Відео

Glad you liked it!

Yes! You are correct. I usually do a little sum up at the end but I missed it on this one. What was confusing about my big strip comment? Happy to clarify!

Thanks! You're right. I was trying to make the point that Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurents had a similar understanding of the piece as opposed to someone like Sam Mendes or George C Wolfe.

Thanks for watching!

Well when you put it like that you make me sound racist and technophobic! LOL Yeh I admit that I missed the boat on this one. I plan to give it another view after the new year. Thanks for the comment! Everyone should go see Maybe Happy Ending and tell me how wrong I am!

Yes, that's what I tell my mother. :-)

@JudiRadin I saw the first press preview. The show had been frozen.

Yup!

LOL I was afraid that might be confusing. Songs are generally divided into 8 bar sections, So an AABA song means one 8 bar "A'" melody is repeated twice then a different 8 bar "B" melody gives us a break before coming back to a final "A" melody. Let's look at Small World from Gypsy - A1 Funny, you're a stranger who's come here, Come from another town. Funny, I'm a stranger myself here. Small world, isn't it? A2 Funny, you're a man who goes traveling Rather than settling down. Funny, 'cause I'd love to go traveling. Small world, isn't it? B (new melody) We have so much in common, It's a phenomenon. We could pool our resources By joining forces from now on. A3 (with a tag to finish) Lucky, you're a man who likes children. That's an important sign. Lucky, I'm a woman with children. Small world, isn't it? Funny, isn't it small and funny and fine?

@ Thank you for the explanation.. I'd have to read it several times to get it.. Love your videos..🥰.. I saw Patti in it, but my favorite is Bette’s.. It's on my local channel all the time…Barbra talked about having an opportunity, but Sondheim kept putting her off.. Would have been an interesting take..👌🏾… I love Patti so much in general.. I saw her and Mandy in Evita 4 times..when Broadway was affordable..🤭

Thanks for watching! When Broadway was affordable? LONG time ago! LOL

Yes, you could say she is vocally miscast.

👍

I am glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you 🙂

@gwmpsp420 You're not wrong.

@ don’t get me wrong, I think she’s a musical theater treasure, just not quite right for this show. (Also MY favorite!)

I agree. But if Audra is performing I will go!

@frederickcombs8661 to win Audra her 7th Tony?

Your husband's reaction is very telling! Are you referring to the 2018 Broadway revival of Carousel? I remember thinking that the show's approach to domestic violence was very problematic for modern audiences and not helped by the color blind casting. Interesting that the 1994 revival of carousel used non-traditional casting by having Audra McDonald play Carrie. That casting choice was very well received. I also have to clarify that after I recorded this review I decided that this production of Gypsy is indeed non-traditional and not color blind. It think we're meant to see Rose's race as another obstacle she has to overcome.

Depends what Nicole Scherzinger posts on her social media over the next 4 months! :-O Of the past 5 Madame Roses on Broadway 3 have won the Tony for best Actress. So those odds are good. I'm not sure if the fact that a she already has 6 Tonys will work for her or against her. At this point I would choose Audra over Nicole because I value truthful acting over meta theatrics. But the Tony awards are ultimately a marketing tool so we will have to see how things develop over the next 4 months! What do you think?

You're correct! But I don't think they used an actual car as a set piece like they do in this revival. And the choreography for the sign dancers is different because it's not Jerome Robbins choreography. I quite liked what Camille A Brown did with the dancers in this section. Here's the Arthur Laurents direction with Patti it's more tongue in cheek as she kidnaps the boys. lol ua-cam.com/video/z6A9vR48Wnc/v-deo.htmlsi=76YwRAwR-psTB_kk

I cut this from my review but I really liked Danny Burstein as Herbie and Jordan Tyson as June. And the 3 strippers are great! But it's really difficult to compare Sunset to Gypsy because they're such different interpretations. I think that Sunset will win the best revival Tony over Gypsy because it's doing something more daring. The question is who will win best actress in a musical?

