days of vaudeville. Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, longtime collaborators of director Wolfe, provide the evocative lighting.
Andy Einhorn is in the pit, leading a rousingly good 25-piece band through the ever-vibrant orchestrations by Sid Ramin and Robert Ginzler with updates, as required, from Daryl Waters of Shuffle Along. For those curious about such things, let us point out that the unfamiliar introduction to the song “Small World” (“Here I been, looking for a suitcase…”) is authentic: it was cut during the 1959 Philadelphia tryout, in conjunction with a scenery mishap. Not an overwhelmingly dynamic discovery, perhaps, but illustrative of how Styne and Sondheim took Rose and Herbie from dialogue to song.
If there are minor lapses around the fringes of this production, no matter. First and foremost, this is Audra’s Gypsy. Audra is magnificent, everything’s coming up roses.
Gypsy opened December 19, 2024 at the Majestic Theatre. Tickets and information: gypsybway.com
