Sondheim Cancels 8/11 Gypsy Discussion at Ravinia

Friday, August 11, 2006; Posted: 04:08 PM - by BWW News Desk

Legendary composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim will no longer appear before the Ravinia Festival in Chicago's August 11th performance of Gypsy, starring Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone as Rose.�

"Tonight's pre-concert discussion with Gypsy lyricist Stephen Sondheim has been canceled for health reasons. We regret any inconvenience," states the Ravinia website; Sondheim was to have joined Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman for a pre-show discussion. Gypsy plays through August 13th.

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!) plays Louise, with Jen Temen as June.� Jack Willis (The Old Neighborhood, Julius Caesar) plays Herbie, who becomes the�agent of Rose's children as well as her lover.

The cast also includes: Leo Ash Evens as Tulsa, Katie Rancourt as Baby Louise, Ashton Smalling as Baby June, Rengin Altay as Miss Cratchitt, Derin Altay as Electra, Jane Blass as Mazeppa, Debra Watassek as Tessie Tura, Michael Weber as Uncle Jocko/Mr. Goldstone and Richard Henzel as Pop/Kringelein, as well as Nancy Braun, Molly C. Callinan, Javonte Childress, Robyn Clark, Nick Coussens, Joe Dempsey, Trevor Efinger, Elana Ernst, Kenneth-Michael Glass, David Hull, Kamilah Lay, Cassandra Liveris, Katheryn Patton, Matt Raftery, Richie Roesner, Justin Stein, Marc Tumminelli and Cedric Young.

Paul Gemigani conducts 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 at the Imperial Theatre on May 25th, 1959 and ran for 702 performances, 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.

The career of Stephen Sondheim, who is considered by many to be the greatest living composer-lyricist of musicals, has spanned almost 50 years since his Broadway debut in 1957 as the lyricist of West Side Story. After also penning the lyrics to Gypsy (with a return to mere lyric-writing for 1965's Do I Hear a Waltz?), Sondheim went on to write the scores for a litany of shows that challenged musical theatre conventions in theme, content and structure. Among his shows are A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins and Passion. His latest musical, Bounce, closed out of town in DC before making it to Broadway but an expanded, limited-run production of 1974's The Frogs bowed two years ago at Lincoln Center.

To reserve tickets for Gypsy, call (847) 266-5100 orvisit www.ravinia.org.

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