"Gypsy" - Magic Circle Theater

Left: Lenore Sebastian as 'Mama Rose.'


On Friday night, we went and saw the second-to-the-last performance of the seven-weeks-long run of "Gypsy" at Magic Circle Theater in Roseville. Fine show, particularly with Lenore Sebastian starring as Rose. The early part of the show, with the various kid's acts, has always struck me as rather chaotic, but as soon as the main characters appear, the musical slows down and gains depth.

Jennifer Schmelzer did a good job with Louise, particularly when playing the young, gawky Louise, but the transformation into the star, Gypsy Rose Lee, seemed strained. It's hard to make that shift, into the sultry siren. Part of the trouble was physical - at one point, Schmelzer didn't manipulate the curtain carefully enough, revealing undergarments (thus erasing the nakedness fantasy). Part of the problem is that I'm not sure Schmelzer felt comfortable in the role. Not everyone does - stripping is an art all of its own, after all.

Paul Fearn did well with the acting challenge of playing Herbie, Rose's lovable and doting companion. Not much singing is required, but rather, a tremendous presence of character.

Of the three strippers, the one who stood out best was Lindsay Grimes (Tessie Tura) - brassy, funny, profane - a natural!

Kody Roza (Tulsa) was a fine dancer, perhaps not challenged to the maximum of his capability by choreographer Stephen Hatcher, though.

Left: Final bows, Friday night.


Afterwards, at BJ's Restaurant in Roseville, we had a convivial time. We discussed the perennial conundrum of what is the most appropriate thing to say to performer after a show. Someone once told Paul Fearn after a show: "You should have been in the audience!" (I related this perplexing compliment also at Andrea St. Clair's blog, but I repeat it here because it's just so damned cute.)

Lenore Sebastian unwound after her taxing performance. What was it like to play a role that was basically owned by Ethel Merman on Broadway in the 1950's?

"It is a very demanding role - you are basically onstage for nearly two hours straight," Lenore said. "Ethel Merman must have been something of a freak of nature, to belt the way she did." And to keep it up, for hours at a time, for the length of a Broadway run!

Coincidentally, on Saturday night, on DVD, I watched the 1963 movie "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," starring, among everyone's favorite TV and movie stars of the 1960's, Ethel Merman. Wow! She was so LOUD, and she wasn't even trying! Think what she could have done in the cramped confines of a Broadway theater, putting some lung power behind her megaphone voice!

In "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," as the furniture mover Mr. Pike, Jonathan Winters was Phil Silver's nemesis, but he also bumped repeatedly against Ethel Merman's character, Mrs. Marcus. His verdict in the movie? "Listen, anything you got to say about your mother in-law, you don't have to explain to me. You know what I mean? Like if she were the star of a real crummy horror movie, I'd believe it." And, in fact, in "The Valley Of The Dolls," one of the characters was a transparent (and really scary) send-up of Ethel Merman!

Merman was given this fine line (it should be my epitaph - what to say when a Pollyanna perishes):

Now what kind of an attitude is that, these things happen? They only happen because this whole country is just full of people, who when these things happen, they just say these things happen, and that's why they happen! We gotta have control of what happens to us.

Some jokers from Magic Circle taking liberties with the Holy Icon of the 70's.....