A different end to GYPSY

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 1:03pm

I cover number of local theatres for newspapers in the area. yesterday I attended a production of GYPSY. It was pretty good as community staging goes, with an energetic cast, and some really nicely done drops for each scene.

The show is going along beautifully, the actress playing Rose does a great "Rose's Turn" and the curtain comes down. I expect it will go up showing Rose bowing and blowing kisses leading into the final scene with Gypsy.

Nope...the curtain went up and the cast was onstage taking their bows!

Has anyone here ever seen a GYPSY where the end with "Rose's Turn?" I doubt this was allowed by the rights holder? I know community theatres can cut certain scenes and songs but this group is notorious for doing every scene - even in-one scenes originally meant to cover scene changes.

I was not impressed. What it said to me was that the producers had no clue what GYPSY is about.

Updated On: 1/25/10 at 01:03 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 1:04pm

GYPSY is completely pointless without the final scene. That scene ties everything together.

What an IDIOTIC idea.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 1:08pm

It's kind of stupid, but I feel like the final scene really just makes explicit what "Rose's Turn" implies. It's not like it's completely senseless without that final scene.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 1:18pm

^ Huh? The final scene is absolutely needed. I don't have time to get into it now. But you need that scene. Rose admits a lot of things. And it reconciles her relationship with Louise.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 1:18pm

Huh? You change the ENTIRE feel of the production without that final scene. Even though, I didn't like the production the one thing I will never forget and that still gives me chills about the '03 revival is the last few seconds, when Louise has left and Rose stops and looks back at the empty stage. She nods her head and takes a deep breath, knowing her time is over. That and her reconciliation with her daughter is needed to a point it's not even worth having a debate over. lol
Updated On: 1/25/10 at 01:18 PM

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 1:49pm

That's how I felt: To end with "Rose's Turn" shows Rose in triumph. The final scene reveals it as all in her head and in actual fact the show ends with Rose in defeat.

I am checking with another reviewer who saw it Sat night just to make sure that this wasn't an anomaly at Sunday's matinee before firing off an email to T/W.

Needless to say my review will be a blistering attack on the people responsible for this boneheaded decision. I mean its not like the audience would not have stayed for the extra 2-3 minutes.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 2:14pm

Is "Rose's Turn" really showing Rose in triumph? To me, it's showing Rose at her most deluded. Maybe it is triumph, but it's definitely a false triumph.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 2:45pm

True. It's more a triumph in her own mind an our applause feeds that fantasy. To cut the final scene, however, robs it of its subtext and becomes just a standard 11:00 number.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 8:00pm

I agree that you need the final scene to tie it all together. Rose needs to reconcile with Louise, and it needs to be made clear that she understands it's over for her. Which is why the most recent revival didn't get it quite right. By ending the show with Rose reaching up for her name in lights, it gives the impression that she is going to keep striving for her own fame. And that, of course, invalidates the past three hours.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 8:05pm

I don't think the ending for the revival invalidated the three hours of the show. The lights are fading, and Rose clearly has a look of distress on her face as she reaches for the fading marquee. That combined with the encounter she just had with Louise cements the fact that it'll never happen for her.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 8:24pm

I think the revival would have been better with Rose subtly reaching out for the sign just before she walks off instead of the frantic grasping.

[singtopher]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 8:45pm

Similar to this, I recently heard of a dinner theatre production of ANNIE where after the finale, the curtain fell, and rose again on the orphanage set where Annie woke up as if it was all a dream. The production was quickly shut down.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 8:51pm

Oh that is just fcked up...

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 9:27pm

Did Laurents cut the final scene in one of the productions he directed? I can never get it straight?

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 9:36pm

Yeah, I heard something along the lines of him cutting it when the production was at Encores.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 9:42pm

No, the final scene was in when at Encores. Maybe he toyed with the idea of cutting it, but it wasn't cut. The entire ending was pretty standard Gypsy fare at Encores, actually.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 9:42pm

Lol no. He never cut the final scene.
At Encores! Rose and Louise walked off together at the end.
On Broadway, Louise walked off while Rose stayed on stage. The "Rose" sign came down with some light bulbs unlit, and Patti reached and grabbed at the sign. I loved it.

Only things Arthur cut were the "faux rape" scene, and the "Small World" reprise.

Updated On: 1/25/10 at 09:42 PM

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 9:59pm

Would you please explain the "faux rape" scene.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 10:12pm

During the Goldstone scene to get out of a hotel bill Rose locks herself & the manager in a room where she makes it seem like he is raping her. She hits him with a pillow & rips open her nightgown & runs out of the room.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 1/25/10 at 10:28pm

That idea of Annie turning out to be a dream is just sick. What, was the production directed by Nurse Ratched? Smashing children's hopes and dreams. Ain't nothing like it in the world, is there.

[gypsy4]

Posted: 1/26/10 at 12:28am

Cutting the final scene of Gypsy gives me no closure with the characters. as for the production of annie thats just plain cruel.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 1/26/10 at 1:41am

I have just read an interview with Laurents, Sondhiem, and Robbins speaking about Gypsy. Laurents and Sondheim said that when Oscar Hammerstein saw the show there was no scene after "Rose's Turn". The show's original ending was simply "Rose's Turn". Hammerstein only had two notes on the entire production, and one was that their needed to be some sort of closer for the audience, and there needed to be something that said that Rose is a human being, not this monster.

Thank you Oscar!

Updated On: 1/26/10 at 01:41 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/26/10 at 2:06am

"as for the production of annie thats just plain cruel."

LOL. I think the curtain should rise again and we find the girls are actually in a Dickens-esque workhouse being beaten by their masters.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 1/26/10 at 2:29am

Somebody told me about seeing a student production of "West Side Story" where Tony was just wounded. The high school's principal had insisted on a happy ending. Detention for Arthur and Stephen for writing such a shocking ending!

And my high school principal tried to get me to cut "My Mother's Wedding Day" from my first directing gig, Brigadoon. Prig.

[binau]

Posted: 1/26/10 at 5:19am

"During the Goldstone scene to get out of a hotel bill Rose locks herself & the manager in a room where she makes it seem like he is raping her. She hits him with a pillow & rips open her nightgown & runs out of the room.
"

It makes me cringe about this..

Arthur claimed the Mendes production was bad because it had 'no walls'.

His production had 'no walls'.

So how does he solve the apparent problems of having 'no walls'?

Cuts the scene. Great job..