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Audra McDonald: "Gypsy"

 People are complaining that "Gypsy" gets revived too much--but I want to dismiss this claim.


A big, brassy score and an original idea: These things are not encountered on Broadway very often. A jukebox musical may have been a guilty pleasure in the era of "Jersey Boys," but now the idea is so over-harvested, it makes me sad. The same for the movie-to-stage trend: "Death Becomes Her," "Pretty Woman," "Big Fish." These are stories that are not great on the screen, in their original forms. Why re-fry them and serve them up as musicals?

The "Gypsy" team said, "There's this quirky memoir by a stripper, and it might have legs as a musical comedy." No one else had ever tried this. Additionally, the "Gypsy" framers wrote about power, in an odd, enduring way: Every mother/daughter relationship is about power, but the additional factor of professional stripping makes "Gypsy" sensational. We don't complain about too many "Hamlet" productions. "Gypsy" is roomy enough to accomodate a 2024 Broadway version.

At the same time, I worry about "reverence." The Audra production calls itself "the greatest musical of all time, with a star turn for the ages." I don't think Audra is rehearsing yet. Who says this is a star turn for the ages? What the ads seem to lack is a sense of fun--and Sondheim liked fun. He wrote an entire song about egg rolls. I hope there can be a little less chest-puffing in the George Wolfe approach, down the road.

I went to the box office Friday; it doesn't open until October. Oops! 

I'll be back in the fall, Audra. I'm ready. That lucky star I talk about is you...
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