Gypsy

Imelda Staunton is sensational as Mama Rose! It’s simply one of the great performances of this Mother Courage of musical theatre roles, and she has a Best Actress Olivier Award to prove it. Determined, strident, but vulnerable, not only does every line-reading have character, but also every song-lyric. She’s the best Mama Rose I’ve ever seen on stage. Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece could not be in better hands.

The rest of the performers don’t stand a chance with Staunton, who blazes her name into the history books with this role. Her voice is perfect. She can belt, play it pianissimo, or color the notes with warm honey, all the time delivering a powerhouse performance. Her first-act closer ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’ is unbelievably emotional, likewise the finale ‘Rose’s Turn’, with ‘Together Wherever We Go’ simply a delightful ensemble number.

Peter Davidson (Law & Order UK) as her long-suffering other half, finds warmth and love in the part, and holds his own as he shuffles in the dance department in ‘You’ll Never Get Away From Me’ and ‘Together Wherever We Go’.

Lara Pulver is a bland and not very sexy Louise, but the acting performance is stunningly good. With steely determination, she makes the daughter who’s been ignored all her life, a winner. It’s no surprise she won an Olivier for her part.

Anita Louise Combe, last seen in Australia in the 2011 revival of A Chorus Line, is wonderfully vulgar as stripper Tessie Tura, and walks away with ‘You’ve Gotta Have a Gimmick’.

Jonathan Kent’s direction helps give the piece texture, with Rose weaving in and out during auditions for Ziegfeld etc, and running on to the stage at odd moments interfering. Stephen Mear’s choreography mines the vaudeville moves of the period, whilst Anthony Ward’s, sets and costumes are seedily stylish with a great use of sepia and B&W images which quickly tell us where we are.

Best of all however is Nicholas Skilbeck, who does wonders in the pit with some new orchestrations, and crisp, blistering, brass work. The iconic overture bubbles with theatricality. If you never watch another performance of Gypsy, watch this. It’s the gold-standard!

Peter Pinne            

Photographer: Johan Persson