Gypsy at the Majestic Theatre

After seeing Audra McDonald as Rose in “Gypsy“, now at the Majestic Theatre, my companion mentioned that he didn’t see me take any notes.

“It’s too big for notes,” I said.

He concurred.

The element that is too big is, of course, Audra McDonald.

McDonald is the first in-person Rose I have seen (other than the summer stock production at UCONN back in the day in which I played Tessie Tura), and I have to say I was astonished at what a beast of a show this is.  Two hours and 45 minutes of pure locomotive energy aimed at one place: The Spotlight.  And the billing and salary to match.  Do not get in Rose’s way if you value your life or limbs.  She stops for no one.  Not her fiancé and certainly not her children, who we learn are interchangeable.

When we first meet Rose, she is a mid-stride in bossing Uncle Jocko (Jacob Ming Trent), the host of a kiddie shoe in Seattle, around to suit her daughter Baby June better (Jade Smith as the younger at our performance and Jordan Tyson the older) voice and talent.  Neither of these amounts to much more than annoying, but to Rose, they are monumental.  While pushing her daughters June and, by association, Louise (Summer Rae Daney as the younger at our performance and Joy Woods as the older) along the track, she stumbles upon Herbie (Danny Burstein), a shy candy salesman looking for someone to love and provide for.  While Rose has little interest in being provided for, other than legit bookings for her girls, she steps into Herbie’s life and brings him into hers.

Soon, we are looking at an older teenage cast of June’s act (through clever staging), featuring Baby June, Louise, and some talented young men who can dance their socks off. They all climb and fall repeatedly until the troupe collapses because they see the death of vaudeville written on the walls. Rose does not.

Rose never takes off her blinders.  Instead, she switches horses to focus on her daughter Louise, who will become the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, noted more for what she didn’t reveal than what she did.  However, success and fame have their price as Rose loses her role in her daughter’s life and discovers herself an orphan with no one beside her.

As I said, the center of this storm is McDonald’s.  She is the locomotive that pulls this show along.  She is so much the center that everything else, including the cast members, pretty much pales in comparison.  Danny Burstein is a standout all around.  Herbie’s devotion to Rose is so deep that you can feel your heartbreak when it shatters.  Another gorgeous moment is “All I Need Is The Girl,” performed nearly solo by one of the young men in the troupe, Tulsa (Kevin Csolak).  Camille A. Brown created a stunning soft shoe solo to intermingle with the song, and the combination is so brilliant it nearly stops the show.

What does stop the show is McDonald’s “Rose’s Turn.”  This is where you realize that “Gypsy” is, at its core, a classic tale.  It is King Lear meets MacBeth.  We could not ask for a better tragic hero or interpreter of Rose’s descent into a lonely madness as the walls close in and the blinders have been removed.  A few of us (myself included) started whooping before the number was over (much to the chagrin of my guest), but we couldn’t help it.  McDonald’s specificity and willingness to let Rose pull out all the stops and tumble into her disarray is nothing less than miraculous.

This Rose doesn’t travel alone.  She takes us into the dungeon of her passionate loneliness and drags us with her when she pulls herself back into the light out of sheer force of will – just like she has done everything else.

A nod to the score (Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim).  It is astonishing how many of the songs have stood on their own and become part of the Great American Songbook: “Some People,” “Small World,” “You’ll Never Get Away From Me,” and “All I Need Is The Girl.”  And that’s just the first act.

Let me be clear – these actors all give 100%.  They are a HUGE gorgeous ensemble.  However, the gulf between McDonald’s and McDonald’s is wide and constant throughout.

And not for nothing, but in summer stock, we came up with a way for Tessie Tura’s butterfly to flap its wings, one at a time and on cue.  No one figured that out here.  More’s the pity.  Somebody shoulda called me.

Just sayin’.

PS: The conductor, Andy Einhorn, is never seen by the audience except those who turn to find the video flatscreens mounted on the mezzanine rail. Well, this guy wears a tux jacket and a bowtie and conducts like he is partly left. He is quite excellent.

GYPSY is suggested by the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee. Directed by George C. Wolfe.  Book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, choreography by Camille A. Brown

Scenic design by Santo Loquasto, costume design by Toni-Leslie James, lighting design by Jules Fisher + Peggy Eisenhauer, sound design by Scott Lehrer, hair and wig design by Mia Neal, makeup design by Michael Clifton.

WITH Audra McDonald, Danny Burstein, Joy Woods, Jordan Tyson, Kevin Csolak, Lesli Margherita, Lili Thomas, Mylinda Hull, Jacob Ming-Trent, Kyleigh Denae Vickers, Marley Lianne Gomes, Jade Smith, Natalie Wachen, Tryphena Wade, Shanel Bailey, Jace Bently, Brandon Burks, Hunter Capellán, Tony d’Alelio, Summer Rae Daney, Kellie Jean Hoagland, Sasha Hutchings, Aliah James, Brittney Johnson, Zachary Daniel Jones, Ethan Joseph, Andrew Kober, Krystal Mackie, James McMenamin, Cole Newburg, Joe Osheroff, Majo Rivero, Ken Robinson, Sally Shaw, Thomas Silcott, Brendan Sheehan, Jayden Theophile, Jordan Wynn and Iain Young.

Gypsy at the Majestic Theatre

Shubert Organization
234 West 44th St
New York, NY 10036
For Tickets, click HERE.