@MADHAUSMARKALLAN OMG! I think you are right! I completely missed that aspect of the casting of June as a lighter skinned black woman. And I didn't realize she was wearing lighter make up, but now that you mention it, I do remember thinking that Jordan looked a lot paler on stage! And then she puts Louise in a cow costume so we can't see her skin color and casts white chorus boys!! And then she gets Herbie, a white man, to act as her agent! Rose was white washing the act! This is all coming together for me now. Thanks for sharing your insight!

@brianfauth143 Hey Brian! I WAS at the Saturday Matinee! LOL Small world isn't it? :-) You must have a very bright shiny head to catch Joy's eye from so far away. I love that you had that interactive moment in the theater! I think my comment was more about Joy lacking the "stand up comic" energy that allows us to see GRL coming into her own as a performer. If she chooses someone in the Orchestra then everyone in the theater can see who she is talking to and it becomes funnier. So next time you see Gysy sit down front in the orchestra! :-) In the Patti Lupone revival, Laura Benanti was so great in this scene, but if you've seen Laura in any of her solo shows you know that she is terrific at stand up. I thought the French and Greek lines were in there. She speaks French when she comes out and then says she's also been studying greek and that's how she learned the word "ecdysiast". I don't believe they changed any of the Arthur Laurents script.

I think it will make it till the Tonys because of all the love and critical acclaim it's receiving. I think it will be rewarded with lots of nominations and hopefully that will give it a boost.

@NFNJP Vocally not the ideal casting but I will see anything that Audra is in because I love watching great actors on stage even if they are not perfect for the role. I really wonder what Audra would sound like if she chose to sing the songs in the lower keys and just stay in her chest voice. It's not like Angela Lansbury has a big belt. In fact, of all the broadway Roses, she sang Rose's turn in the lowest key and Audra sang it in the highest - half an octave higher than Angela! I'm posting a tangent talk video about this on Thursday.

@EricMontreal22 You're right! I take it back. I was more trying to suggest that Jerome and Arthur's understanding of the text were very similar as compared to someone like Sam Mendes. Of course Arthur would change the staging and direction to suit the actor playing Rose. After all he's working with big stars who couldn't be put in cookie cutter direction. Thanks for calling me out! :-)

@@MatthewHardyMusical Right! From Laurents' On Directing he also seemed to think that Robbins was great at stage images and working with dancers but not with any dramatic acting (others of course would disagree here) so he claimed he properly put the focus back on this in his Gypsy productions (and his WSS revival which I strongly disliked but what do I know? ;) )

I could see that coming from Arthur as the book writer. Writers often struggle with directors not fully grasping their vision.

@@MatthewHardyMusical Yeah I think Laurents really struggled with his contribution being the least recognized--for West Side Story anyway (where Bernstein and Robbins get most of the glory--Laurents showed him though by cutting to ribons the dream ballet when he directed it :P ) but the irony is a lot of musical theatre common wisdom DOES credit Laurents with writing the best book for a traditional (R&H style) musical with Gypsy... But you wouldn't realize that from his rants in his book (which IS an entertaining read...)

I'll have to check it out! I saw Laurents speak at the performing arts library in 2009 when he was 91 years old and he was so quick and sharp. I remember thinking, "I want to be like that when I'm 91." It really is a great book for a musical and a much harder task than adapting a play or a novel that already have a solid dramatic structure.

@BroadwayGuy Sure! Chest voice is darker, rougher, and provides the power in one's singing voice. Head voice is lighter and only useful by itself at or near the top of one's range. (I stole that from Quora.) For a male singer the head voice is often called falsetto. I sing in chest and falsetto (head voice) here - ua-cam.com/video/J_E7tkVO1NY/v-deo.htmlsi=01jLv1rdyYDszi3Y&t=718 Now, I'm nowhere near as good a vocalist as Audra so the difference between my head and chest voice is VERY noticeable. Audra is much better at navigating between the two than I am.

I saw Patti. She was born to play that role! Tyne was great too. I love Bernadette but I thought she was miscast.

