[NEohioPAL] Berko review: GYPSY (Brecksville Theatre on the Square)

Fri May 14 20:29:35 PDT 2010

the only important relationship in theatre is the actor and the audience  
during the performance

that is the magic, and word of mouth is stronger than any ad, any  
publicity, and any positive or negative review

it is true, if you build it, they will come

this review triggered people defending the craft, for that is a good  
thing, you sling it, you take it

thank you

kevin

In a message dated 5/14/2010 10:41:21 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
royberko at yahoo.com writes:

Brecksville’s ‘GYPSY’ exceeds expectations 

Roy  Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES  NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News  
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times

--COOLCLEVELAND.COM—

‘GYPSY’ by  Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents, is a 
musical theatre  classic.   It is based on Gypsy the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, 
the  famous striptease artist and her relationship with her mother, Rose, the  
aggressive show business mother, who appears to be using her daughters to  
achieve what she never could.  In spite of, or maybe because of Rose,  Gypsy 
became a star, and sister June Havoc also achieved acting fame.

I  normally don’t review community theatre shows, but I made an exception 
when I  found out that Monica Olejko was coming out of a self-imposed 
retirement to  star as Mama Rose in Brecksville Theatre on the Square’s ‘GYPSY. ‘ 

I  was not disappointed.  In fact, the production turned out to be much  
better than I anticipated.  Olejko controls a stage.  When she’s on,  all eyes 
are on her.  It’s not that she is a scene stealer, it’s just  that she is 
so talented that almost all her moves are right on point.   Her versions of “
Some People,” “Mr. Goldstone” and “Everything’s Comin’ Up  Roses,” were 
all excellent.  Her verbal and physical attack of “Rose’s  Turn,” often 
called Rose’s Lament, was strong and clearly developed the  message of Rose’s 
understanding of why she pushed her daughters to be what she  couldn’t be.  
Wow!

Robb Gibb was excellent as Herbie.   “You’ll Never Get Away From Me,” his 
duet 
With Rose, was  delightful.

Bridget Chebo was exceptional as Louise.  She has an  excellent voice and 
much stage presence.  

A strong performance  was turned in by Shane Joseph Siniscalchi as Tulsa.

Heather Hersh,  Jeanette Stack Luli, Kimberly Bush, and the audience, had a 
wonderful time  during the trio’s bump and grind routine, “You Gotta Get A 
 Gimmick.”

Musical director Georgiann Bodle did an excellent job of  making sure her 
musicians backed up, rather than overpowered the  singers.  

Director Geoffrey Short kept the show well paced.   It would have been nice 
if he could have worked with some of the support cast  to develop clearer  
and consistent characterizations, but this is  community theatre, and that 
means the quality of the talent can’t be expected  to be consistently top 
drawer.

‘CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:   Thanks  to Monica Olejko, Rob Gibb and Bridget Chebo 
, Brecksville Theatre on the  Square’s ‘GYPSY’ was better than most 
community theatre productions of this  show.    Nice job!

The show continues at Brecksville Theatre  on the Square in the Brecksville 
Old Town Hall through May 16.  Call  440-526-3443 for tickets.

Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and  dance reviews from 2001 
through 2010, as well as his consulting and  publications information, can be 
found at http://royberko.info

His  reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com and NeOHIOpal (to 
subscribe  visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)
Roy  Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 
through 2010,  as well as his consulting and publications information, can be 
found at  http://royberko.info

His reviews can also be found on  www.coolcleveland.com and NeOHIOpal (to 
subscribe visit  http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)

______________________________________
Join "NEohioPAL -  The Fan Page" Facebook page at this link:  
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=116597415030358&ref=mf
______________________________________
NEohioPAL  is SELF-SERVE. If you need to unsubscribe, change from digest to 
one-at-a-time  delivery or vice-versa, go on hiatus while out of town, 
switch from mime to  plain text or vice-versa, etc. check out the FAQS at  
http://www.fredsternfeld.com.
______________________________________
please  consider a voluntary contribution to support Neohiopal -  
http://www.fredsternfeld.com/faqs.htm#support
______________________________________
Disclaimer:  The facts and/or opinions expressed in this message are solely 
those of the  person in the 'from' or 'reply-to' header. The fact that this 
message is  posted should in no way be taken as an endorsement by the 
administrator of  this list. Subscribers should perform due diligence for all 
goods, services  and activities promoted on  NEohioPAL.
_____________________________________
NEohioPAL mailing  list
http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20100514/4b1bdf36/attachment-0004.htm>