Regarded by many as the greatest musical ever created, Gypsy is the ultimate mother-daughter story – the sophisticated, gripping, funny and heartbreaking tale of Madame Rose, and her fight for her daughters’ success, no matter what the cost.
Set all across America in the 1920s, Arthur Laurents’ landmark show sees Rose, Louise and June grapple their act through the dying days of vaudeville, and the birth of a shocking new form of entertainment – burlesque. Rose’s fanatic determination pushes her family’s loyalty to breaking point, but from the most unlikely of places emerges one of the twentieth century’s most illustrious and ingenious entertainers – Gypsy Rose Lee.
The celebrated score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim is packed with classic songs, including ‘Let Me Entertain You’, ‘Some People’, ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’, ‘Together Wherever We Go’, You Gotta Get a Gimmick’, and the iconic ‘Rose’s Turn’.
Three-time Sydney Theatre Award winner Blazey Best (Miracle City, Only Heaven Knows) returns to the Hayes to take on the iconic role of Rose, with Laura Bunting (Rent, Calamity Jane, Assassins) as her daughter Louise.
The design elements are just as harmonious, with Alicia Clements’ simple, largely prop-based settings relying on Trent Suidgeest’s evocative lighting to define spaces. Even more impressive is musical director Joe Accaria’s rendering Styne’s score (originally for orchestra) with a band of four – and no synthesisers! – Sydney Morning Herald
Musical Director Joe Accaria has done new arrangements. “I’ve known Joe for a long time and when we approached him, he didn’t know the show. He’d done musicals but he’s not in the world of musical theatre, and that’s been really valuable because he didn’t approach it with a sense of weight and expectation from previous versions,” says Carroll. “He listened to the music and read the script and just responded to it, and so that’s been really exciting.”
Limelight Magazine
Musical director Joe Accaria has given the brassy score a rough-and-ready rearrangement for a band of four, while cast members play instruments now and then. – Daily Telegraph
Director Richard Carroll
Musical Director Joe Accaria
Choreographer Cameron Mitchell
Designer Alicia Clements
Lighting Designer Trent Suidgeest
Starring Blazey Best, Laura Bunting, Anthony Harkin, Mark Hill, Rob Johnson, Matthew Predney, Jessica Vickers, Jane Watt and Sophie Wright
Book by Arthur Laurents, Music by Jule Styne, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