@thrillingopera8125 Thank you for this insightful comment! I agree with most of what you wrote. That said, I did enjoy Jordan as June-despite the overacting. I took it as June being a bit of a dramatic diva. I also wouldn’t suggest that any of the creatives were “phoning it in” (them’s fighting words!). I believe the creatives were focusing on what it would be like for a Black woman existing in this world. After all, it’s a musical fable, so we can suspend disbelief and pretend that Rose could have achieved as much success as she did-even though, realistically, there’s NO WAY a woman of color could have gotten away with this during that time period. She would have been killed! However, you’re correct that the text doesn’t fully support this approach, which explains the confusion I had about the casting. As for Tony picks, I’m going to withhold mine for a few months until I see which way the winds are blowing. And yes, I always try to err on the side of being nice. Everyone is working hard, and theater ain’t easy!

@jenniferlapidus2229 100%!! Patti IS Madame Rose. They are a very similar personalities so the role was perfect for her. And Laura Benanti! I think the best Louise I've seen.

I think it will depend on what Nicole Scherzinger posts on social media over the next 4 months. lol Thanks for the comment!

Overthinking is my brand! I think this production was trying to make it about race, hence all the comments regarding the casting. Thanks for the comment!

He was BROADWAY! (and BALLET!) Icon.

Well, I don't think Madame Rose replaced her daughters. But yes, in this production the only explanation is that Louise and June grow up and the boys are replaced to make the show whiter. I don't think the act ever grows up. That's the problem! Thanks for the comment!

100% correct. I was inarticulate. I was trying to say that the understanding of the show and its themes were more similar between Arthur and Jerome than someone like Sam Mendes. I'm sure he approached the staging fresh for each actor that stepped into the role.

@giggles7179 I thought they were all great! Mazeppa actually plays the trumpet quite well. Tessie has clearly had some classical dance training. And I think Electra was drunk. :-)

Thank you for pointing that out! I do these so fast that I make lots of mistakes. I have fixed it!

Good question. Looking at bootlegs from previous productions the show can run between 2 hours and 30 minutes and 2 hours and 50 minutes But the Broadway productions tend to be on the longer side. Gypsy is an older show so with the Overture, the Entr'acte and a curtain call for 30+ actors they tend to run long. In this production I thought the first act could be tightened up but for me Act 2 really moves - with the exception of when the Toreadorables arrive at the Burlesque stage door. That scene transition took forever! But once we hit burlesque the show flies. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Good question! What did he think of Sam Mendes production? I don't know if he'd be open to exploring the racial dynamic of Rose being a woman of color or not. Thanks for watching!

Lots of thoughts spinning around in this head of mine! Thanks for watching!

Ironically, casting Hamilton with white actors would be considered non-traditional casting. lol Just wait till they license it for schools!

Thanks for the comment and for agreeing with me! :-) After posting my review I often watch it again and disagree with myself! I think they raised the keys for most of the songs to put them in a soprano register. I am REALLY curious what they would have sounded like if Audra had just sung them in the original keys and not used her head voice at all. For a lyric soprano she actually has some really good low notes so I think she could have handled it. But what do I know? I'm sure she played around with each song to find the key that would work best. Still I wonder....

⁠That's very interesting. I didn't realize that the songs had been raised. Like you I missed the growth of the strip sequences. There wasn't much to each one and then suddenly in the Garden of Eden they gave us Josephine Baker dancing up a storm! Impressive dancing for sure but not Gypsy Rose Lee. It's as if they knew the actress could dance so they gave her a big dance number. They also lengthened Tulsa's dance break but that didn't bother me too much nor did having a Mazeppa who could play the trumpet quite well and a lot. Things like that got an ok from me but the belted money notes were a loss unfortunately. The performer I really enjoyed (which surprised me) was Dainty June (the grownup). Now she had the makings of Madame Rose. She was barreling through the production throughout. She had the grit, anger, and belt that was like a Madame Rose. As I later shared with friends, it was as if the director rehearsed the show as a straight play. The acting scenes were all first rate and believable. It felt like had been given a lot of investigative rehearsal time. And then just before previews they inserted the songs and choreography which had all been rehearsed separately for weeks in another studio. The one thing that I also really agree with you on but didn't notice when I saw the show was when the four young black boys became four white teenagers. You are so right about that, too. One or two of those teens needed to be black. And the three strippers could have one black woman. In fact, I think an all-black production (like Pearl Bailey's Hello Dolly) would have been quite effective and permissible on Bway these days. In the end and as you said, the production was a way to see Audra in all her talented glory. She's a great talent for sure. @@MatthewHardyMusical

