Gypsy

When the curtain came down on Act 1 of Gypsy, my friend Susan said, "She's so wrong and she's so good." Excellent summation!

I was one of those who greeted Audra's casting with, she's miscast, her voice is miscast. And I was also one of those who said, it's Audra, we gotta go. Having seen the show, I still think she is miscast, and her voice is definitely wrong for the show. But she was amazing. Mesmerizing. Honest, real, raw. In my pantheon of Roses I've seen in person (Angela, Tyne, Sally Mayes, Bernadette, Patti, and now Audra), I'd put her second only to Tyne. Her "Rose's Turn" was scalding, even ugly, and thrilling. 

Photo: Julieta Cervantes

Unfortunately, the rest of the production is mediocre. I don't expect a cast on Audra's level, but better singing and acting would be welcome. The performers are not helped by George C. Wolfe's anti-subtle direction. He has Rose's troupe perform so atrociously that no one would have booked them ever. Nor would T.T. Grantziger see promise in June, as both Junes screeched their way through the show. (After seeing this and Show/Boat: A River close together, I'm beginning to wonder if acting badly well is a lost art.)

In addition to his direction of the acting, I think Wolfe got a lot of the show wrong in tone and timing. And little-but-important moments are missed. For example, having Gypsy face the audience rather than a mirror when she says, "I'm a pretty girl, Mama" dissipates the impact. 

And why would anyone replace Jerome Robbins' choreography in this show (and in West Side Story)? Isn't that just saying that you want choreography that isn't as good, theatrical, or organic? Two of the best choreographed numbers in the history of musical theatre are from Gypsy. When the chorus of dancers grow from kids to young adults while dancing, using a strobe, it's theatricality at its best. Similarly, Robbins' choreography for Gypsy going from shy neophyte to star is smooth and evocative and impressive and meaningful. In this Gypsy, both numbers are, well, okay. (No insult to this choreographer, btw. Trying to replace something perfect is a thankless assignment.)

Interestingly, the mediocrity of this production allows Gypsy's few imperfections to come to the fore. The most important one is, I think, that there is too little opportunity to see Rose's charm in the first act. If there were an earlier song like "Together," it would be easier to see Rose as a person rather than a monster. (Though I must note that a huge chunk of the audience gasped a couple of times at Rose's behavior. I've never seen the show with so many first-timers. It was fun.)

But this production is about Audra! And she's amazing!

Wendy Caster

Show/Boat: A River

Based on both the reviews and word of mouth, I went into Target Margin's "re-envisioning" of Show Boat (here called Show/Boat: A River) with low expectations. Sadly, it lived down to them. 

Whatever the faults of Oscar Hammerstein II, he was a sincere man trying to make the world a better place. Show Boat was sympathetic to a mixed-race couple, depicted and criticized racism, and had an unprecedented cast of Black and White people working together. Remember, this was 1927, almost 100 years ago.

Show Boat can be seen as glass-half-full and it can be seen as glass-half-empty. Show/Boat: A River seems to see it as an empty glass--a broken empty glass. It's fine to re-envision or deconstruct or whatever, but without understanding where the piece comes from, acknowledging its strengths, and having a POV other than "we're better now than they were then," it's just a pointless mess. (One criticism I heard of the original show is that it keeps the Black people in the background of their own story. That's true, but if Hammerstein had put them in the foreground, the show wouldn't get produced--and people now would criticize him for cultural appropriation.) 

The solution of course is equal opportunities for Blacks, women, LGBT+ people, and so on. A friend once said that it doesn't matter if the best of each group finds a place; the goal is for all mediocre people to have the same opportunities as mediocre White men, including second and third chances. Although we've made progress, we still have far to go. 

I should mention that I find most of Hammerstein's depictions of race to be embarrassing, at best. I'm not a fan of his in general. But I still get it that he was ahead of his time. It seems churlish to dismiss him for only being on the first rung of racial consciousness when the vast majority of White people weren't even aware of the ladder! Re-envision, yes, but understand what you're re-envisioning. 

Show/Boat: A River did have moments of insight and legit criticism. But it came across as a high school production. It would have been nice if everyone in the cast could sing. And if the show didn't periodically rely on droning, high, thin, painful notes from guitar (I think) and clarinet. And if it truly had something original to say. (As Hammerstein did, flawed as it was.) 

It's interesting to consider what future generations will think we're doing wrong. We certainly don't have all the answers. 

Wendy Caster

Eureka Day

A built-in weakness in some comedies of ideas is that one side of an argument may simply be right. As someone who believes strongly in vaccines, I thought Eureka Day might have to wrestle with this weakness. But playwright Jonathan Spector, while not supporting the  anti-vax stance per se, does show how someone could legitimately and honestly see vaccines as dangerous and even deadly. He pulls this off in a context of good-hearted, super-woke people trying to keep safe the children of the Eureka Day School. (The illness in question is mumps. The show predates COVID.)

Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray,
Jessica Hecht, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz
Photo: Jeremy Daniel

While sensitively dealing with woke-ness, inclusivity, accidental racism, and other difficult topics, Eureka Day is also extremely, extremely funny. I've rarely been in an audience that laughed that loud for that long.

The cast is largely excellent, including Jessica Hecht, Amber Gray, Thomas Middleditch, and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. Only Bill Irwin disappoints, with a twitchy performance that lacks a specific character. The excellent direction by Anna D. Shapiro keeps the emotions, humor, timing, and characters in balance, while always providing clarity as to where our attention should be. 

Wendy Caster

Women Writing Musicals (book review)

 I reviewed Women Writing Musicals on Talkin' Broadway.

One of the stranger parts of aging is watching time go from "now" to "then" to "retro" to "no one on Jeopardy knows the answer." This is particularly a problem with theatre, where "now" can go to "then" almost instantly. It breaks my heart that few people know about, oh, Colleen Dewhurst, Lynn Thigpen, Michael Jeter, Elizabeth Swados, Myrna Lamb. Time passes so quickly and so much is lost along the way.

In the new book Women Writing Musicals, Jennifer Ashley Tepper and Applause Theatre & Cinema Books rescue one important part of theatre history: women writing musicals. And it is full of juicy info.

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