Review: GYPSY Sizzles Now Through December 8 At Bay Area Musicals

The heyday of Vaudeville may have come to an abrupt end in the 1930s, but it is alive and well in Gypsy, Bay Area Musical's fifth season opening act. And what a doozy of a show. Based on the 1957 memoirs of famed striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, the musical came to Broadway in 1959 and was promptly hailed as a runaway hit. With a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim it garnered 8 Tony nominations, though strangely enough, it didn't win any, losing Best Musical to a tie between Fiorello! and The Sound of Music. Ouch!

But in its storied history of revivals, Gypsy has won many Tonys, creating star turns for some of the most powerful and venerated women in musical theatre. Hushed tones need to be employed when their names are said together: Ethel Merman... Angela Lansbury... Tyne Daly... Bernadette Peters... Patti LuPone. Each brought their own spectacular interpretation to the role of "Mama Rose" and made it her own. It is saying a lot that BAM's Ariela Morgenstern more than holds her own with these marvelously talented women. Drawing on her opera and musical theater voice training, Morgenstern embodies Rose like she was born to play the brash stage-mother. Her acting chops lend Rose just the right mix of crassness and caring, while her warm and dynamic vocal range leaves everything on the field - or stage, in this case.

Playing now through December 8, 2019, Gypsy is the moving story of one mother's blind determination to find success for her daughters in a time when women weren't taken seriously. Too late, she realizes that her real dream was for her own fame. Set to hummable tunes (including the well-known and loved "Everything's Coming Up Roses") and in the hands of Director & Choreographer Matthew McCoy, Gypsy is a great night of musical theater magic.

GYPSY: A Musical Fable
Book by Arthur Laurents
Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Alcazar Theatre, 650 Geary St, San Francisco, CA.
Bay Area Musicals
https://www.bamsf.org/gypsy

Photo courtesy of Ben Krantz Studio