Good GYPSY Revival News- Page 3

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 1:00am

Oh, I agree, I doubt it will be a sold-out hit. Even FOLLIES sold better, though it's a bit unfair to compare the two since FOLLIES only ran four days versus the three weeks of GYPSY. I'm just pointing out that selling out that huge City Center theatre is no easy fete and it could be easier to do business at the St.James.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 1:08am

If they have the money to sink into this, all i can say "is go forth in sin"!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 1:13am

I must sound like a broken record but I wish they had invested the money in transferring FOLLIES instead of GYPSY.

[alterego]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 1:26am

I think I'd wait for an official announcement before I started nominating Tony Awards.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 1:35am

If the revival happens, the award is Patti's.

Those other little girls (and that old little girl) are no competition.

She was better at Ravinia than City Center because Arthur is a nasty old-school queen who misgynistically directs all women to be vaginas dentata.

Patti will spit out his venom and her performance will return to the multifaceted woman she played at Ravinia.

The award will be Patti's.

[AKDPerformer]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 3:52am

Wow, psyched.

I missed being able to see this last summer.

Love the LuPone.

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 6:34am

Yet another thread announcing 'Gypsy ' for Broadway and yet again everyone goes off saying the same things as in the other Gypsy threads. The person who started this one-Yankeefan must be laughing- the resason being that there is no source for the info -anywhereand they made no effort to back up the claim!!! If someone can come on here soon and confirm this rumor then continue, but as i said, yet again its just a poster on here winding people up.

Updated On: 11/20/07 at 06:34 AM

Posted: 11/20/07 at 6:38am

i hope she wears that cute wig from Ravinia!

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 8:26am

YankeeFan's source was a post on All That Chat from Sparky023, who frankly, is never wrong. If he says March 27 at the St. James, you can bet that's where and when it will open.

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 8:30am

Thats still not official tho. Its just someone on another chat site!

[RyToast1]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 9:11am

neddyfrank2

"How many seats are in City Center?"

2,750

[LEStheatreGuy]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 10:23am

What's a vagina dentata? Is that a number the evil, woman-hating Arthur Laurents-directed production of Lion King? Lyin' Queen? Circle Jerk of Life? I Just Can't Wait to Kill Puppies? What?

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 10:33am

The Ravinia wig would not fit her new interpretation of the character at all.

I think her Rose can and will only grow stronger from her City Center Rose.

[bwaygal1]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 10:35am

I must sound like a broken record but I wish they had invested the money in transferring FOLLIES instead of GYPSY.

I totally agree-wish I could have seen the performance last season.
Also-I think Priscilla Lopez may be considered leading with the re-writes I understand they're doing for In the Heights. (could be wrong) If she is, then she's really stiff competition.
It's a completely different ballgame from last year for best actress in a musical. It's a tough one to call (heck, even to predict who'll be nominated). I have a feeling it could look like this:
Mandy Gonzales/Priscilla Lopez (whoever's in the category)
Jenna Russell
Sierra Boggess (the obligatory newcomer nod)
Patti
Faith Prince
with one being eliminated (4 nominees)

Updated On: 11/20/07 at 10:35 AM

[Tchi4Lif188]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 10:51am

I still need an official announcement before I get too excited over this.

[ahmelie]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 7:21pm

I know I'm late on this, but you girls have got to be kidding me.

Mediocre reviews? The only mixed review she got was from the Times, and even that one wasn't bad.

Here's Playbill's (not my) compilation of her reviews:

Michael Kuchwara in the Associated Press:
"There is no musical-theater performer more determined than Patti LuPone. Her drive can invest a character — whether it's Eva Peron, Norma Desmond or Mrs. Lovett — with an intense theatricality that is thrilling to watch. And those thrills are present in City Center's overwhelming revival of Gypsy, the King Lear of musicals. . . . LuPone doesn't shrink from Rose's obsessiveness, but the actress makes you understand the almost pathological compulsion that makes her shove her two daughters — first June and then Louise — into the spotlight. LuPone knows how to act the part of Rose and to sing it, too. . . . Still, in the end, Gypsy is LuPone's show, most dramatically in 'Rose's Turn,' the stunning musical soliloquy that ends the evening. It's here where Rose pours out her true feelings, letting the rage and frustration of a stymied life explode. And LuPone's powerhouse delivery is dynamite."

Matt Windman in AM New York:
"But how can we best describe LuPone's performance? She combines Rose's frustrated fury and vulnerable emotions with the polish and authority of an actress who has been ready to play the role for years. In short, she is absolutely thrilling."

Joe Dziemianowicz in the Daily News:
"Whether Patti LuPone was destined to play the steam-rolling Rose who pushes her daughters to be famous in the 1920s and '30s, who knows? But she's mesmerizing singing and acting the role created in 1959 by Ethel Merman. LuPone's work never feels like a performance. From the first line, 'Sing out, Louise,' to her final knockout number, 'Rose's Turn,' she creates a Rose you can relate to and empathize with."

Frank Scheck in the New York Post:
"When this indomitable actress finished her tour de force rendition of 'Rose's Turn,' the audience rose for a spontaneous standing ovation. LuPone acknowledged the applause fully in character as the self-aggrandizing Mama Rose, bowing floridly and in effect incorporating us into her character's elaborate fantasy. It is one of many memorable moments in the show . . . . LuPone, as might be imagined, is a powerhouse in the role, singing the hell out of the classic Styne/Sondheim score and giving a portrayal that easily ranks as one of the best Roses ever."

