“Gypsy”

City Center, New York • 17 July 2007 • 7pm
Book by Arthur Laurents. Music by Jule Styne. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Directed by Arthur Laurents. Music Director: Patrick Vaccariello. With Patti LuPone (Rose), Boyd Gaines (Herbie), Laura Benanti (Louise), Leigh Ann Larkin (June), Tony Yazbeck (Tulsa), Marilyn Caskey (Electra), Alison Fraser (Tessie Tura), Nancy Opel (Miss Cratchitt/Mazeppa)…

Interesting to see Patti LuPone go from a great performance as Rose last year under Lonny Price’s guidance at the Ravinia Festival to a substandard, at times mind-bogglingly bad portrayal in this misguided production, which is supposed to be a (way) out-of-town try-out for a forthcoming London run.

The pace and delivery feel so wrong at times it looks as if Arthur Laurents took a sort of perverse pleasure in harming his own material. And some pieces of stage business — like the amount of scenes played in front of the curtain — really look amateurish.

The paradox is that some of the actors give wonderful performances: Boyd Gaines is a sensitive, heartbreaking Herbie; Laura Benanti’s transformation from shy tomboy to star stripper is sensational; Nancy Opel steals every scene she’s in as Miss Cratchitt… and the three strippers are a hoot.

But Patti LuPone looks as if she left something in the oven and is in a hurry to get back home after the performance. Many subtleties of the book and lyrics are lost to an absent-minded or rushed delivery. And her famed botched enunciation is back. Beside, she ends an otherwise fine “Rose’s Turn” on an ugly scream which must be the most tasteless thing I’ve seen on a musical theatre stage in a long time.

But the audience didn’t seem to mind. They were all on their feet after “the scream.” Go figure…

“Seussical”

Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York • 17 July 2007 • 10:30am
Music by Stephen Flaherty. Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Book by Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty. Based on the works of Dr. Seuss.

Produced by Theatreworks USA. Directed & choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. With Shorey Walker (The Cat in the Hat), Michael Wartella (JoJo), Brian Michael Hoffman (Horton the Elephant), Karen Weinberg (Gertrude McFuzz), Kelly Felthous (Mayzie La Bird), Ebony Marshall-Oliver (Sour Kangaroo/Young Kangaroo)…

When I originally saw Seussical on Broadway in 2001, part of the fun came from being in the middle of an audience of kids who responded heartily to what happened on stage. Strangely enough, the audience at the Lortel, consisting almost entirely of groups of kids from various summer camps, failed to show the same level of enthusiasm to this version labelled “for Young Audiences,” which lasts about 75 minutes. (In the mezzanine, where I sat, it was obvious the kids who filled the three rows in front of me were utterly bored.)

And yet the show is very professionally done, with an outstanding contribution from director/choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge, who really keeps things going in a fluid and energetic manner. But maybe the smaller format of this production puts more emphasis on the show’s faults. Sometimes the big dollars of a Broadway production come in handy when the material is not 100% perfect. There is no time for the audience to really identify or empathise with the characters on stage. Beside, the actress who plays The Cat in the Hat really looks and acts too much like a school teacher, which creates a serious lack of magic exactly where it should come from.