THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 20, 1996 TAG: 9607200046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: 40 lines
WITH BUMPS, but very few grinds, Commonwealth Musical Stage takes a brassy, but hardly bold, turn at the legendary musical fable called ``Gypsy.'' As directed by Jeff Meredith, it is an elaborate production that captures the farcical side of a business that includes burlesque strippers and precocious child performers.
Mama Rose is arguably the greatest role written for an actress in the American musical-comedy theater. Even though ``Gypsy'' is based on the 1957 memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Louise Hovick, 1914-1970), this Arthur Laurents script is centered upon the mother. She's the most aggressive, obsessive and yet sympathetic stage mother captured on stage.
One never gets tired of seeing ``Gypsy,'' because every production is unique in the way Mama Rose is played.
Shauna Kelln, with a billed three-octave range, is a vocally impressive Mama Rose in the current production. She handles the demanding songs, including the classic finale ``Rose's Turn,'' with ease, soaring even above the large orchestra. But in the acting category she lacks some of the maturity and desperation that fuel Rose's headlong effort to keep her life, and that of her girls, from being ``ordinary.'' She is sometimes more strident than endearingly ambitious.
She's one of the hardest-working Roses, but there seems to be little chemistry with her mousey daughter Louise, played by Jennifer Marie Miller.
No matter. The songs are wonderfully executed and they are some of the best songs ever written for musical theater.
Miller is a youthful Rose Louise, but the fact only puts a new, and rather poignant, aspect to her emergence as a strip star.
Be there in time for the overture. It's one of the most impressive overtures of any Broadway show and it's given its full due by the full-bodied orchestra, conducted by J. Thomas Mitts. If you've only seen ``Gypsy'' a few dozen times, it's time again. If you are a Gypsy virgin, this edition is fully capable in suggesting what this show's illustrious history is all about. by CNB