Gypsy, Crescent Theatre Birmingham Review
Written by Charis for Theatre and Tonic.
Disclaimer: Tickets were gifted in return for an honest review. All views are my own.
I went into the Crescent Theatre’s production of Gypsy with little knowledge about the musical prior to watching it, however the storyline immediately drew me in. I sometimes prefer seeing shows without any preconceived notions so that it allows you to watch them with fresh eyes. I realised though that I had heard some of the songs from the piece previously and it was nice to find out where they came from.
While Gypsy on the surface claims to be the origin story of burlesque star, Gypsy Rose Lee the performance is really more about her mother Rose to embodiment of a pushy stage mom. Rose pushes her children June and Louise to achieve stardom not for their benefit but for her own as she is living her dreams through her children. With vaudeville dying out, Rose is in denial that there will not be anymore work. June and Louise do not even know how old they are as Rose refuses to allow them to age as that would ruin her dreams. As someone who spent some time in theatre school as a young girl, I certainly came across more than a few mothers like Rose.
The piece has a variety of emotions within it, including humour. The overarching fee with the piece is empathy for the troop that Rose drags around the country performing an act they are frankly way too old for.
Rose requires a strong actor to portray her, Kimberley Maynard was certainly up to the challenge, embodying her twisted maternal instincts, bossiness, drive, manipulative nature and delusions. I would certainly go as far as suggesting that Rose is a narcissist as if she was really doing everything, she did for her children she would not have neglected Louise or made her pick up a slightly adapted version of June’s act upon her exit.
James Booth created a cleverly designed set which added substantially to the piece. There are 17 different locations within Gypsy and each one was distinct from another. Some places had small set changes such as changing a sign while others had larger scale changes. Having parts of the set attached in a way which meant they could be pulled off quickly to change the scene was a superb idea. The car used in the piece was also used as tables which is an ingenious idea.
It was a pleasure to watch Joanne Brooke’s transformation from the meek, ignored and pushed around Louise to the strong, independent lady as Gypsy Rose Lee. Ava Bryan also did a great job as June embodying the bouncy, bubbly childlike character. It was easy to see due to this superb performance why June would decide to she wished to leave her mother to become more serious and grown up. Paul Forrest portrayed the meek, manipulated and pushed around Herbie well. It was not hard to find sympathy for Herbie and I was glad when he stood up for himself and left Rose. Every character within the performance grows and develops expect for Rose which is why she is left alone at the end.
I enjoyed the costumes by Pat Brown, Angela Davies, Vera Dean, Laura Green, Dewi Johnson, Mia Klopotan and Rose Snape. Each costume was clearly very thought out and embodied the characters and scenes well. The costume for Louise and Gypsy is particularly well created as it demonstrates her change and rebirth as a new woman perfectly. I also enjoyed the costumes on Bev Heynes as Elektra, Michaela Redican as Mazeppa and Amanda Nickless as Tessie Tura as they were unique and so fun. The performances by the three girls were also incredibly hilarious.
Gypsy has some hard songs to pull off such as together we go and everything is coming up roses. The cast manage to perform each musical number flawlessly without any issues which is a real testament to their talent. Gypsy is quite a feat of a musical theatre show which is why it is not regularly seen, and Crescent Theatre pulled it off incredibly.
I thoroughly enjoyed the performance but at times in the first act I found myself mildly confused about what was occurring on stage. This confusion particularly happened with scene 1 as it was not necessarily apparent how it fitted with the rest. It would also have been nice to see more of June and the trio practising. Maynard performed incredibly during everything is coming up roses but it would have suited the number to have some more choreography. There are a few small moments which could be improved upon but I was certainly thoroughly impressed by how Crescent Theatre handled this mammoth of a musical theatre piece.
Gypsy can be seen at the Crescent Theatre until 18th May.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
