Posted Sunday, January 15, 2012, 12:45 PM
Bristol Riverside Theatre (BRT)'s outstanding production of Gypsy, starring acclaimed Broadway actress Tovah Feldshuh, has its final performance at 3 PM today at the Bucks County theater.
Gypsy features music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Arthur Laurents. Part of the BRT’s 25th Anniversary Season, the show opened on December 8.
Feldshuh provides an excellent and memorable performance as overbearing but unflappable central character Rose, an early-20th Century vaudeville stage mother version version of perhaps Marv Marinovich. Rose -- the mother of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee (on whose memoirs the musical is based, but whose role in Gypsy is less central than that of Rose) is often considered one of the most compelling characters in the history of musicals. (Plenty consider Gypsy the most popular musical of all time among industry insiders.)
Not that the casting of Feldshuh is perfect. Her singing is fine, but it is Feldshuh's acting and stage presence more than her singing that have made her a Broadway star. With that in mind, while Rose's character has plenty of opportunity to act, the early part of the show features much revelation of Rose's character via songs ("Some People," "Small World" and "Mr. Goldstone, I Love You"). These parts of the BRT production are not quite as compelling as parts later on in which the show's book calls for Rose's dramatic performance to be able to go full-throttle.
Additionally, early on in the show, Rose is a relatively young mother of young children. It is then when she charms Herbie, the show's male romantic lead (played solidly and virilely by Robert Newman, who for 18 years was a star on The Guiding Light) basically for life, particularly during the song "Small World." Politically incorrect as it may be to mention it, the seductiveness of Rose requires quite a bit too much suspension of disbelief when there is a 59-year-old actress involved. This is not so much a challenge for this particular production of Gypsy as a frequent problem with productions of Gypsy in general, the plot of which covers approximately 10-15 years. It should be noted that Patti Lupone was approximately the same age as Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of the show. (Ethel Merman, who likely was not all that seductive, was 51 in the original Broadway production in 1959.)
But that's nitpicking, and Feldshuh's performance significantly grows on the audience as the show continues.
As Louise/Gypsy Rose Lee, Amanda Rose is perfectly demure and pure, at least until her character makes the transition to savvy stripper. Claire O'Neill, one of the most talented performers in Delco Idol Jr. this past summer, is outstanding as the young Louise. As young Baby June, Riley Kanter is wonderfully energetic and versatile in terms of acrobatic stage tricks, while portraying the role with the perfect balance of being charming yet irritating.
The show provides excellent into American theater history, both vaudeville and burlesque (e.g., lines such as "When a vaudeville act plays in Burlesque, it's finished" and "I've been telling you vaudeville's dead, stone-cold dead").
It seems that, the way the story of Gypsy develops, it would be particularly fun to attend the show knowing nothing about it ahead of time. (This was not and will not be an option for this reviewer until perhaps senility sets in.)
The lowlight of the performance Philadelphia Jewish Culture Examiner attended comes from the "these kids today..." file. BRT ushers did not even seem to bother trying to silence some insufferable teenagers (approximately 14-15 years old, to venture a guess) in the row immediately behind this reviewer. These audience members, particularly titillated about what the day-to-day work of a stripper entails, did a successful job of ruining several parts toward the end of the show for audience members nearby. And these were not a-bit-out-of-place-but-we-of-course-need-to-give-them-a-chance "inner city" kids; they for the most part appeared to be white "school drama club" types who really should know better.
Tickets start at $40, with discounts for students and groups. Tickets are available by visiting brtstage.org or by calling the BRT Box Office at 215-785-0100. Bristol Riverside Theatre is located at 120 Radcliffe Street in Bristol.
Coming up next at BRT will be the world premiere of A Raw Space by Jon Marans, who is the author of last season’s celebrated Pulitzer Prize nominated Old Wicked Songs. According to the BRT website, in A Raw Space, "the lives of two high powered couples tangle during a private interior design competition. The competition quickly grows more private than they bargain for and is not necessarily limited to design. The shocking end results in an elegant interplay between architectural design and marriage that only Jon Marans could weave."
Tickets to A Raw Space, which begins previews on Tuesday, January 31, be purchased via this link.
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