Beck’s imbalanced ‘Gypsy’ entertains but does not enthrall Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, American Theatre Critics Association Winner of multiple Tony, Grammy, and Drama Desk Awards for both the original 1959 Broadway production and its 1974, 1989, 2003 and 2008 revivals, Arthur Laurents’ “Gypsy,” with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, is considered one of the standard bearers of the old-timey American musical. The story, based loosely on the memoirs of famous striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee and set during the 1920s and 1930s, follows an overbearing mother and her two performer daughters from one run-down theater to another just as vaudeville was regressing into burlesque.
From this musical came such memorable tunes as “Let Me Entertain You” and the infamous Mama Rose – the poster child for billboard-sized show business mothers – which has served as a prominent showcase for leading ladies the likes of Ethel Merman in the original production and Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daily, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone in subsequent revivals.
Natalie Blalock stars as Mama Rose in the Beck Center for the Arts’ entertaining but less-than-enthralling production. For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/