Gypsy

If we’re talking 'immersive theatre', Sutherland Memorial School of Arts might well be the ideal choice of venue for the musical Gypsy, based on the memoirs of striptease artiste Gypsy Rose Lee. Certainly it fits the stripped back, small-scale vision which director Michael Astill discusses in his program notes.

Built in 1922, the venue has been nicely adapted as a community theatre space, yet is resonant of smaller, less glamorous Vaudeville halls and theatres through which that ultimate stage mother, Rose, dragged her two daughters, in search of fame and success.

Cut back to eight players, the orchestra sound matches that immersive ambience too, and often feels appropriate to the moment. The exception, sadly, is at the very top of the show. The iconic Gypsy overture, among Broadway’s greatest, with its groundbreaking orchestrations by Sid Ramin and Robert Ginzler, sadly, sounds threadbare, particularly with the sheer exhilaration of trademark moments like its great trumpet solo missing.

Still, in that downtrodden world of fourth rate theatres and halls, Leonie Johnson’s fierce dynamo of a Mama Rose commands the stage all night, driving the show relentlessly in this ultimate mother of a diva role. A diminutive powerhouse with a fabulous set of musical theatre pipes, she’s stamping her mark on some of musical theatre’s great matriarchs, maturing marvelously into these roles after delighting community theatre audiences for years in romantic and ingénue roles.

Early on, Rose’s young daughters are delightful. Scout Van Der Merwe, a relatively late replacement as Baby June, impresses with her cheeky exuberance and extraordinary dance skills. Sian Fuller embodies shy insecurity, drawing empathy as Baby Louise. They combine delightfully with the other child ensemble members to evoke a wonderful sense of second-rate kiddy vaudeville in theatrical scenes (often displaying a sense of excellent dance training in making deliberate errors appear totally un-self-conscious).

Bernice Keen (Louise) and Nicole Butler (June) make a smooth transition from the younger girls, very well matched to their child counterparts. Ms Butler captures the essence of the blonde-wigged child actor who is never allowed to grow up deliciously, with a convincing gradual undercurrent of emerging womanhood. Ms Keen’s rendition of ‘Little Lamb’ was touching, and the two paired admirably in ‘If Moma Was Married’, making it surprising Ms Butler was off pitch from time to time elsewhere (I wondered if the note she was reliable performer was connting on for pitch was missing from the cut-back instrumentation).

As the show transition into more grown-up versions of the child vaudeville act, the older performers matched the kids’ un-self-conscious sense of second-rate entertainment.

As the boys in the act grow up, Sam Larielle does a terrific job of ‘All I Need is the Girl’ as Tulsa, with Bernice Keen’s involvement as Louise quite touching.

On the down side, the production doesn't fully exploit some of the show’s most delightful comedy, as well as some moments of high drama.

Sight gags like bursting the balloons in the opening scene, or mistaking a rhinestone encrusted G string for a necklace in the stripper’s dressing room, are underplayed or missed. In the Act 1 finale, Louise’s silent devastation at her mother’s about-turn to concentrate her star-making efforts on her after June runs off with Tulsa is usually a huge focus, rightly, in the staging of Rose’s ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’, yet here Louise and Rose’s long-suffering boyfriend Herbie (Chae Rogan) simply wander off stage mid song.

As is so often the case, three strippers in a seedy Burlesque theatre utterly steal the show mid-second act. ‘You Gotta Have a Gimmick’ is a certified showstopper, which Lucienne Weber (Electra), Leanne Clark Trumper (Mazeppa), and particularly Rozlyne Vidal (Tessie Tura) milk for every ounce of its potential.

Choreographer Natalie Hennessy captures the moment and generic feel of the down-market vaudeville impressively, then the burlesque of ‘You Gotta Get a Gimmick’, though a little more research was needed into the finer points of Gypsy Rose Lee’s brand striptease to really make her transitional passage really work.  There wasn’t that tantalizingly suggested trademark of nudity never quite revealed.

Still the show rounds out powerfully with the confrontational dressing room scene between Rose and Louise leading into the explosive 11’o’clock number ‘Rose’s Turn’, in which Leonie Johnson leaves no psychological twist unturned, before mother and daughter finally find a sense of rapprochement in the affectingly played final scene.

While plumping for projections in ‘Rose’s Turn’, I’m not sure why the lighting designer and director don’t add their chaser lights, used earlier in the show, throwing everything at an ultimate moment of theatrical fireworks. A big technical plus, though, is the excellent sound mix.

Remarkably, after an absence of several years from the community theatre circuit, one of Broadway’s great musicals is getting two productions in Sydney’s south and north, in a matter of weeks. Despite any personal reservations, I wouldn’t miss either chance to see this great personal favourite, and catching yet another diva channelling their Mama Rose.

Neil Litchfield