Photo Flash: Patti LuPone in Gypsy at Ravinia
By: Walter McBride Aug. 16, 2006
Gypsy, starring Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone in the towering role of Rose, played from August 11th through August 13th at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago.
Directed by Lonny Price, Gypsy stars LuPone (Evita, Sweeney Todd) as Rose, the
stage mother who unconsciously and uncompromisingly lives out her show
business dreams through her daughters June and Louise (with the latter
becoming stripper Gypsy Rose Lee). Jessica Boevers (In My Life, Oklahoma!) played Louise, with Jen Temen as June. Jack Willis (The Old Neighborhood, Julius Caesar) played Herbie, who becomes the agent of Rose's children as well as her lover. Paul Gemigani conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the Ravinia production of the musical.
Gypsy, which also features music by Jule Styne and a book by Arthur Laurents, opened on May 25th, 1959 and ran for 702 performances at the Broadway and then the Imperial Theatre, garnering 8 Tony nominations (it was overshadowed by the more sugary The Sound of Music). Gypsy featured a star turn by Ethel Merman that has become legendary, and it also featured Sandra Church, Jack Klugman and Maria Karnilova. A number of revivals--in 1974 with Angela Lansbury, in 1989 with Tyne Daly and in 2003 with Bernadette Peters and directed by Sam Mendes--have all been successes.
Visit www.ravinia.org for more on the Ravinia Festival.Photos by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
Patti LuPone
Leo Ash Evens, Jen Temen, Jack Willis, Patti LuPone and Jessica Boevers
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