There are stage mothers.
Then there is Mama Rose - prodding and pushing her precious Baby June and Baby Louise into the dying art of vaudeville.It's fitting that this local production of "Gypsy" - one of Broadway's ultimate "backstage" musicals - is also a showcase for some of the Salt Lake community's best up-and-coming talent.
Mama Rose is one of those impossibly thankless roles. Folks who collect "original cast" Broadway albums will always be comparing you to Ethel Merman.
Director Alan LaFleur, who also choreographed the show, has assembled an exceptional ensemble (for a show that is not easy to cast). For one thing, the show contains a large number of kids . . . all with (shudder) real stage mothers.
And right at the top of the list of requirements is an extremely strong actress for the role of Mama Rose, who is on stage probably 95 percent of the time, either belting songs or yelling commands.
Many of the leading actors in this production have cut their collective teeth in a variety of community and even professional shows over the past several years.
Camille Gerber is perfectly cast as overbearing Mama Rose. She has a strong voice, a commanding stage presence - and just the right touch of vulnerability.
Looking ahead, I hope someone mounts "Gypsy" in another 10 or 15 years - just to see if 11-year-old Ashley Jarrett can evolve from the central role of Baby June ("Hi, my name is Baby June. What's yours!") into the role of Mama Rose. Ashley can belt "Let Me Entertain You" like there's no tomorrow. (But she's done "Tomorrow," too, in the title role of "Annie.")
When Kellie Day comes along later in the show, as the grown-up June, the transition isn't as smooth as it should be. Day doesn't belt her numbers nearly as loud as Jarrett. Although, by this time in the story, June is becoming less and less enamored of a career in vaudeville. She aspires to become an actress.
Two other young actresses portray older sister Louise, continually pushed aside by their mother until that fateful day when June runs away - setting the stage for Louise's eventual metamorphosis into stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.
The two Louises are portrayed successively - and successfully - by Carley Jarrett and Victoria Matlock. Jarrett is a sophomore at Bingham High, and Matlock is a junior at Skyline.
Another key role is that of Herbie, the candy salesman suddenly thrust into the job of agent for "Baby June and Her Newsboys." James A. Dale, who has performed in both dramas and musicals all over the valley, overcame some microphone problems early in the show on opening night to demonstrate why he's developing into one of the region's most professional talents. You don't cast a 97-pound weakling opposite Mama Rose.
Equity actress Jayne Luke has two great roles in this show - as Miss Cratchett, the no-nonsense secretary at Grantziger's Palace in New York, and as the flamboyant Tessie Tura, one of the three strippers who befriends Louise at a sleazy burlesque house in Wichita.
Angela Evans and Lenore Cambria also fare nicely in the bump-and-grind roles of Mazeppa and Electra.
Clif A. and J. Chad Davis' scenery and Diane Allen's costuming are right on target, and Jay Gunderson's 15-piece orchestra does a fine job, too, but sound designer Mike Klint must've been pulling his hair over a malfunctioning sound system. A couple of times it let out a jarring blare more befitting a San Francisco Bay foghorn.
- Sensitivity rating: Mild language; toned-down backstage burlesque humor; nothing particularly offensive.