Review Roundup: West End's GYPSY - NY Times Calls Imelda Staunton 'Scorching', 'Brilliant' as Mama Rose

The first production to be seen in London for forty years in a strictly limited season, Gypsy opened at the Savoy Theatre 15 April 2015.

Imelda Staunton, who stars as the indomitable Momma Rose in the West End transfer of Jonathan Kent's production of Gypsy, is joined by Lara Pulver and Gemma Sutton, who reprise the roles of Louise and June respectively in the five star Chichester Festival Theatre production, while Peter Davison joins the cast to play Herbie.

A musical fable with book by Arthur Laurents, Gypsy has music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim suggested by the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, choreography by Stephen Mear, designs by Anthony Ward, musical direction and orchestration by Nicholas Skilbeck, lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Paul Groothuis.

Gypsy is considered by many to be the greatest of the Broadway musicals. It tells the true story of ambitious showbiz mother Momma Rose, who treks across America with her daughters Baby June and Louise in search of success with their homespun vaudeville act. As times change, Momma Rose is forced to accept the demise of vaudeville and the rise of burlesque, as well as her daughters' quest for autonomy.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Ben Brantley, NY Times: Ms. Staunton, best known for her dramatic performances on film (including the title role in Mike Leigh's "Vera Drake"), gives her character a photorealist finish that makes Rose both more life-size and scarier than she's ever been before.... By the way, did I mention that Ms. Staunton can sing too? It's just that her musical performance is such an organic extension of Rose's will to dominate that you forget she's singing. In the solo climaxes that conclude the show's two acts, Ms. Staunton lets loose with the full power of years of unsatisfied longing. The second of those numbers, the immortal "Rose's Turn," is truly terrifying. It is also genuinely cathartic, in the great, transcendent tradition of classic tragedy.

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: In October, it looked as though the diminutive actress already had the measure of this complex creature...and the way she shifts between being comically interfering and terrifyingly controlling, combining admirable chutzpah and brazen rapacity. But in situ at the Savoy, a more fitting venue for the fading vaudevillian world Rose seeks to conquer, not only does Staunton display greater leather-lunged force in the showstopping numbers such as Everything's Coming Up Roses (sublime music, Jule Styne; razor-sharp lyrics, Stephen Sondheim). She also packs more into this whirlwind-restless, tormented spirit. Most of the performers shine (with the exception of Peter Davison, a little raspy as Rose's handy fixer hubby Herbie) but she blazes from start to finish.

David Nice, TheArtsDesk.com: If you find yourself, like last night's showbiz audience, beguiled to cheering point by the shreds-and-patches routines put together by the ultimate theatrical whirlwind, Mamma Rose, that's because everything in this London transfer from the Chichester Festival Theatre, parody included, is solid gold...Then, of course, there's Imelda Staunton, a singing actress incapable of false notes in words (lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) or music (Jule Styne) playing a woman who tries to make her living out of them...And every actor plays his or her role to perfection...This really is a perfect musical in every way; what a privilege to feel its full but never over-emphatic force in the intimate surroundings of this Glyndebourne among London theatres.

Emily Diver, LondonTheatre1.com: The first song of this show asks 'let me entertain you' and it didn't disappoint. This incredible show will do more than just entertain -- it will keep you on the edge of your seat, it will make you laugh and cry, and I challenge anybody not to give it a standing ovation...With excellent voice and excellent acting, Imelda made you see the other side -- what is it like to be Momma Rose...Bringing us to the end of the half is the most famous song from the show Everything's Coming Up Roses. A song covered by many of theatre's greatest including Patti Lu Pone and Bernadette Peters. In my opinion thought that Imelda Staunton blew these ladies out of the water. Her performance was simply magical...an infinite number of stars wouldn't be enough to do justice to this fabulous show and there simply aren't enough positive adjectives in the world to give an adequate description.

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Photo Credit: Johan Persson

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