Broadway hit Gypsy brings down 2012 curtain at The Criterion

[dutchman]

A Broadway musical based on the memoirs of famous burlesque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee is the final production of 2012 at The Criterion Theatre in Earlsdon.



Gypsy tells the story of Rose, an overbearing stage mother who is determined to break into the big time by pushing the vaudeville career of her younger daughter June.

However, unwilling to tolerate her mother's manipulations, June elopes with a dancer. Rose then turns all of her attentions to her older and less talented daughter Louise who she successfully transforms into a famous burlesque stripper

But Rose quickly suffers a mental breakdown after realising she is no longer needed in her daughter's career.

Featuring Julie Styne's music and Stephen Sondheim's lyrics, it ran for three years from 1959 at Broadway Theatre and was made into a film in 1963 and a TV movie in 1993 before its Broadway revival in 1974 and again in 1989.

It opens this Saturday for a week-long run at The Criterion Theatre on Berkeley Road South in Earlsdon.

Performances are at 7.30pm nightly with a 2.30pm matinée on Saturday, December 15.

Tickets are priced £7.50 for members, £9.50 for non-members and £5 for under 16s.

They are on sale from the box office on 7667 5175, online at http://www.criteriontheatre.co.uk or by calling the 24 hour voicemail booking line on 05601 277975.

[dutchman]

Temperatures rise in challenging musical at coventry’s Criterion



A MUSICAL definitely of two halves as the innocence of vaudeville gives way to the seduction of burlesque in the American theatres of the 1930s.

First we have the Shirley Temple-style cuteness of Baby June, played to perfection in the early scenes by real-life eight-year-old Cherry-Rose Cleverley.

Baby June bobs her corkscrew blonde curls and cartwheels across the stage as she asks the audience “What’s your name?”

Trouble is she and her shy sister, Baby Louse (Joanna Gay), have to keep repeating the same little girl act as the years roll by and they morph into young women, played by Jodie Gibson and Lucy Hayton.

All that changes as the increasingly rebellious and no longer ‘Baby’ Jane revolts - and her place in the act has to be taken by awkward Louise, anxious to please their stage-struck mother, Rose (Vicki Hollings).

Gypsy - said to be based on the real story of Gypsy Rose Lee - was a hit on Broadway back in 1959 when Ethel Merman played pushy mother Rose and a young Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics. It went on to become a successsful film.

But as a Christmas musical for the Criterion, I’m not sure it was the best choice.

The company – which has one of the best track records in amateur theatre - still doesn’t have the surest touch with musicals. Not that I’ve come across many others that could do a better job and the live orchestra is a great addition, along with some new faces in the chorus line.

Certainly there was no doubt the temperature rose after the interval when the girls from wholesome variety start to learn a few things about entertainment from the semi-naked girls in one of the striptease clubs that are taking over the theatres.

Throughout the action Vicki Hollings has to dominate the stage and she does this unflinchingly most of the time. I particularly enjoyed her scenes with Matt Sweatman, who plays Herbie.

Meanwhile Lucy Hayton is a revelation as the reluctant performer who learns to leave her audience begging for more.

If you’re looking to see this show then book very quickly as it’s already practically a sell-out.

Barbara Goulden