Linda Winer in Newsday:
"The idea that someone was 'born to play' a character sounds like hyped-up old nonsense — until, that is, Patti LuPone grabs the cliche in her bared teeth and scares the banalities away as Mama Rose in Gypsy. How is it that this force of nature is just now taking her turn in what's arguably the greatest musical-female role in probably the most satisfying backstage musical of the American golden age? . . . . LuPone's Rose is indomitable, as required. Along with the ruthlessness, there is a grand playfulness. She's a stage mother who will do just about anything to make her girls into stars so that, as she tellingly blurts out, 'So we'd be a star.' But she's also a lot of fun, which goes a long way toward explaining why Herbie and all the unpaid kids in her pathetic act could have stuck with her through thin and thinner. She wears a Louise Brooks haircut and the uninhibited sexuality of a lady trucker. When she finally takes the solo spotlight for 'Rose's Turn,' the power of her multicolored voice and the strength of her personality make a visceral connection to all our mothers who were 'born too early and started too late.'"

Ben Brantley in The New York Times:
"Ms. LuPone has endowed the thwarted Rose with charm, sensuality, a sense of humor, a startling lack of diva vanity and even a spark of bona fide mother love. . . . This Gypsy is especially good on shining a light on family frictions, and Ms. LuPone contributes beautifully to this dynamic. The early scene in which she sends both her young daughters to bed, focusing the beam of her affection exclusively on June, tells you everything you need to know about this prickly parent-child triangle and the problems it’s bound to generate. Ms. LuPone has other such moments throughout. Her scenes with Mr. Gaines are uniformly excellent. (I'll never forget her Rose, suggesting an abandoned army tank, standing in a dressing room after Herbie walks out on her.) And she brings a harrowing psychological nakedness to the big nervous-breakdown number, 'Rose's Turn.'"

David Rooney in Variety:
"Ever since she seized Broadway stardom by the throat in her career-making turn as Evita in 1979, Patti LuPone has made it clear the footlights are her lifeblood. So it's unsurprising that this indomitable performer connects fiercely with Rose, the ultimate spotlight-seeker and mother of all stage mothers. . . . But the success of any production of Gypsy is determined primarily by its Rose. LuPone earns her place in the pantheon of the role's memorable interpreters, nailing the brash comedy, the cruel tyranny, the child-like need for attention and, finally, the crushing disappointment. . . . in both the deluded triumph of 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' and the shattered self-exposure of 'Rose's Turn,' when she finally acknowledges all her clawing at success has been for herself, she's mesmerizing."

Peter Marks in the Washington Post:
"To an impressive gallery of Broadway performances that encompasses Evita Peron and Sondheim's meat-pie maven Mrs. Lovett, LuPone adds her movingly take-charge Momma Rose. The character's anger has rarely felt so transparent. Nothing halfway clings to this earthy interpretation. LuPone's Rose smiles, even manages to beam at times, but it's a harsher essence, one bordering on manic depression, that envelops the portrayal. As a result, the finales Rose is given in each act — 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' at the end of Act 1, and especially, 'Rose's Turn' in Act 2 —benefit especially well from LuPone's power-belting, the sense that the songs don't merely rise from her lungs but also from her ankles. You're left with the thoroughly discomfiting sense of a woman of terrifying entitlement."

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 8:05pm

How much were tickets at City Center?

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 8:14pm

I think the range was $95-$25.

[fakemyway2thetop]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 8:40pm

Love Gypsy. Love Patti. Didn't see the show at City Center. But I can't seem to muster up any excitement about this revival. Maybe as it gets closer but right now....eh!

[LeaGirl]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 8:41pm

Oh my, this made my week.

Do you think we can get a CD out of this? I need a CD out of this.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 8:47pm

If it couldn't sell for three weeks at City Center with affordable ticket prices how the hell is it going to sell the St. James with a $110 ticket price (isn't that the standard now?)?

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 9:16pm

I put myself in the camp of those who felt LuPone was underwhelming at City Center.

Having seen her performance as Rose at Ravinia (where she was slightly unpolished but completely and utterly devoted to every single moment,) I was taken aback at how different I felt about what I saw at City Center.

For me, LuPone screamed her way through the score at City Center in a way that was completely off-putting to the ear. She'd hit great notes here and there but would follow them up with these yelps that could be downright cringe-inducing (her ending note of "Rose's Turn" being a prime example.)

The main problem for me, though, was that I didn't once feel like I was watching a performance where the actor was completely lost in the role. From what I saw, LuPone had neverstepped out of herself and into Rose with full honesty, and I in turn never once felt I wasn't watching Patti LuPone on stage.

In the end, the production wound up being one where Rose was completeley upstaged by her daughters. Leigh Ann Larkin was simply astonishing with her inspired and sardonic June, taking act one and never giving it back. And by the time Laura Benanti (the true star of the evening) finished her transformation, she'd all but taken the show right out from under LuPone.

Updated On: 11/20/07 at 09:16 PM

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 11/20/07 at 11:20pm

bump.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/21/07 at 7:17am

Couldn't have said it better, Wicked.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/21/07 at 10:53am

There WERE $110 seats at City Center.