'Gypsy' Flaunts It All at Westminster

Director Bob Cline said it best when asked what he thought of the opening night of Gypsy at the Bloomfield College .

“I feel really blessed to have these three leads.”

Indeed, he is.

Last night marked the first of five performances of the musical, with lyrics written by Broadway luminary Stephen Sondheim, presented by the Montclair Operetta Club. Bianca Sutlovich (as Mama Rose), Jacqueline Taylor (as Louise) and Richard Colonna (as Herbie) created the world Gypsy lives and breathes in and command the stage with impressive prowess. These three gave performances that truly transport an audience. 

The story of Gypsy centers on a mother, Rose, struggling to raise her two daughters on the stages of vaudeville. She fights to make sure her daughter June is seen by every theater across the country, no matter the price. As the girls grow up, June realizes it’s time to strike out on her own, leaving Louise, Herbie and Rose behind. But as vaudeville falls to burlesque so too do the dreams and relationships of the three main characters.

Sutlovich opened the performance fixing up her two young girls for a new audition. She was soon arguing with the stage manager and demanding that her girls take center stage. Although Sutlovich came on a bit strong in the first scenes, it serves her character well to be recognized as a force to be reckoned with. Rose needs to be the strongest character in the play, and Cline could have found no one better than Sutlovich to take on the task.

Colonna’s performance was inversely more subdued and more subtle - the yin to Sutlovich’s yang. He drew the audience in with downcast eyes and hopeful smiles that begged Rose to love and appreciate him. You can’t help but wish the same for him.

Taylor played the innocent for the majority of the play but got to shine in her transformation from Louise to Gypsy Rose Lee. Her two most powerful scenes come before and after the change. The first was when Rose, in a final act of desperation, offered her daughter up to work in a burlesque show. Undercut with almost playful music, the scene was incredibly bittersweet as Louise accepted what she must become to please her mother.

Taylor was afforded the opportunity to shine even brighter in a later scene when Rose confronts the new Gypsy Rose Lee in her dressing room. Taylor expresses Louise’s regret, fear, anger, pleading and embarrassment in split seconds and it is all so real.

The tiny technical glitches that come with opening night did not damper the enthusiasm of the audience.

“I am actually really surprised," said Emily Bauer. "I don’t know the last time that I went to a community theater production, but I didn’t expect it to be as fantastic as this.”

Debbie Kerner found the show to be amazing, “It’s really good. They’re really talented.”

“I wouldn’t change a single thing. The show that we pictured, we made it come to life on stage,” said the show's production manager Erin Lundstrom.

“There are so many moving parts to this show and they did a fantastic job,” said Cline. “There are going to be little things that go wrong, but if we want everything to be perfect, I guess we’d do film all the time. Theater’s supposed to be exciting because something might happen and we’re there and part of it when it does.”

Gypsy will play at the Bloomfield College Westminster Arts Center April 9, 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. and April 10 and 17 at 2 p.m.