Brian McKenrick and Julie Funk in Gypsy
Quad City Music Guild’s summer season winds down with one of the big American musicals: Gypsy, directed here by Troy Stark, and featuring a score by Jule Styne, book by Arthur Laurents, and lyrics by an early-career Stephen Sondheim. And while there were a few rough spots during Friday’s opening-night performance, there’s still plenty to enjoy and Guild does a fine job of putting this classic piece on its feet.
Gypsy follows a family of traveling performers; a sister act accompanied by a plethora of backup choruses, their talent manager, and their mother Rose (Julie Wilson Funk). Rose’s daughters, June (Quinn Dunford in her younger iteration; Katelyn Morris as her older self) and Louise (Meyer Wikoff as younger; Jordyn Mitchell as elder), aren’t particularly interested in show business or being stars, but Rose sure is. Likewise, their talent manager Herbie (Brian McKenrick) isn’t particularly interested in managing their talent, but Rose needs the extra help. What Rose wants, Rose gets, regardless of who needs to be trampled in the process.
With the show inspired by the memoir of real-life striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, we see how a vaudeville sister act is eventually warped into a single woman burlesque. Beyond my familiarity with the big numbers, I was totally unfamiliar with the book book going in, and I was pleasantly surprised, as this musical has plenty of what I feel the genre is often lacking: plot. There’s a lot of dramatic acting in this piece, with rather lengthy scenes between many of the songs, and rather than feeling like a musical that happened to get bits of play stuck in it, Gypsy often feels like a play that has musical elements, which I personally love. Indeed, I heard something in Friday's crowd I don’t often hear during musicals: gasps, and even murmurs of discomfort as Rose whittles her daughters down time and time again. That’s some good stuff.
Laurents' impressive book is staged with bravado by a huge team: 26 performers, 13 staffers, 18 pit musicians, 17 crew members. In Stark's almost three-hour production, there are too many memorable moments and portrayals to list here, but I would like to highlight just a few. It’s a small part, but Marissa Elliot is hilarious as an overworked stage manager. Harold Truitt lends gravitas to a series of theater owners and producers. Morris imbues June with charm and warmth, while Mitchell plays Louise with heartbreaking precision. And the show would be nothing without its Rose … and Funk is up to the task. She’s abrasive, loud, fast talking, and you still see the wheels turning in her internal monologue – even on Guild’s expansive stage, which is no small feat.
I also want to commend some of the show's technical aspects. I really appreciated Aaron Deneckere's scenic design, which was minimalist but detailed enough to evoke various theatres and burlesques the troupe inhabited. Most scenes were decorated with only a couple of small set pieces each, which made scene transitions lightning-fast, and Cathy Marsoun's fun costume design boasts many varied looks and era-appropriate attire. I also greatly enjoyed the lighting design by Luke Vermeire, who employed a lovely variety of shades and colors, even if the effects did feel occasionally over-designed.
Maybe it was due to the sheer amount of material that had to be performed, but this Gypsy still felt oddly slow on Friday, and days later, I’m still not sure what could've been done to amend that. The scene changes were often finished before the underscoring was, and it never felt like lines or cues were being dropped. Heck, even the intermission was shorter than normal. Perhaps it just needed more urgency or energy from the actors?
And there were other elements that I wish were stronger. The show concept featured surtitles,projected above the proscenium, that would tell the audience the “name” of the scene and its location; for instance, “The Bottom – Wichita, Kansas.” These projections were designed well enough, with appropriate typeface and iconography, but didn’t really add much. More often than not, I wished they were telling us when we were instead of where we were, though I do appreciate Guild trying something different with the device.
While pretty and extravagant, the costumes were often too pristine for either the dusty Depression era or the grimy story being told. And the sound design left a lot to be desired, with most of the ensemble sounding like they were trapped at the end of a really long, really metallic hallway (whenever their mics happened to be unmuted), and the sound cues were uniformly way too loud. This production marks the third Music Guild show I’ve attended this year, and the third whose sound obscured the talent and energy of the supporting cast.
Gypsy, however, is a classic piece of theatre, and it's presented here with a lot of panache. Whether or not you’re already a fan of the material, there’s plenty to enjoy in this grand musical epic.
Quad City Music Guild’s Gypsy runs at the Prospect Park Auditorium (1584 34th Avenue, Moline IL) through August 17, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)762-6610 and visiting QCMusicGuild.com.