I didn't realize Tulsa's dance break had been lengthened. Now that you mention it did feel long and it got some applause half way through which made it seem like it ended twice. Loved Mazeppa's trumpeting! I really enjoyed Jordan's performance as June too. They also did a good job of casting a baby June that looked like she could believably grow up to June as an adult. When I edited the review I added a thought bubble that said "Maybe Rose fired the black dancers and replaced them." and then after posting the video I realized that was exactly what happened. Mama Rose is white washing the act for white audiences as they become more successful. So the boys weren't growing up, they were being replaced! This is why the strippers were white (and asian but I couldn't tell from my seat). I think they were showing that Louise stood out because she's black. Maybe that was her gimmick?

Wow. That's an interesting possibility. I wonder if other audience members picked up on that??? (I splurged to buy an expensive ticket and was sitting in the orchestra third row center. Audra did Rose's Turn practically on top of me! Sweat and spit flying! She was electric when she was down in front of the actual or orchestra. Passorale???).

Great question! I wouldn’t call Hamilton non-traditional because it’s a new musical, and there’s no established tradition. Ironically, if you performed Hamilton now with white actors, that would be considered non-traditional because the roles have traditionally been played by people of color. Hamilton is color-blind in the sense that the characters don’t see each other based on race. However, it’s not 100% color-blind for the audience, as we’re viewing the story of the Founding Fathers through the lens of contemporary music and the struggles of people of color to find their place in this country. While most of the characters can be played by actors of any ethnicity, casting them all as white would detract from the essential element that makes the piece so groundbreaking.

No, it's not true.

@brainbryan I feel that the creative team for this production is subtly addressing issues of racism in show business. I didn’t realize this until I started having conversations with people on this feed, but the play begins with Rose presenting her girls at Uncle Jocko’s Kiddie Show, which appears to consist entirely of Black performers. As the play progresses, Rose changes her Vaudeville act to appear more white as they become more successful. She puts her lighter-skinned daughter, June, front and center, while eventually hiding her darker-skinned daughter, Louise, in a cow costume. She starts with black backup dancers and later replaces them with white dancers. She even seduces Herbie, a white man, to act as her agent. It’s a fascinating take that I didn’t fully grasp until afterward.

@AR36-45 welllllllllll....

@@MatthewHardyMusical it’s very subtle, critical race theory-ish. I saw and worked on Carousel with Audra and it was colorblind casting which worked perfectly, yet all her covers were black. It’s hard to say why, but I do know technically you light a black person very differently then a white person onstage and sometimes there are other factors, like money costs to re light the show, involved why people are cast that have nothing to do with best choice, black or white

That's really interesting. I didn't see the Carousel revival at Lincoln Center but from the reviews I read I was lead to believe that Audra's casting was non-traditional as opposed to color blind. How did they cast Mister Snow and their children?

Yes! I'm sure you were electrifying

True! But June and Louise refer to her as Mama. In my review I refer to her twice as Madame Rose and as Mama Rose 9 times. But I have a very close relationship with her. Please forgive.

Who?

@ Audra

What does that even mean?

Seriously you should look up her bio Audra started at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater in Fresno California as a kid and so she gets the Show kid

@KirkLinnDeGrassi Ah! I see what you're saying. Thanks for the info!

@eaglerockers Thanks! Not sure if the issue is location or lack of funds. But there re $39 standing room on sold out performances.