Angela “Gypsy.” Tyne Daly “Gypsy.” Bernadette “Gypsy.” Patti “Gypsy.” And now, Audra “Gypsy.” “Gypsy” is such a vehicle for the character of Madame (a.k.a. Mama) Rose that mountings of the musical are distinguished by the first names of the actors playing her. And what illustrious names they are.
Mama Rose has become to musical theater actors what “Hamlet” is to straight play ones. “Mama Rose [is] an enormous character,” six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, who will tackle the role in this 2024 revival, told Broadway News. “She is an enormous personality. She is ferocious, she is filled with passions. There is nothing but enormous hills and valleys in the journey that she lives on in the show, and you need every crayon in the coloring box to play her every single ability to play her. And so it’s an incredible challenge.” Mama Rose is a test of skills.
This latest revival, which begins previews on Nov. 21 at the Majestic Theatre, is also a fresh take on the revered title. Tony-winning director George C. Wolfe will apply his lens to it, and Camille A. Brown will introduce new choreography. (Jerome Robbins choreographed the original 1959 production and every Main Stem revival since has featured that movement.)
“We’re pulling from vaudeville. We're pulling from the Depression [era],” Brown said of the movement vocabulary for the show. “It’s really an opportunity for me to share another side of my vocabulary. I am excited to contribute to this legacy of the world [of ‘Gypsy’] in my way.”
