Savoy
Theatre
8th
August 2015
Following their
collaboration for the Chichester Festival Theatre’s 2011, Olivier Award winning
production of Sweeney Todd, director Jonathan Kent and leading lady Imelda
Staunton once again work magic with Sondheim. Here the composer’s trademark
lyrical wordplay perfectly complements Jule Styne’s full bodied score – it is
also wonderful to hear a proper (that is, lengthy) overture and entr’acte in
the west end, something which seems to have fallen out of fashion in recent years.
From curtain up we are
thrown into the transient world of show business and the show-within-a-show
framework works well as a rather meta introduction to the musical. The knowing
precociousness of ‘Let Me Entertain You’ – brilliantly performed by the cast of
children, amongst whom Baby June particularly shines - is swiftly halted as we
meet the brash force behind the twee-ness. From her famous opening line, ‘Sing
out, Louise!’, heckling her own daughter from the back of the stalls, it is
evident that Mama Rose (Imelda Staunton) is the gurning, jazz-hand wielding, nightmarish,
mother of all stage mothers. As the defiant ‘Some People’ highlights, Rose will
stop at nothing to get ahead, even stealing from her Pop to fund her dreams of glory.
As Rose and her brood of
talented tykes trundle on through their never-ending road trip (the rolling
location credits to the side of the proscenium are a nice detail) the children
soon grow up and grow out of Mama’s tired vaudeville acts. Gemma Sutton and Dan
Burton as the grown up June and Tulsa convey all the yearning of child stars
stuck in their own past and their inevitable decision to leave the care of Rose
is poignantly bittersweet.
While Burton and Peter
Davison’s poor doormat of an agent/boyfriend, Herbie offer fine male support, Gypsy is all about the women. Lara
Pulver’s transformation from mild and shy Louise, forced to play the rear end
of a cow in one of many hilarious set pieces, to the sexy and seductive Gypsy
Rose Lee – all in the space of one song! – is a sight to behold. Styne and
Sondheim’s use of the reprise of Baby June’s ‘Let Me Entertain You’ here is a
masterstroke and sums up the uncomfortable limbo that child performers can be
subject to. Also remarkable are Louise Gold, Julie Legrand and Anita Louise
Combe’s trio of aging strippers; their ‘You Gotta Get A Gimmick’ is pure camp.
But if Kent’s production
belongs to anyone, it is most definitely Staunton. Her Rose is droll, brazen,
imposing, and, ultimately, extremely vulnerable. The image of her hunched
figure being led off stage makes for a touching final tableau and coming almost
directly after her show-stopping ‘Rose’s Turn’ highlights how versatile an
actor Staunton is. Above all, she is heart-wrenchingly human, the audience
experiences a whole spectrum of emotion along with Rose as Staunton imbues her
with a charisma and relatability that creates a light and shade to the
character, even in her harshest moments there remain echoes of tenderness.
Anthony Ward’s design feels
intimate in the smaller Savoy theatre (especially when compared to Curve’s 2012
production which utilised the theatre’s vast stage), but the set details are
beautiful and convey a sense of time and place effectively, especially in the
back-stage scenes.
Musicals rarely come as
classy or more perfectly formed as Gypsy
and Kent’s production absolutely does service to the work of Styne, Sondheim
and Laurents and should go down as a classic revival in years to come. While
accolades are to be expected, come awards season it will be a huge shock especially
if Staunton is not universally recognised for her performance.
Gypsy
plays
at the Savoy Theatre until 28th November 2015
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