“Gypsy” – Huge Orcas Cast Delivers Great Story of Larger-Than-Life Stage Mother

Burlesque stage queens played by, from left Kristen Wilson, Emily Aring and Jamie Mulligan-Smith light up the stage of "Gypsy" this month

A compelling story, catchy songs, energetic kids, glitzy costumes, clever dances and the ultimate pushy stage mom all add up to Center Stage ENTERTAINMENT in capital letters as the Orcas Center prepares the Broadway musical Gypsy for two weeks of performances, beginning April 22.

The show tells the powerful story of “the resiliency of the human spirit,” in lead actress Beth Baker’s words.

Orcas Center Executive Director Barbara Courtney felt islanders should be treated to an upbeat, energetic show – she herself had started her arts career as a member of “Uncle Jocko’s Kiddie Kapers” in a production of Gypsy in her youth.

Many in the audience will recall the memorable Jule Styne-Steven Sondheim tunes, “Small World,” “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” and “Let Me Entertain You,” among the show’s other hits. With Joe Babcock wielding the conductor’s baton (the bakers’-dozen orchestra is set uniquely behind the performers onstage); with Susan Babcock arranging the show-within-a show choreography, and with the cast and crew made up over 72 Orcas Islanders, Center audiences are guaranteed the biggest bang for their buck as Gypsy holds the stage from April 22 to May 2.

Courtney said, “We needed something fun and wonderful, and I’m thrilled with our directors. We’re so fortunate to have the artistic team of Sparks as Director, Joe Babcock as Musical Director and Susan Babcock as Choreographer.”

Gypsy tells the quest of the Ultimate Stage-Door Mother –  Rose – trying to get what she wanted for herself through her daughters. One daughter, June, rejects her mother’s model, eloping at 13 with one of the boys in the act, and the other, Louise, finally succeeds in making her mother’s dream come true. June went on to be the actress June Havoc and Louise went on to become Gypsy Rose Lee, the vaudeville performer who outlived vaudeville and revamped burlesque, when it was taking a nose dive into sleaze, with her own classy style of the witty, wry tease.

Beth Baker says, “The gimmick for Gypsy was that she’s a lady – that’s why her burlesque act took off like crazy. And it was Mama Rose who instructed her, ‘You parade around that stage like you’re doing them a favor.’”

Director Deborah Sparks, (“Sparks”) prepared for the production by reading Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoir –  on which the musical is based. “Reading her memoir gave me a feeling for what an amazing storyteller Gypsy Rose Lee was, an uneducated, self-educated storyteller,” Sparks says. “There’s a lot of drama in Mama Rose’s story, showing how fierce a woman had be to keep her kids in show business. She gave them the courage when it came time to make their own decisions.”

Arthur Laurents wrote Gypsy with a strong emphasis on acting, Sparks says, and the Orcas production is fortunate to have a vast cast of talented folks who can sing and dance AND act.

Her strong – and numerous – cast energizes her as she directs the show biz tapestry that make Gypsy come to life. “Watching other people be creative is the reward. It’s so cool to see where many of these actors start from and where they are now; to see them experience themselves that way, with the amount of commitment and caring they bring to the stage. Fold in paying attention, focusing on what they want to do and going for it – it may not come easy, but it’s totally amazing.

“There are 72 people on stage coming and going, and 12 or 13 musicians – there is so much talent floating around the island – we’ve got the best of the best up there,” Sparks says. “And people are willing to give amazing time and effort and energy to do this. You can have super reserves of energy when you’re doing something you love.”

Sparks knew she wanted “over-the-top showgirls – and they are brilliant!”

The three showgirls add the glitz and glam to the production in the second act, as they coach Louise to take over the act’s star turn in the number, “You Gotta Have a Gimmick.”

In line with island showbiz folklore, when the right person was needed, he showed up. As Sparks was putting together the sets and costumes for Gypsy, Dean Carey, who moved to the island over a year ago to help a friend recuperate from hip replacement surgery, offered to help. Sparks thought she might put him to work helping to build sets, but he offered to work on costumes and created the  fantastic costumes worn by the burlesque dancers.

Now, he modestly admits only to “working in dry-cleaning,” but has come up with sequins, tulle, spandex and feathers on bustiers, skirts and wings, to recreate the fabulously showy Vegas showgirl costumes. Sparks notes that Marcia Gillingham and Kathy Walsh with their “multiple talents and wonderful eye for costume detail” have made huge contributions to Gypsy’s costuming.

