Not my words, but what I overheard between the two acts and on the way out of the theatre after the final curtain fall.
The play was well received by its audience and it still makes a strong impression the day after seeing it. The main thing I remember was the great enjoyment of the actors who presented the play. They were having fun and enjoying the work they were doing.
Viki Ryan played Rose, the main character. She played it well and she seemed to get better as the play progressed.
This is a demanding role requiring a powerful voice, agility, visual expressions and gestures. From a photographer’s point of view I would say that Viki Ryan displayed a wide dynamic range. I really look forward to her next performance. I had never seen Gypsy before, not as a play, not as a movie, not even on TV. It actually did apparently take place pretty much as presented on stage, a quick search on internet revealing, beginning back almost eighty years ago. The songs of the play began coming out across the country in the late 1950s and we have all grown up with them.
Best clip? Easy. The three strippers. Bold, brassy, BIG, beautiful in their brazen boisterousness. Not that I ever thought for a moment they might strip down, no indeed, but that they might come out into the audience and strip down the house. But they were having too much fun for that. The play’s power drives from its contrast. A ruthlessly arrogant/defenseless mother/trainer drives/leads her praised/persecuted daughters/performers to perform exquisite/pitiful performances/ displays on stage as Vaudeville dies. She thinks she has a magic that she can’t use for herself and she forces it on to her daughters and the men and boys in her life. In the end she is the only person remaining still under her own dominion. And then she loses control of herself. Or does she? You will have to see what she does then!
The play is mainly a vehicle for its famous songs. From a writer’s point of view, I felt it dragged a bit in two or three places. Not that I could do it, but I felt a longing for someone to write an updated version of "Gypsy". Go wilder, a little more lusty like "Carmen", push the telling points together and collapse the story into a magnificent swirl of effort, blame, agony, joy and triumph.
Carol Anne Hartman, as Louise, seemed playing well within her ability. She did her part well, and I think we all will look forward to her next performance. You can’t help but feel she is ready to liftoff. Herbie had a hard role to play. He is very important to the development of the story but he can’t ever take charge or even spread his own wings beyond an occasional flap or two. Eric Stafford did him well.
Afterward we wandered around the corner to the Olde Hickory Taproom for a Brown Mountain Light and a Dopplebock along with a serving of their famous Pub Chips and rehashed the high and low points of “Gypsy” in the newly smoke-free atmosphere. This will probably become a Hickory tradition in the very near future.
1 comment:
I saw Gypsy and I have to say Ms. Ryan did a great job. The strippers however were an embarrassment to the show and the women who played them should have had better sense than to dress like that with those bodies. Please.
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