Review of reviews: Stage

Gypsy

St. James Theatre, New York

(212) 239-6200

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“Whether you’re seeing Gypsy for the first (or fourth or fifth) time, you’ll want to catch Arthur Laurents’ revival starring Patti LuPone,” said John Heilpern in The New York Observer. Laurents, who wrote the script for the Jule Styne–Stephen Sondheim masterwork in 1959, has spent a half-century contemplating these characters. Now 90, he’s directing Gypsy for the third time, and it’s never been more clear that Laurents “knows what he’s doing.” Over the years the indomitable Rose—the soul-crushing stage mother from hell—has been played by Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, and Bernadette Peters. With his decision to cast LuPone in the role, Laurents strikes gold. “It takes a diva to play a diva, and Ms. LuPone is the most authentic Rose we’re likely to see.”

“Watch out, New York,” said Ben Brantley in The New York Times. LuPone, who played Rose a bit self-indulgently in a limited run back in July, has found her focus here. And when LuPone is focused, “she’s a laser, she incinerates.” Here she masterfully captures the character’s first-act vivacity, and in the final act LuPone makes us feel pity for Rose’s overweening need for control. The performance’s high points are Rose’s two curtain numbers, “Rose’s Turn” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” which together exhibit a psychological darkness that “takes over so completely, you feel you’re watching a woman who has peeled down to her unadorned id.”

Those two numbers “cement LuPone’s performance as one for the history books,” said David Rooney in Variety. Indeed, her performance is often so strong you’d assume it would overwhelm everyone else on stage. But that’s not the case. Boyd Gaines is no spineless mouse as Herbie, Rose’s perpetually frustrated suitor. Leigh Ann Larkin gives a full-bodied performance as the petulant daughter Louise, and Laura Benanti is rapturous as Rose’s most famous offspring, the tomboy turned burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee. Benanti “emerges like a butterfly” from her mother’s shadow, and when she proves she can hold the stage against LuPone’s Rose, you know she’s going to be okay.