Patti LuPone makes theatre history in the quintessential American musical. Curtain up! Light the lights! Be there as Broadway’s leading lady takes on Broadway's greatest role in this new production staged by the show’s author himself: theatre legend Arthur Laurents. These two mega-talents join forces, and everything’s coming up roses as Broadway’s powerhouse performer takes on the role she was born to play. Visit show website
Where there are steps either into or within the theatre, theatre is unable to provide assistance.
Orchestra: There are no steps to the designated wheelchair seating location on the Orchestra level. Mezzanine: Located on the 2nd level, up 29 steps. There are an additional 49 steps up to the remainder of the Mezzanine.
Entrance to Mezzanine is behind row E.
Balcony: Located on the 3rd level, up 77 steps from the Orchestra.
On the Mezzanine or Balcony level, there are approximately 2 steps up/down per row.
Wheelchair accessible restroom (unisex) located on the main level
Restroom: Main level. Ladies' restroom located on the lower level, Mezzanine and Balcony levels.
Men's restroom located on the lower level and Balcony. Water Fountain: Located in the lower level and Rear Mezzanine.
Subway
N, Q, R, W or 1, 2, 3, 7, 9 to 42nd St / Times Square, north on Broadway to 44th St and west to the theatre.
A, C, E to 42nd St, north on 8th Ave to 44th St and east to the theatre.
Gypsy is Musical Comedy's female Hamlet. Every diva known to man wants to do that role and the problem is every diva does. Though a part time fan of Patti Lupone, I came to this most recent incarnation of the penultimate showbiz mom with much trepidation. I can report that Ms. Lupone and the production are not a catastrophe but they're not a triumph either. Book-writer Arthur Laurents has chosen to direct his work again, this time with a darker, meaner tone - a kind of Hamlet if you will. The result tends to compartmentalize the work as a whole instead of letting it flow and it certainly lengthens the first act. Scenes and numbers become set pieces so that even in that magical moment of age transformation in "Baby June and Her Newsboys" the magic fizzles. Too early we see the greedy desperation and unhappiness of Rose and her brood - so much so that June almost becomes psychopathically homicidal during "If Momma Was Married" and Louise appears passive-aggressively retarded (and I'm not sure that's the tactic I would take had I been given a Lambchop to sing to instead of a lamb).
As for Ms. Lupone I have problems as well as accolades. As Rose, she wears her ambitions on her sleeve and her collar and her bosom and her shoes and stockings and her hat and her… well you name it. It's there for all to see which is fine, and that Mama Rose is a steam roller is not in question. But there are steamrollers and then there are fire-spitting tanks that move at the speed of sound. Thus there is an element of Ms. Lupone rushing to get to the two show-stopping numbers and destroying everything else in her path to get there. She barely has time for the other great songs of Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim. "Some People", "Small World", "You'll Never Get Away From Me", "Have an Eggroll, Mr. Goldstone" zip by with mashed lyrics and a voice that is being saved. Does she deliver the goods with "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Rose's Turn"? Absolutely. They're what the crowds came to see after all and I also was taken in by them but as different kinds of show-stoppers. I left the theatre thinking how moved I might have been had Ms. Lupone actually thought about the construction of this musical masterpiece and how and why those two songs stop the show. It's not as if she didn't have anyone to play off of. Boyd Gaines makes Herbie a solid, good-looking, three-dimensional guy. You can see at once why Rose would be attracted to him and want to hold onto him. And you can actually feel the sacrifice he's making when he splits. Once Laura Benanti shakes off the "poor me" dimwittedness of Act I (it's amazing what ¾ length gloves can do for a girl), Louise's genealogy on her mother's side rears up to create an estimable and, like Mama Rose herself, sexy adversary. Ms. Lupone finally, if belatedly, engages with these two actors only because they give her no choice.
The rest of the performers are fine. Tony Yazbeck does a lovely job with Tulsa and Alison Fraser, Marilyn Caskey and Lenora Nemetz as that inimitable stripping trio pull it off beautifully. As for the production, Jerome Robbins' original choreography is religiously reproduced by Bonnie Walker and the idea of a collapsing, ruined vaudeville as depicted in the sets and costumes of James Youmans and Martin Pakledinaz, respectively, doesn't mean they should look cheap like they do. The ideas that Mr. Laurents wanted to attempt directorially are good ones but unfortunately not realized in a number of areas. Oh and a word to the producers - next time spring for a real lamb and a real pooch.
I'm assuming it'll be Liza's turn next or maybe Streep's and I can wait the six month intervals for those. But you know whom I can't wait for is Streisand or Streisand as interpreted by Nathan Lane - "Mama, can you hear me?!"
