AUDRA GYPSY Reviews- Page 12

[Wick3]

Posted: 12/26/24 at 10:03pm

ACL2006 said: "the word i got for the cancellation tonight was that Tryphena didn't do well during the put-in. there were also a lot of other cast members out as well. probably Tryphena gets her own rehearsal tomorrow and they run a few numbers prior to curtain if Audra is still out sick. Tryphena's first rehearsal was last night."

Since matinee was canceled today I would have thought they’d cancel the evening too or at least cancel it earlier.

Since this is a well-known revival I would have thought Tryphena would know her lines and all the music. I’m guessing she just needs practice on some of the direction?

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 12/26/24 at 10:04pm

Also, if Audra was 100% not performing tonight if the show went on, then it should have been announced this morning. I really hope that wasn't the case, because it would be inexcusable, and would make the producers look 10x worse than with just the late cancellation. 

Updated On: 12/26/24 at 10:04 PM

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 12/26/24 at 10:19pm

I had tickets to tonight’s GYPSY, which was only supposed to the final step in my grief journey over losing Phantom NY—-no real interest in actually seeing the show.  So I took a nap after my matinee today and woke up at 6:15pm intending to leisurely stroll over to 44th Street and accept this new reality when I checked my emailed and saw that telecharge emailed me 45 minutes earlier to say the show was cancelled.  I jumped on the TKTS app to see what looked good.  I settled on Eureka Day (mostly bc the women around me at my matinee today were raving about it).  And it was a very fun show. But now I still gotta wait and deal with the Majestic again. And no I am definitely not buying Gypsy tickets again.  

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 12/26/24 at 11:07pm

I have tickets to the show Saturday afternoon. Will it suck if it cancels while I'm on the way to the theatre? Sure. Will I pretend l like I know better than the producers how and when they have to make that call? No.

[George in DC]

Posted: 12/26/24 at 11:15pm

You have to wonder how BAD the put in was that they cancelled the show only after it was finished. How awful could it have been?

 

For whatever it's worth, I saw Maureen Moore step in for Bernadette Peters during the preview period of her run in Gypsy and Maureen Moore was amazing. That's a great actress.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 12/26/24 at 11:18pm

A stray thought in the context of Gypsy trying to deal with the cast out sick problem: "All In: Comedy About Love" is successfully charging Broadway prices for a staged reading. Yet I'd be far more agreeable to paying Broadway prices for a staged reading where Renée Elise Goldsberry is playing Rose and Richard Kind is playing Herbie. 

Maybe covers doing fully blocked shows doesn't have to be the only contingency plan for flu season.  The audience who want to opt out of seeing a staged reading would still get their full refund.

[whatever2]

Posted: 12/26/24 at 11:19pm

some posters in this thread write as if everyone attending a show lives on The Island (or is subway/PATH adjacent) and pivoting on a dime is no big deal. Especially for this show, that does not describe the entirety of the audience, and it was just irresponsible for the producers to wait til <2.5 hours to pull the plug. it's not about selfish expectations of the company, it's about realistic expectations of the people in charge.

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 12/26/24 at 11:50pm

Jonathan Cohen said: "A stray thought in the context of Gypsy trying to deal with the cast out sick problem: "All In: Comedy About Love" is successfully charging Broadway prices for a staged reading. Yet I'd be far more agreeable to paying Broadway prices for a staged reading whereRenée Elise Goldsberry is playing Rose andRichard Kind is playingHerbie.

Maybecovers doing fully blocked shows doesn't have to be the only contingency plan for flu season.The audience who want to opt out of seeing a staged reading would still get their full refund."

A show did something along those lines a year or two ago if I remember... I forget which one though

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 12:00am

whatever2 said: "some posters in this thread write as if everyone attending a show lives on The Island (or is subway/PATH adjacent) and pivoting on a dime is no big deal. Especially for this show, that does not describe the entirety of the audience, and it was just irresponsible for the producers to wait til <2.5 hours to pull the plug. it's not about selfish expectations of the company, it's about realistic expectations of the people in charge."

Agreed. The cancellation email went out exactly two hours before the show. Inexcusable. I sincerely hope everyone is healthy soon but they handled this very poorly. 

[George in DC]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 12:13am

It appears as if they were expecting to do an  evening show after the put in but something happened during the put in that made them think it was better to cancel.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 12:16am

This speculation is silly. It could have been that the wrong combination of actors and understudies/swings called out (and possibly called out after the put-in), and they simply could not do the show tonight. They obviously were planning to do the show tonight if they could or else they would have canceled the evening show when they canceled the matinee.

I see that there’s only a standby for the strippers and there are no other credited understudies for the three roles. There’s no situation where they could do a split show if more than one of them called out. That could be a very plausible reason for all of the cancelations beyond Audra being sick.

