For musical theatre actresses the role of Momma Rose is like KING LEAR. In fact to get the chance to play it is even more prestigious. Anyone can have a stab at Lear where as permission to play the lead part in the musical GYPSY is jealously guarded by those who control the performing rights. Only actresses of great pedigree and track record are allowed to headline in this classic Broadway show.Britain’s own Imelda Staunton is more than qualified. Over two decades she’s won accolade after accolade for hits such as the title role in Mike Leigh’s film VERA DRAKE and last year she had critics grasping for superlatives when she played Mrs Lovett in SWEENEY TODD opposite Michael Ball. Now she returns to the West in End in another collaboration with director Jonathan Kent and the results is even more stupendous.
Gypsy is set in America during the great depression of the 1930s and is the story of how an ambitious mother roams the country with a ragged Vaudeville act starring her two daughters until June, the most obviously talented of the two, breaks away.
Momma’s attempt to resuscitate the act with her remaining child, Louise, lead them on to the Burlesque stripper circuit and to the discovery that her daughter has a unique gift that catapults her to stardom leaving her mother trailing behind. Momma Rose is a portrait of uncompromising ambition that drives everyone away and leads to self destruction. Along the way this exasperating woman in very funny but when she falters and falls it’s heartbreaking.
The show contains one of Broadway's best loved, vintage scores that includes two of the most demanding numbers written for a woman. Everything’s Coming up Roses which ends act one and reveals the unhinged nature of Momma’s ambition and Rose’s Turn, the finale of the piece in which we’re given a glimpse into her dark and troubled psyche as she imagines herself and not her daughter as a star.
Aside from this there’s the infectiously catchy Let me Entertain You which is constantly repeated throughout, starting as a naive piece of fluff for singing tots to perform and ending up as sophisticated and suggestively smoky number as accompaniment to a striptease. There are also two glorious joyful songs about team work and family commitment; You’ll Never Get Away from Me and Together and a terrific solo song and dance number, All I Need is the Girl, for Tulsa, the ambitious backing dancer who falls in love with the first daughter.
In this production Peter Davidson plays Herbie the latest man to fall in love with Momma Rose, attempting to be her fourth husband. He’s quiet and understated, a performance perfectly encapsulating how weaker people can get caught up with charismatic yet destructive figures and ultimately flee.
Gemma Sutton is fantastic as daughter June who must endure the indignity of performing as a ten year old until well into her teens but the toughest journey is made by Lara Pulver as daughter Louise who’s called on to play a young woman’s metamorphosis from awkward also-ran to confident star performer. She does this superbly, utterly convincing as both.
But it is Staunton in the lead role who quite rightly is receiving all the attention and is hotly tipped to win every acting award going.
The trouble with the two other stars I’ve seen in the part, Tyne Daly and Patti Lupone, both in New York, is that they’re quite obviously capable of stepping into the spot light themselves without having to live their dreams through their children. Lupone particularly spent her whole performance signalling to the audience what an iconic star she was in such an iconic role. With Staunton there’s none of that nonsense. She completely immerses herself in portraying the horribly lovable, pushy mom in the way an actor would approach a part in the play and the script is so good it allows her to do this.
She isn't in the slightest bit glamorous but short, frumpy and with her shoulders determinedly set to take on the world she’s the very last person who’d normally be centre stage. You want to shake her and get her to see sense as she drives everyone who loves her away and hug her as they do but there’s also an extraordinary moment when alone in an empty theatre she struts down stage, head up, fire in her eyes and you see the ferocious glamour puss that’s trapped inside.
It is a phenomenal performance that redefines an already brilliant show to take it to new heights of entertainment and pathos. It’s a landmark production that will be talked about for decades to come. Don’t miss it!
One of the better jukebox musicals I have seen on the West End, a slightly stronger supporting cast and meatier storyline would be the icing on the cake here.