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Audra McDonald has been dreaming of “Gypsy” since she was a 10-year-old in Fresno, Calif., with a small half in a dinner theater manufacturing of the musical. She performed one of many kids in a vaudeville act known as “Uncle Jocko’s Kiddie Show,” and ever since, she mentioned, “Gypsy” has remained “very a lot alive in my mind.”
McDonald, who has gained extra aggressive Tony Awards than another performer in historical past, has for years been enthusiastic about the present’s major character, a domineering stage mom named Rose. She has even sung from the musical’s rating at a few of her live shows.
Now, McDonald, 53, will play Rose in a Broadway revival of “Gypsy” opening later this yr.
“It’s one of many nice roles in musical theater, and I’ve at all times thought perhaps some day I may attempt it,” McDonald mentioned in an interview. “It scares me to dying, however I definitely really feel sufficiently old now, and having skilled motherhood, maybe I’ve what is required to dive in and discover her and all that she is.”
The manufacturing, directed by George C. Wolfe and choreographed by Camille A. Brown, is to start previews on Nov. 21 and open Dec. 19 on the Majestic Theater, which has been below renovation since final yr’s closing of “The Phantom of the Opera.” (That present ran there for 35 years.)
“Gypsy,” first staged on Broadway in 1959, is impressed by the memoir of Gypsy Rose Lee, a stripper who displays on her relationship along with her mom. The musical’s Rose is ravenously hungry for fame for her daughters, or perhaps for herself. The position was originated by Ethel Merman, and has since been performed on Broadway by Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Linda Lavin, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone, on movie by Rosalind Russell and on tv by Bette Midler.
McDonald mentioned she sees “Gypsy,” which options music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a guide by Arthur Laurents, as “an ideal musical” and known as Rose a “deeply flawed and brilliantly alive character.” She recalled that in a 1989 overview in The New York Times, Frank Rich wrote, “‘Gypsy’ is nothing if not Broadway’s personal brassy, unlikely reply to ‘King Lear.’”
McDonald has appeared in 13 Broadway exhibits. Most just lately, she starred in a 2022 manufacturing of the Adrienne Kennedy play “Ohio State Murders.” She has been nominated for Tony Awards 10 occasions; her six wins have been for roles in “Carousel,” “Master Class,” “Ragtime,” “A Raisin within the Sun,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.” She is the one one who has gained Tonys in 4 totally different performing classes (main and featured in musicals and performs).
Wolfe beforehand directed McDonald within the 2016 Broadway manufacturing of “Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed,” in addition to in final yr’s Netflix movie “Rustin.” Wolfe gained Tony Awards for steering “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” and “Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk” and this yr is receiving a particular Tony Award for lifetime achievement.
Wolfe mentioned in an interview that McDonald requested him to direct the manufacturing, and added that he has a private connection to one of many authors — Laurents was amongst his lecturers at N.Y.U. within the early Nineteen Eighties, and have become an early supporter of his profession. He known as “Gypsy” “a very nice piece of theater literature” and Rose “among the best written roles within the musical theater canon.”
He mentioned that his concepts for the manufacturing have been nonetheless evolving. “The factor that retains on resonating with me is the concept of not sufficient: not sufficient area, not sufficient love, not sufficient cash,” Wolfe mentioned. “That’s what’s pulling me in.”
The “Gypsy” revival — which would be the sixth manufacturing of the present on Broadway — is being lead produced by Tom Kirdahy and Mara Isaacs, who’re additionally among the many lead producers of “Hadestown.”
