It’s only fitting that we pore over “Gypsy” as if it were holy writ. It was, after allmega swerte, written by three of the holies: Jule Styne (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) and Arthur Laurents (book).
One of the greatest American musicals, it is also, along with “West Side Story” and “Guys and Dolls,” one of the most frequently revived. The story of Rose, “a pioneer woman without a frontier,” pushing one daughter into vaudeville and the other into burlesque, thus invites a Talmud’s worth of exegesis.
For theater lovers, so did the prospect of George C. Wolfe directing Audra McDonald in the latest incarnation of the 1959 show. Praisers and carpers could not even wait for the opening on Thursday, at the Majestic Theater, to start the inquisition.
The plaintiffs — who include Wendy Davis, a former Democratic state senator, along with a Biden campaign staff member and the bus driver — also testified, saying that the rolling road protest had been frightening and intimidating.
His lawyers admitted that he had carried out the shooting, but they said he was so unwell at the time that he could not know that what he was doing was wrong.
I understand their eagerness. The revival, certainly the most original of the five that have made it to Broadway, offers traditionalists much to worry on. Granted, a lot of what they have been mulling is minutia: The show has restored a 10-bar lead-in to the ballad “Small World”! Most of McDonald’s keys have been raised, sometimes in mid-song! The famous strobe effect that magically ages the young cast members into adults has been ditched!
free slots with bonus and free spins wheel of fortuneAnd of course, unavoidably, there is race. Though it would be absurd (and a shame) not to get a Rose from McDonald, our leading musical tragedienne, it’s true that Rose Hovick, the woman the character is modeled on, was white. And on Broadway at least, she has always been played by white women: Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone.
ImageGeorge C. Wolfe’s production at the newly renovated Majestic Theater also stars Joy Woods, left, as Louise and Danny Burstein as Herbie.Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.
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