The showgirls Tessie, Mezepa and Electra, played by Emily Aring, Kristen Wilson and Jamie Mulligan-Smith, have got legs and vocal chords galore, and they all emphasize the fun and teasing that’s the soul of burlesque.

Emily Aring, whose childhood ambition was to be one of the “Solid Gold Dancers” she saw on television, but who’s never been in a play before, says, “It’s all about hamming it up, making people laugh, creating comic relief – I wouldn’t be able to do this if it were serious. Burlesque in the 1930s Depression is different from stripping today.”

Kristen Wilson says that with her husband Ed and daughter Paris’ encouragement, she took the plunge to audition 10 minutes before tryouts (after 38 years away from the footlights). Kristen plays the role of Mezepa, the trumpet-playing, hip-slapping burlesque showgirl.  “It’s so much fun! If every grey-haired woman in the audience doesn’t want to get up here and strip, then I haven’t done my job!”

Jamie Mulligan Smith was last seen on the Orcas Center stage playing the lead role of Pip in Great Expectations last fall. Now Jamie, who has extensive theater experience in both acting and dancing says, “I get to be a girl!”

The showgirls tell Louise, the awkward new-comer making the transition from vaudeville to burlesque, “You don’t need talent, just an act – something that makes your act spicier – a gimmick!”

Jamie says that, in spite of intensity of the primary relationships, Gypsy is “full of humor in unlikely moments, from the middle-aged flag dancers, to the moo-moo dance, and the deadpan deliveries of the stage hands. There’s a lot of fabulous moments in the show, fabulous songs, and a lot of numbers that will bring the house down.”

Beth Baker plays June and Louise’s virago mother, Mama Rose.  Actress Patti LuPone, who followed Ethel Merman, Rosalind Russell and Bernadette Peters to portray Rose has said,  “She has tunnel vision, she’s driven, and she loves her kids…. And she is a survivor. I do not see her as a monster at all — she may do monstrous things, but that does not make a monster.”

Sondheim has said of the character: “She’s a very American character, a gallant figure and a life force.”

Sparks relates that in past Broadway productions, actress Ethel Merman belted Mama Rose’s songs, Rosalind Russell delivered the lines and Patty LuPone brought a fierceness to the role, but Sparks goes on to say, “Beth Baker was born to play this part. She’s the ‘triple threat’ star of the show.

“People don’t have a clue about what it takes unless they’ve done it; Beth is in every single scene and sings seven numbers too. She comes prepared – she’s an amazing trouper.”

She also sews some of the costumes, but for Beth Baker, the “fun” in Gypsy is in plumbing the depths of her complicated character’s heart and soul.

Beth says that she was unnerved at first when she was cast as Mama Rose, “because it’s easy to play her as an antagonistic human being; now I realize she’s not antagonistic but driven.  It’s a challenge to turn her into a character that you can understand and see parts of yourself in.

“She’s almost uncrushable – terrible things happen to her but she has an ability to persevere and keep on going. She will not let herself be crushed. And in the end, [her daughter] Louise gets her own career – her spirit makes its own way out and shines.

“Louise becomes a star – Gypsy Rose Lee – and Rose succeeds.”

Beth says the role is “wrenching to play – Rose feels glee, exhaustion, combat, grief – everything!” She experienced a breakthrough understanding of her character just last week, after months of rehearsal, that enables her to deliver something even she didn’t expect in her portrayal of Rose as the quintessential stage mother.  She says, “We all need to be validated on some level, and sometimes their children is all that people have.”

As Sparks says, in Gypsy, “There are places where you can really root for these characters – maybe they’ll never change and will always butt heads, but they aren’t cut off from each other.”

True to Louise’s memoir, the Orcas production of Gypsy has Mama Rose and Gypsy Rose Lee “walking off in the sunset” together, having arrived at a meeting of minds. They leave together, but as Rose looks back at the audience, it’s as if she’s saying “It ain’t over yet.”

Country Corner is the business sponsor for Gypsy. It will play Thursday and Friday nights, April 22 and 23, and April 29 and 30 at 7:30, with two performances on Saturdays, April 24 and May 1, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Opening Night on April 22 will feature a dessert bar potluck before the performance. On Friday night, April 23, before the 7:30 show, Orcas Center will announce the winners of the Bunny award for the young performer of the year, and the Margaret Exton award for the volunteer of the year.

For tickets, go to www.orcascenter.org, or call 376-2281.