GYPSY – Book by Arthur Laurents; Music by Jule Styne, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; Directed by Brandon Bruce; Musical Direction by Heather Iris Holt; Choreography by Rebecca Dean. Produced by Performance Now Theatre Company (Presented at Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 South Allison Parkway, Lakewood) through September 27. Tickets available at (303)987-7845 or LakewoodCo.Gov.
“Whose turn is it?! “Mama Rose’s turn. That’s who!!” That means that Jennifer Burnett, whose gimmick is her talent, is performing her dream role. She sings, she dances, and she “dramas” (when she needs to), but she’d rather entertain you. Jennifer has cut a path through Denver theatres from Brighton to Conifer and back. Every role is carefully curated; every character is carefully constructed; and every challenge is carefully met. She’s one of those performers that, even in an ensemble, your eyes follow her. She has that twinkle.
Jennifer as Rose, the demanding and domineering mother of two only mildly talented daughters, June and Louise, is determined to create a life in show business for them that she was denied. Her vocabulary does not include the words “No,” “We can’t” or “Maybe.” She manipulates, brow beats, blackmails, and babies the men she thinks can move the dream a little further.
The girls – how do they feel about this? June, the star of the show, likes the attention for a while. But as she grows older, is understandably and increasingly resentful of her Mama’s demands. The younger Louise is a “go along to get along” kind of child. But she too eventually gets tired of being a second banana to her sister and, of necessity, has to find a new role for herself.
The younger actresses playing the sisters, Emmalyn Garces and Charlotte Gleaton, are appropriately caught up in the wonder of their unorthodox life and working to please their mother. But, as they grow into the adult actresses Alayna Weber as June and Victoria Holloway as Louise to finish the story of their lives, their dissatisfaction with their lifestyle becomes more burdensome. Escaping by different means, June and Louise are charming in their decisions to go in new directions and fend for themselves.
Louise gets help from three of the tackiest burlesque dancers put on stage. You can’t call them strippers (although the script does) because they never really take anything off. But they seem to have invented “bump and grind.” Annie Dwyer, Katherine Paynter, and Cole Emarine bring levity and raucous humor to their roles as mentors to the young Louise.
The men given supportive roles include Joel Silverman as Herbie, the agent who can never do quite enough for Rose no matter how much he loves her. Logan Traver as Tulsa is one of the boy dancers in Rose’s troupe who also has stars in his eyes and the talent to make them shine.
Performance Now uses the very talented Andrew Bates as their scenic designer. He and his team of builders have come up with a style of stagecraft that uses easily movable set pieces that glide in and out and represent a complete set without demanding complicated changes. It’s a style they have perfected and have improved over the seasons. Appropriately authentic period clothing, super sparkly (and kinda silly) costumes for the kid performers that morph into duplicate adult versions for both sets of actors, and even a cow costume are created by Costume Designer Cole Emarine. The real showstoppers, however, are those delightfully tacky burlesque costumes. The ten piece pit band led by Heather Holt keeps the music lively for the repetitive “show” tune the girls use over and over, the familiar ballads, and Rose’s Turn.
While humor abounds throughout, this is really a story of two women determined to make a success of their lives . . . no matter what.
A WOW factor of 9!!