Gypsy *****/***** (five out of five stars)
Eureka Day ****½ /***** (4.5 out of five stars)
If ever there were an “Everyman” theme to which just about every one of us can relate, it’s our relationships with our parents. The subject of infinite sessions on therapists’ sofas and the root of both modern psychology and classic theater, our parents’ roles in our lives has always been the force that both drives and impedes us, and has never ceased to be worthy of artistic exploration. Presently playing on Broadway are two completely different productions that nonetheless owe their underlying motivation to the actions and behaviors (always well-intentioned but usually misguided) of adults trying to serve their children as best they can . . . sometimes for the better, oftentimes for the worse.
Gypsy ***** (5 stars)
Jules Styne and Steven Sondheim’s timeless and beloved mid-century (1959) musical, Gypsy—based on actress/striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee’s 1957 memoir—the story of an absurdly overbearing stage-mother trying to make stars of at least one of her children, is now in its first Broadway revival since 2008—this time starring the utterly magnificent Audra McDonald (as Rose, the mother) and featuring a rock solid cast that absolutely wows from one moment to the next, with stellar singing, dancing and acting. Though a touch too operatic at the beginning of this story of a fatherless, hardscrabble family working the 1920s vaudeville circuit, McDonald settles in and becomes the irritable, irritating, yet truly suffering mother who only wants the best for her Baby June (the young version by Jade Smith in her Broadway debut the night I attended; she was so good that she both delightfully parodied a stereotypical child actor and played the role straight to perfection), whom she is certain has the makings of a star.
But it’s her sister, Louise (the young Baby Louise was played by Summer Rae Daney at my performance) who rolls with the punches of life on the road and sticks with her mother for as long as she can after June (who becomes, in real life, the famous actress June Havoc) has flown the coop in frustration. Teenaged/young adult Louise (the absolutely wonderful Joy Woods, who sings, dances and acts her way into our hearts) has spent her entire childhood, attempting to make her mother happy and to create a family with the loveable ex-vaudevillian and family manager Herbie (the equally loveable and perfect Danny Burstein), who adores Rose, who is incapable of reciprocating his ardor. Adeptly directed by George C. Wolfe, it has all the makings of an American tragedy (thanks to Arthur Laurents’ very fine book), and it certainly unfolds that way (but without bloodshed, for a change). Rose has sealed her fate with stubbornness from the outset, and though we know this we can still enjoy such legendary, blockbuster songs from “Let Me Entertain You,” to the iconic “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (which made a star of Ethel Merman and vice versa).
Audra MacDonald already has six Tony awards, but it’s very likely this performance will earn her a seventh. And I can’t foresee any play stepping up high enough to beat Gypsy for this year’s Best Revival Tony.
Eureka Day ****½ /***** (4.5 out of five stars)
A few blocks north, at the Friedman, is Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, an unexpectedly delightful, slyly satirical examination of a Berkeley, California private elementary school whose neurotic attempts to be inclusive and PC backfires, making an almost tragic mockery of the well-meaning parents attempting to righteously guide the school along a “correct” path.
Set in 2018 (notably, two years before the COVID pandemic) in the Eureka Day School’s colorful library—which is adorned with slogans like, “Berkeley Stands United Against Hate,” and features a “Social Justice” books section—the play opens on the school’s executive committee meeting, helmed by the benevolent and sometimes befuddled head of the school, Don (the terrific Bill Irwin, in one of his best performances in recent memory). The four other executive committee members (including the always excellent Jessica Hecht) are parents, a diverse representation of the spectrum of Berkeley liberals. The meeting opens with a long-winded discussion about an online form that does not (in their eyes) offer enough options for designating their child’s ethnicity. It’s a hilarious and sad discussion that rings a little bit too true. And it’s from this overzealous push for “inclusiveness” that the play’s core problem erupts. Another scene, features a zoom meeting which we witness via an overhead projector (Todd Rosenthal, Scenic Design and David Bengali, Projection Design) that might be the funniest moment on a Broadway stage in the last five years. While the Executive Committee talks, the comments that begin flying among the logged-in parents go (typically) awry, and feature the kind of diverse nonsense, impudence and outrage we’ve come to expect on message boards. It’s a tremendously funny reflection on our culture that hits harder because it’s so remarkably accurate.
As is often the case in communities overstuffed with well-intentioned, but overbearing parents, what some see as their right to make choices as parents and individuals ends up impinging on the rights of other parents and families who are concerned about their own health and safety. Case in point (and this is where the ironic humor spurred by the play’s timeline comes in): vaccinations. The committee ends up debating the necessity for all students to be vaccinated against diseases like mumps, measles, rubella, polio and more. Despite the school (and the State) having a vaccine mandate, many parents have fudged their records and are sending unvaccinated children to the school. Naturally, this is where things unravel. One parent on the committee, Eli (Thomas Middleditch, from HBO’s “Silicon Valley”) is having an extra-marital affair with another parent, Mieko (Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz). Unbeknownst to him, her child is not vaccinated and has mumps and his immune-compromised child ends up hospitalized, near death, after a “playdate” (for both parents and the kids).
Anna D. Shapiro has taken Eureka Day, which played briefly Off-Broadway in 2019 and did not feel Broadway-ready at all, and made it a fast-paced, hilarious hit about zealotry and the excesses of parental involvement in childrens’ lives.
Gypsy. Open Run at the Majestic Theatre (245 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue). www.gypsybway.com
Eureka Day. Through February 16 at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue). www.manhattantheatreclub.com
