Here she is, boys! Here she is, world! Here's
Saw the current revival of 'Gypsy' tonite. Went alone because Greg was working and no one I know can afford to go right now. Actually, I couldn't afford to go, but it's been a good week and Greg was nice enough to say, "If anyone deserves a night out, it's you." Which isn't true, but I was glad he didn't yell at me for spending the dough.
Without seeming too gay, I will admit that I started crying during the overture. Dunno why. It's an upbeat overture. But I got all emotional and teary-eyed, taking in the vastness of the St. James Theatre, the lurid red curtains, the on-stage orchestra bleating out "Everything's Coming Up Roses." I think I cried because I realized in that moment that I can go to Broadway whenever I want. It's a half-hour downtown.
Yeah, I'm in a weird mood. Professionally, I couldn't be any farther from where I want to be. Financially, we're still just scraping by. But ever since I was a kid, I've wanted to be able to see a Broadway show, and now I see one every other month--most of them good.
My dad figured out I was gay because of Gypsy, by the way. In 1989, Tyne Daly starred as Rose in a revival, and I had to special-order the cast album (on cassette!). Dad picked it up for me when it came in. He brought it home, dropped it in my lap, looked at me, and asked, "So you special-order Broadway soundtracks now?" I shrugged. He frowned for a moment, then ruffled my hair and grabbed a beer from the fridge.
I listened to that cast album constantly for months, trying to imagine what the show looked like on stage. When Tyne Daly belted out "Rose's Turn" at the end of the tape, I tried to picture the staging, the set and the performance. When Louise "becomes" Gypsy Rose Lee while singing "Let Me Entertain You," I could hear the transformation in the singer's voice--from homely second fiddle to stripper stardom--but I wanted to watch that transformation.
Since we've been up here, I've always found reasons not to go to shows. Too expensive, bad timing, no one to go with, too tired after work, etc. Mostly valid excuses but sometimes you simply need to do something, and I needed to go see Gypsy, if just because I needed to prove to myself that I wasn't that kid sitting in a chair with a cast album in his lap anymore.
First of all, Patti LuPone lives up to the hype. And the hype surrounding her performance as Rose, for those of you who don't follow theatre, is equal to the hype about Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. It's always that way with whomever plays Rose--from Ethel Mermann to Bernadette Peters (who was playing the role in another production when we moved up here--missed that one), if there's not hype about the actress, then there is no show.
LuPone does what Heath Ledger did. She takes a familliar character you think you know everything about and a role most actresses could sleep-walk thru, and turns it inside out, reinvents it so totally and completely that it's impossible to see it in the same way. The vulnerability of the character is changed; the motivation is different; and the breakdown Rose has at the end? Not to insult the other actresses who've done the role, because those are all classic performances, but LuPone brings that breakdown up to a level rivalling Lear's confrontation of the storm. She attacks the stage, falls so completely apart that it's impossible to breathe. Usually, Rose's breakdown is played as a strong character's defeat; LuPone played it like a strong character's defiance. Her resentment and anger at show-business and her own mother's desertion drives the entirety of the show, but in that last number, LuPone focusses it all so completely that you forget the title of the musical is "Gypsy." The previous 2.5 hours are obliterated.
Just before the show, there was an announcement. Along with the usual "silence your cell phones" and "unwrap your damn candy now" was "Patti LuPone has injured her foot [audible gasp from the crowd--does that mean she won't be performing tonite?] and so will be performing [another audible gasp, this time of relief] in Isotoner shoes. She hopes you enjoy the show." And she did--she performed the entire show in house shoes, and was still blisteringly good. I can't imagine what her Rose is like when properly shod in heels.