Gypsy
Gypsy By Jule Styne, Steven Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents
Directed by W. Robert Sherry
Starring Margo Moreland, Elizabeth Weisstein, Jennifer Finch
Rollins College, Winter Park FL.
If it wasn’t for stage moms, there might be a few more happy, adjusted people in the world. Rose (Moreland) never made it on stage, and she substitutes her daughter’s lives for her own as she pursues the fading vaudeville circuit. Baby June (Christina Pitts) is adorable in that syrupy way that charmed America 100 year ago, and finds a B-list success that Rose milks until she develops her breasts and turns into the Older June (Finch). A shift in marketing doesn’t help cash flow, and June flees with one of her supporting dancers. That leaves Rose and Louise (Weisstein) to fend for themselves in a seedy burlesques house, where Louise takes to stripping. When Louis finds the fame and wealth Rose never had, Rose is miffed, and looks back on her life in the blow out final number “Curtain”.
“Gypsy” comes as close to the canonical Great American Musical as any other show you can name. Packed with hits (“Let Me Entertain You”, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”) and a loveable story of success after struggle, it succeeds on nearly every level. Sherry’s stage direction and Jason Wetzel’s musical direction finds all the warmth and pathos the story puts forth. Ms. Moreland belts the songs on a clever set with a runway and stage arch that brings the cast perilously close to falling in the orchestra pit. The Kiddy Acts are suitably schlocky, and June in both her incantations feels perfectly comfortable in here role as a perma-child. Louise, however, feels weak as the stripper. She never succeeds in making her act erotic, and it’s hard to buy her success in the final scenes.
As a parent, you have some sort of right to influence your offspring, but it’s patently unfair to make them replicate what you dreamt for yourself and failed, or worse, at what you succeeded in doing. Rose pushes her dream onto everyone around her, and while the abuse makes them stronger, it robs them of what they might have dreamt and done them selves. While the singing, dancing and spectacle are outstanding, this is still a cautionary tale – guide your children, but when they are old enough to sass back, consider letting them make their own decisions. If they’re happy, you should be happy.
For more information on the Annie Russell Theatre at Rollins College, please visit http://www.rollins.edu/theatre/index.shtml