gypsy reviews

[dchesnutny]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 5:48pm

here is the first published review of LuPone's 'Gypsy', from Michael Kuchwara at the Daily News, and it's a rave (no surprise there).

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/THEATER_GYPSY?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=NYDN-AP-Entertainment.html

Please post others as you see them.


Updated On: 7/15/07 at 05:48 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 5:51pm

A glowing review from Kuchwara at the AP.

"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.

A parade of sharply drawn supporting characters makes "Gypsy" more than a solo turn, and Laurents has cast the show with care. Consider the wonderful Boyd Gaines. He elevates the character of Herbie, Rose's loyal yet long-suffering beau to leading-man status. He and LuPone have a complete rapport and bring a real dramatic edge to a relationship that can't survive Rose's single-mindedness.

Then there is Rose's prickly dealings with her daughter, Louise, the ugly duckling who would grow up to become the swanlike Gypsy. Laura Benanti displays a touching vulnerability - not to mention a lovely voice - as the insecure daughter, a girl always in the shadow of her mother's favorite, June. And in their eventual confrontation, Benanti rises to the challenge of a faceoff with LuPone.

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."

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 5:53pm

And amNY gave it 4 stars:

"We usually equate Merman's performance with brass and Lansbury's performance with warmth. Peters, on the other hand, brought a new sexual appeal to the role. 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.

Joining Lupone is Laura Benanti, who is probably giving the most dramatically and vocally powerful performance of Louise ever seen. Boyd Gaines, fresh from his Tony-nominated role in "Journey's End," gives a similarly complex performance as Herbie, the all-round nice guy who gets devoured by Mama Rose.

With so many dynamic performances, plus a full-size orchestra bringing life to Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim's golden score, how could anyone not love this production?"

http://www.amny.com/entertainment/am-gypsy0716,0,2170807.story?coll=am-ent-headlines

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 5:53pm

Yay!

[Testing1232]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 6:04pm

Very well-deserved !!!! LOVE this production !!!

[MovieGuy1031]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 6:29pm

I know I know I know, but I have to ask: Any ACTUAL chance of a recording and/or transfer?

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 7:04pm

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. Perhaps even more gratifying is the superb support she's given by Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti, bringing emotional depth and poignancy to the interplay between the three key characters and making this "Gypsy" an enormously satisfying experience."

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934186.html?categoryid=33&cs=1
Updated On: 7/15/07 at 07:04 PM

[Testing1232]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:36pm

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/theater/reviews/16gyps.html

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:36pm

Mixed Review from Brantley, not a big fan of LuPone, raves for Benanti and Gaines, loved the production itself:

Yet in the enjoyable but unenthralling production of “Gypsy” that opened Saturday at City Center and runs through July 29, part of the new Encores! Summer Stars series, Ms. LuPone does not, for once, feel like an unstoppable force. As Rose, the child-flattening maternal steamroller with Broadway dreams, she seems to be still fiddling with the gears and looking over her shoulder when she needs to be plowing full speed ahead with blinders on....

Contrary to what you might have anticipated, Ms. LuPone is less a Rose of billboard-size flair and ego than the sort of pushy but likable woman you might compete with at the supermarket for that last perfect sole fillet. (You’d lose, but you wouldn’t hate her.) Ms. LuPone has given us a human Rose, with doubts and a nagging tug of self-awareness. But once you introduce such traits into Momma Rose, the air starts to leak out of her.

But Boyd Gaines, as Rose’s long-suffering beau and business partner, Herbie, is affectingly credible, and he and Ms. LuPone generate a relaxed sexual chemistry that explains why he stays with her. And Rose’s younger daughter, June, has never been more completely drawn, both as a child (Sami Gayle) and a young woman (Leigh Ann Larkin). There’s steel beneath the frills of this June from the beginning, and a shrewd ambition that eclipses her mother’s.

I have never been more conscious of the ambivalence between June and her sister, Louise, the hang-dog tomboy who grows up to be Gypsy Rose Lee. Laura Benanti, late of “The Wedding Singer,” is delicious in the title role. (The appealingly watchful-faced Emma Rowley plays her younger self.) Ms. Benanti invests even her early scenes with a tincture of latent ambition that makes her apotheosis as burlesque queen seem inevitable....

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/theater/reviews/16gyps.html

Updated On: 7/15/07 at 08:36 PM

[stella985]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:37pm

Does Brantley have a history of not liking LuPone?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:38pm

No, he doesn't, he just didn't particularly love her in this production.

Updated On: 7/15/07 at 08:38 PM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:39pm

Didn't he rave for her in Sweeney?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:41pm

Brantley's review is spot-on.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:41pm

Given such moments, combined with Ms. LuPone’s dazzling performance in Mr. Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” two seasons ago, I suspect there’s still a first-rate Momma Rose waiting to emerge.

He clearly has nothing against LuPone.

[stella985]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:43pm

Ok, clearly I didn't read carefully. I was just wondering.

[jv92]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:44pm

He didn't dislike her. Perhaps he expected more?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:44pm

There's no malice, no hidden grudges. Ben just didn't like her. Updated On: 7/15/07 at 08:44 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:46pm

Exactly.
I think his main point is summarized in this quote:
I do believe there’s more than one way to make Rose flower. Though I didn’t see Merman, I did catch Angela Lansbury (1974), Tyne Daly (1989) and Bernadette Peters (2003), and could happily defend the wildly different approaches of each.

What they all projected, though, was Rose’s ferocious, unswerving single-mindedness. Ms. LuPone, in contrast, seems to slide in her purposeful focus, the way her voice — more trombone than trumpet — famously slides around on notes.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:47pm

I will say this:

His negative-to-somewhat postive (not a downright pan, not a downright rave) review, combined with the below-average ticket sales probably cost them a Broadway transfer.

Let the Brantley-bashing commence. Updated On: 7/15/07 at 08:47 PM

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:54pm

I wouldn't call it negative, but mixed positive.

I don't care SO much about a Broadway transfer, but if this isn't recorded...

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:55pm

I think to say Brantley didn't like her is unfair.

He says that she's good in the role and has alot of things going for her portrayal but that she simply isn't that unstoppable juggernaut one would expect. He even goes as far as to say the perfect Rose is probably there but that she hasn't found it yet.

I find that to be fairly positive without being a love letter.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 8:57pm

Yes, but the problem is he starts off negatively and ends the same way. He has many good things to say about her, but they're in what I affectionately call the "skim through" section. As they say in journalism, most important details first.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 9:03pm

It isn't a black-and-white review. He liked her. He didn't love her as Rose, even though he was expecting to.

Fair enough.

[jv92]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 9:12pm

A strange question, but-
Are the Word Of Mouth "critics" being sent out to give us their opinions on this one?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 9:14pm

Probably not, as this isn't considered Broadway.