This was the season opener for the New London Barn Playhouse. This is always a fun and intimate venue, with a cast made up of young enthusiastic theater students.
This was a musical that I knew very little about, and it was not about the Roma as I learned. Rather it was based on the autobiography of Gypsy Rose Lee, a famous stripper in the 50’s.
This was also unusual in that it is not your typical happy-go-lucky show, but rather more of a tragedy. The evolution of the character, in particular the titular Gypsy does not become clear until the end. The key part here is the driven mother Mama Rose, well acted by Anne Torsiglieri. However, I found the singing somewhat harsh, and shrill – maybe the sound system or the acoustics? Not a musical I would recommend.