Whatever the true reason, I bet they announced the cancelation as early as they could with the information they had. The last thing producers would want to do is cancel a performance during a holiday week, so canceling four in a row is a nightmare for them.

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 9:26am

Are understudies and standbys not part of the initial rehearsal process (pre-previews)?

[inception]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 9:48am

Mr. Wormwood said: 
A show did something along those linesa year or two ago if I remember... I forget which one though"

I remember reasing Girl From the North Country had people go on with scripts in hand.

For Gypsy the Producers could have gone into any gay bar & found 45 elderly drag queens who could go on off-book. 

[JasonC3]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 9:55am

bwaylyric said: "Are understudies and standbys not part of the initial rehearsal process (pre-previews)?"

Several knowledgeable commenters address this in posts if you scroll up in the thread.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 10:17am

bwaylyric said: "Are understudies and standbys not part of the initial rehearsal process (pre-previews)?"

Standbys generally are as they only have one role to step in for - they’re not in the show playing any other role. Understudies are already playing another role in the show so their understudy rehearsal takes place once the show opens and is frozen. Most take it upon themselves to watch from the wings to learn the blocking, which is more difficult to learn than the songs and choreography. People just assume you learn your lines and you’re ready to go on. Nope. The technical stuff is the hardest to learn. 

[BdwyFan]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 10:24am

So clearly they need to hire more performers for the cast in order to have more coverage. That will cost more but what else could they do? 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 10:40am

Mr. Wormwood said: "Jonathan Cohen said: "A stray thought in the context of Gypsy trying to deal with the cast out sick problem: "All In: Comedy About Love" is successfully charging Broadway prices for a staged reading. Yet I'd be far more agreeable to paying Broadway prices for a staged reading whereRenée Elise Goldsberry is playing Rose andRichard Kind is playingHerbie.

Maybecovers doing fully blocked shows doesn't have to be the only contingency plan for flu season.The audience who want to opt out of seeing a staged reading would still get their full refund."

A show did something along those linesa year or two ago if I remember... I forget which one though"

You might be thinking of Sweeney Todd which cancelled while people were already in line for the theater (though due to a set malfunction and not illness/coverage issues). They offered people to come watch a reading of the show or a refund but in the end they did end up refunding everyone that stayed as well. 

[WldKingdomHM]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 10:57am

This wouldn’t happen if they got Sharon Brown as the standby

[pagereynolds]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 11:12am

I went to check if the Instagram account had news about tonight, and they've deleted all of the "this performance is cancelled" from this week. 

[Wick3]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 11:18am

BdwyFan said: "So clearly theyneed to hire more performers for the cast in order to have more coverage. That will cost more but what else could they do?"

I agree but will it really cost more when they’re losing $200k+ for each cancelled show?

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 11:34am

They have 7 swings, 2 standbys, and one role that's shared by two actors. The amount of coverage should not be a problem, but it's very weird that –– as of now –– most of the principals have only one listed cover. Unless there are others not credited.

The producers may have allowed Wolfe to paint them into a corner with his specific casting wishes and the amount of racial specificity (which, for my money, is verrrrry subtle subtext in the finished product and does not make or break the production).

[pagereynolds]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 11:37am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "They have 7 swings, 2 standbys, and one role that's shared by two actors. The amount of coverage should not be a problem, but it's very weird that –– as of now –– most of the principals have only one listed cover. Unless there are others not credited.

The producers may have allowed Wolfe to paint them into a corner with his specific casting wishes and the amount of racial specificity (which, for my money, is verrrrry subtle subtext in the finished product and does not make or break the production)."

That's an interesting guess, but I'm not sure it's true. All of the newsboys are Black, all of the Farmboys are white, and it's not like you could send a 9 year old on as a farm boy anyway.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 11:38am

The coverage dilemma could be worse:

Imagine a production of FOLLIES performed by ladies of all different ethnicities, meaning that their younger ghost counterpart must match the older's race, AND the understudies for both the older and younger must match too?

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 12:04pm

Cancelled again tonight. Jeez. 

At least they announced it several hours in advance this time. 

Updated On: 12/27/24 at 12:04 PM

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/27/24 at 12:06pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "They have 7 swings, 2 standbys, and one role that's shared by two actors. The amount of coverage should not be a problem, but it's very weird that –– as of now –– most of the principals have only one listed cover. Unless there are others not credited.

The producers may have allowed Wolfe to paint them into a corner with his specific casting wishes and the amount of racial specificity (which, for my money, is verrrrry subtle subtext in the finished product and does not make or break the production)."

I found that odd as well. Most roles only have one understudy/cover. Tryphena is the only cover for Rose. There's only one cover for the three strippers. And apparently some of the understudies & swings are part of the group that are sick.