GYPSY A MUSICAL FABLE

 

 

 Gypsy A Musical Fable. Book by Arthur Laurents. Music by Jules Styne. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Jude Colquhoun. Choreography by Belinda Hassall. Musical Director Brigid Cummins. Assistant Director Christina Philipp. Production Managers Inge Kent and May Kent. Repetiteur Brigid Cummins. Stage Manager Justine Ramsay. Costume Designer Suzan Cooper. Properties Master Pip Russell Brown. Lighting Designer Zac Harvey (Eclipse). Sound Designer Telia Jansen (Eclipse) Queanbeyan Players. The Q Theatre. October 30 – November 8. Bookings: www.theq.net.au 

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins.

 

Emily Pogson is Gypsy Rose Lee

 

Vaudeville is dying. America is hit with the Great depression. The Talkies are the new rage. It is against this backdrop that Mama Rose (Emma White) battles to make her youngest daughter Baby June (Matilda Hutchinson) a star on the vaudeville circuit. Rose is the archetypal stage mother and White plays her with all the passion, perseverance and interfering tenacity of a bull terrier pushing daughters Little Louise (Elodie Sweett) and Baby June under the noses of producers across the country. Rose has a dream and it’s gonna come true baby. The years go by and Mama Rose keeps pushing Louise (Emily Pogson) and Dainty June (Paris Ellis) with the same old spiel of Let Me Entertain You.  But as her practical admirer Herbie (Steve Galinec) keeps reminding her the times are changing. But Rose has a dream and no candy selling man or producer will stop her from making sure that Everything’s Coming up Roses, even if Louise’s stardom must be found as a last resort in the emerging showbiz world of burlesque.

Elodie Sweett is Little Louise. Matilda Hutchinson as Baby June

 

 Gypsy has been hailed as the Mother of All Musicals and Queanbeyan Players’ production, directed effectively by Jude Colquhoun, choreographed faithfully by Belinda Hassall and musically directed with affection for the era by Brigid Cummins have preserved the spirit and flavour of a bygone era. Gypsy is the original American bio-musical, telling the true-life story of Queen of the Burlesque Gypsy Rose Lee. Since then musical creators such as Lloyd-Weber and Rice, Shoenberg and Boubil and Sondheim have drawn on historical characters and events to create their work.  Queanbeyan Players’ creative team have been faithful to Jerome Robbins’s original 1956 production.

Steven Galinec as Herbie. Emma White as Rose, Emily Pogson as Louise 

 

From the moment the plush red curtain slowly rises on the orchestra in full view at the back of the Q Theatre stage we are reminded of the big band era of the Twenties and Thirties and under Brigid Cummins’s musical direction the outstanding orchestra does the era and Jules Syne’s composition full justice. The whizz bang technical wizardry of many of today’s big stage musicals is replaced by simple placards or roll in roll out settings to denote the action of the musical. To some it may appear dated. To me it appeared endearing and genuine, allowing the performances and Styne’s music and Sondheim’s lyrics to entertain us. Only the use of miking gave a nod to the modern musical. It certainly allows White to belt out Everything’s Coming Up Roses with full throttled feeling and vocal dynamism, but there are moments where I would have liked to hear a natural, heartfelt rendition of the musical’s fabulous melodies. It does achieve that sensitivity in Pogson’s Litle Lamb, White’s Small World and Some People. Hassall’s choreography also captures the essential simplicity and charm of Gypsy’s natural vitality of the Toreadorables number or endearing rustic comedy of Dainty June and her Farmboys.

Rose's Toreadorables in Gypsy

 

 In Queanbeyan Player’s production, every number is a hit from a showstopping Rose’s Turn to the farcical Mr Goldstone or Dainty June and Louise’s desperate plea If Mama Was Married and the stripper’s number You Gotta Get A Gimmick with Aleisha Croxford, Alissa Pearson and Sarah Hull. Hassall’s choreography lends whimsy and longing to Tulsa’s dance routine, performed by Ash Syme with Pogson.

Paris Ellis as Dainty June. Emily Pogson as Louise in Gypsy

 

There are fine performances from the cast, including Galinec’s forlorn suitor Herbie, who brings certain pathos to the story as he confronts rejection of his marriage proposal. White captures the blind stubbornness of Rose’s blinkered ambition, risking the loss of an audience’s sympathy which is given to Herbie. But Rose is a survivor, a battler of the era and ironically responsible for Louise’s eventual career. 

Emma White as Rose

 

There is excellent support from an irritatingly precocious and puppeteered Hutchinson as Baby June and her manipulated older self Dainty June, played by Ellis. But it is Pogson’s performance as Louise that is utterly galvanizing. As the gawky, insecure second banana to sister June, apple of her mother’s eye, Pogson exudes an air of low self esteem. There is pathos in her routine with Tulsa as she is forced to realize her mother’s dream after June’s departure. It is played with enormous sensitivity by Pogson. However it is her transition from wallflower to glittering queen of the burlesque that makes Gipsy Rose Lee’s ugly duckling story such a powerful metaphor for the American Dream. Pogson bewitches not only in the art of burlesque but as a symbol of hope for any dreamer. The irony is palpable and in Queanbeyan Players’ production of the classic musical and forerunner of a new generation of inspired musicals looks back and may well ask what dreams lie ahead for an AI generation of musicals.

Emma White as Rose. Emily Pogson as Gypsy Rose Lee

 

Baby June asks nothing more than Let Me Entertain You. Let Me Make You Smile. You will leave this production entertained, smiling and humming such classic numbers as Together We Go after an old fashioned evening of great entertainment.

Photos by Janelle McMenamin.