GYPSY Previews — Page 24

Audra has no scheduled absences as of now. Any absence would be noted on the show's website and on the ticketing page when you purchase. What her attendance will be like later into the run is anyone's guess, but as of now she's scheduled for all shows.

I'm very confused at the narrative we're throwing around here that Joy "doesn't have enough time" to go from Louise to Gypsy... hello?? Have we read the same script? Louise is a terribly well written role. And many actresses have found great success in playing her, pre-and-post Benanti, who remains definitive in my eyes. The issue, as said, is that a lot of those well written moments in The Strip are just completely gone in this production. And I don't mean to pick on her, but I just really don't think this role (or this production?) is the right one for Joy Woods. I really think a lot of her choices undercut what is actually written. Which is disappointing, because again, I do not think Louise is in any way a weakly written role.

She did in fact do it with her daughter at North Shore in 1992. I heard it was not what people hoped, but I don't think it's a role anyone can really nail playing for the first time in a summer stock context

Regarding Rita Moreno, I see that Anthony Tommasini was quite positive in the Boston Globe. While not quite in the league of Merman, Lansbury, and Daly, Moreno "not only holds her own, she brings fresh insights to this complex role."

She "gave a richly detailed performance;" her "singing was pliant, literate and robust but never forced;" the climactic scenes were "skillfully done"; and her Rose's Turn was "devastating." Although this Rose is "less daringly bleak" than Daly's (and another reviewer similarly writes that Moreno is a "kinder, gentler" Rose), that also helps explain why Herbie falls in love with her.

All three reviews I read give the impression that Moreno was first-rate but the show's Louise was a weakness ("a little too convincing in her untalentedness," said a different reviewer).

Gypsy Rose Lee with Ethel Merman:

Saw this last night, it was my first time seeing Gypsy live though I'm pretty familiar with the property and I've seen the Imelda Staunton proshot etc. I thought it was overall pretty good with some excellent performances, though I agree that it just didn't seem to have as much momentum through the piece.

Both Audra and Danny Burstein are acting the hell out of this, I love seeing them play in scenes against each other, and I agree with a previous poster that they really feel like a family unit. Audra's Rose isn't quite the huge towering presence from the get go that other Roses may have had, and she actually feels remarkably human. She's a single mother who's trying to do what she thinks is best for her girls, but lets her own dreams cloud that vision (I found her portrayal much more similar to that of Veronica in Hills of California than the snippets of other Roses I've seen). And Danny Burstein's Herbie has genuine affection for her (and Louise and the others), and you can see how he's always been too kind to survive in show business.

I'm not musically inclined enough to determine whether they switched the keys for Audra or not, but it almost seems to me that they purposely set some of the bigger numbers in her break. She has a lovely mix for a lot of the "easier" numbers like Small World and You'll Never Get Away From Me, but she sings with a kind of...strain (which I think gives off the wrong connotation, but the point is that it sounds effortful) for the ones like Some People and Everything's Coming Up Roses (and eventually Rose's Turn), where she pulls from her soprano head voice more. I don't think it's that she can't sing the score, but they deliberately chose this placement to make her seem all the more desperate and sort of "on the wrong track". The soprano only really comes out when Rose wants something SO badly she's essentially grasping at straws to try to make it happen. It feels a bit like it telegraphs her ultimate failure (in a way I don't think other productions do), which adds an interesting dichotomy to just how much she wants it.

I agree that both Junes are very impressive and dynamic. I'm particularly impressed by Jordan Tyson who I found good but not great in Notebook, as she's making some very specific choices in the June she presents in front of an audience/her mother and the June she actually is when talking to Louise or when she's trying to convince Rose to let her be an actress. You can tell a lot about how she's learned to appeal to specific people in different ways. Joy Woods was generally good, but I just don't think I felt a connection to her. I don't feel like I really got her getting won over during Together Wherever We Go, and I just wish we were able to see her growth as a character more.

The strip feels weirdly rushed, especially compared to everything else in the show. Watching clips of that sequence from other productions, they seem to have cut some lines and shortened some sequences. I wish they took a tiny bit more time in particular with the first moment as Louise realizes her own beauty and potential that she does have. I thought the Garden of Eden sequence was fun to watch with the choreography, but as a strip tease it felt like the initial costume she had was already fairly revealing so it didn't give her much distance to go.

I didn't mind All I Need is the Girl and rather enjoyed the choreography, though I did think the singing was a bit weaker than other areas. But I also didn't feel as much of a connection between Louise and Tulsa in that scene, which I wish came through a bit more. The more puzzling choice to me is splitting up Have an Eggroll between the multiple characters. When one of the boys sings the "have a Goldstone, Mr. Eggroll" part, you lose the idea that Rose is getting progressively more flustered so I'm not sure what purpose that serves.

I'll be curious to see how it fares with the critics and would be interested seeing it again later on in the run. I assume it's close to frozen (if it isn't already) but it seems like a show where actors might find more layers of interpretation as they keep doing it.

CBS Sunday Morning Segment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm1umSMjhtM

RW3 said: "CBS Sunday Morning Segment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm1umSMjhtM"

Great feature. Fascinating to hear George C. Wolfe talk about the show and Audra talk about Rose and their respective approaches to the production and character.

I hope the CBS clips finally quiet down the "Audra can't sing this part" people. Makes me think they all had preconceived notions before they walked into the theatre.

You're right they pick and choose the best bits but the best bits are much of the meat and (at least when I saw the show twice in early previews) this is how Audra sounds on stage. So either she doesn't always sing like this (I haven't heard anything to suggest this is the case) or people seem to focus on remembering only the less effective head voice moments while forgetting the meat, which is hard for me to understand why.....unless it's things like the final note of Coming Up Roses or Rose's Turn that seem to be ruining it for people (but I personally think both of those moments work).

This is why I keep saying I do find it hard to fully sympathise with the view that Audra is singing these songs totally wrong, can't sing the songs etc....etc.....I think it's mostly thrilling with a few odd placements in her range sometimes that I can personally forgive and take for what it is.

binau said: "this is how Audra sounds on stage. "

So I've wanted to ask something on this board forever. A friend saw Audra in a show back in 00's. I guess it was Ragtime, but I'm not totally sure. Anyway, I asked how she was and the fried said with a chuckle, "She doesn't sound anything like her recordings." When I pressed if this meant not as well, or different in what way, she just repeated again with a little chuckle, "She just doesn't sound anything like her recordings." Is that true?

Saw her in Carousel ( back when she was Audra Ann McDonald) as well as in Ragtime, and she was absolutely as wonderful in person. I, for one, have no idea what your friend meant.