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Audra McDonald on “Gypsy” and playing the mother of all stage mothers

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She’s the mother of all stage mothers: Rose, a single mom hellbent on turning her two young daughters into stars during the waning days of vaudeville. But in the musical “Gypsy,” she gets top billing. Rosalind Russell played her in the 1962 movie; Bette Midler in the 1993 TV version; and on stage, where it all started, Rose has been played by some of Broadway’s greats, including Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone. 

And opening this week, six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will take on one of musical theater’s most demanding roles. “It’s a high gear the entire time,” she said. “And instead of someone sweeping me up in the tornado, I’m the tornado!”

It’s a part that’s been compared to Shakespeare’s King Lear. According to Erick Neher, cultural editor for the Hudson Review, “What Lear is to classical actors, that is what Rose is to musical theater. It’s the Everest. It’s the summit. It’s an impossible role in a way, and yet every great musical theatre actress wants to test herself with it.”

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Audra McDonald as stage mother Rose in the new Broadway revival of the musical “Gypsy.”

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McDonald said, “Everest is there for a reason. People want to climb it, right? I mean, it’s there because it’s majestic and it’s incredible, and people are like, ‘I want to figure out if I can get up there.’ And that’s what I’m trying to do.”

The musical was inspired by the memoir of Gypsy Rose Lee, one of the world’s most famous striptease artists. But the musical’s creators, including writer Arthur Laurents, weren’t interested in telling her story. Neher said, “The really interesting thing about the show ‘Gypsy’ is that it’s not really about Gypsy Rose Lee or even her sister June, who became a very well-known actress, June Havoc. It’s about their mother, a tyrannical, insane, fabulous woman who pushed these two young girls onto the stage.”

It’s Rose who volunteers her older daughter to perform a striptease for the first time. Were audiences shocked by the idea of a mother who would push her daughter to basically become a stripper? “It’s still shocking today, I think, when we see it,” said Neher.

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Audra McDonald as Rose in the Broadway revival of “Gypsy.”

“Gypsy”/Julieta Cervantes


Before “Gypsy,” stage mothers were largely played for laughs, as they still are today; think reality shows like “Dance Moms.” Neher said, “What really differentiates ‘Gypsy’ is that it’s the first work in any genre that I can think of that takes this comic character of the pushy stage mother and then does this psychological deep-dive into it.”

“I admire the ferocity,” said five-time Tony Award-winner George C. Wolfe, who is directing this production. “I think it’s about not enough, people living with not enough: Not enough money, not enough space, not enough love, not enough approval, not enough success. And it becomes this dynamic of people wanting that thing, desperately wanting that thing that is just beyond their reach.”


From the archives: A revealing look at Gypsy Rose Lee by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

The question that looms over any production of “Gypsy” is, why does this woman drive her children so hard … and ultimately away from her?

McDonald said, “I think she is a dedicated mother. I think she is a fiercely protective mother. I think she is a mother who does not realize that the umbilical cord has been cut. I don’t see Rose as a monster mother at all.”

So, is she in this for her kids, or for herself? “I don’t think she can differentiate between the two,” McDonald said.

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Audra McDonald and George C. Wolfe, star and director of the revival of “Gypsy.”

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Rose may stop at nothing in pursuit of her dream. But the director and star of this production – the first on Broadway in which mother and daughters are played by Black actors – say there’s a good reason.

According to Wolfe, “It’s not a selfish dream. It’s not a ‘my’ dream. It’s a wonderful dream for me and my kids.”

McDonald adds, “Which is so interesting, too, then, why society has the audacity to say, ‘How dare she have that dream for her kids?’ I did what society laid out for me: ‘No.’ And look where it got me: ‘No.’ My kids are just supposed to go to school like other girls, and cook and clean and sit and die? And especially that feels like that hits hard, too, as a Black woman saying, ‘No, they’re not gonna do that.'”

It may all sound pretty serious for a musical. But did we mention there are some real showstoppers in “Gypsy” … and an adorable pooch?

“She really, really sweet,” McDonald said, who introduced us to the dog who plays Chowsie. “We saw a lotta dogs. It took a while before we found the right one. No one’s watching you when they’re on stage, that much I do know!” she laughed.


Web extra: The four-legged stars of “Gypsy” by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

For more info:

       
Story produced by Jay Kernis. Editor: Mike Levine. 

       
See also: 



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Ambassador Oksana Markarova says Ukraine is “not asking for other troops”

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Ambassador Oksana Markarova says Ukraine is “not asking for other troops” – CBS News


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Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., tells “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that amid Russia’s war with her country, they are “not asking for other troops,” but they are asking for “military support.”

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Sen. Amy Klobuchar says presidential pardon process “cries out for reform”

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Washington — Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, said Sunday that the entire presidential pardoning process “cries out for reform” following some controversial commutations and pardons made by President Biden, including when the president issued a blanket pardon of his own son, Hunter.

“This whole process cries out for reform because otherwise you undermine the justice system,” Klobuchar said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” 

The White House announced early Thursday that President Biden was commuting the sentence of nearly 1,500 people, marking the widest reaching clemency granted by a president in a single day. Among the individuals, many of whom had been placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, were some who have sparked controversy in recent days — including a judge involved in a so-called “Kids for Cash” scheme.

Klobuchar interjected that she “did not like that one,” adding that she did not agree with all the pardons and commutations.

“I have no doubt there were some righteous pardons in this group,” Klobuchar said. “But there were a number that I think make no sense at all.”

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Sen. Amy Klobuchar on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Dec. 15, 2024.

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Further, she said she didn’t agree with Mr. Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, earlier this month. 

Klobuchar noted that she has also disagreed with a number of pardons that President-elect Donald Trump made during his first term. And the Minnesota Democrat said that while the pardon ability is part of the Constitution and has a long history that she said wouldn’t be changed, she would advocate for reforms.

“We should have some kind of an outside board that governors have,” she said. “Governors have the ability to give mercy to people after years have gone by, but a lot of them have boards that make recommendations and other things, instead of people just doing it in the middle of the night.”

Klobuchar suggested that over a year-long period, a board could look at individual petitions rather than large groups, which she argued undermines the work of FBI agents and prosecutors who took on the cases. 

“Might you want mercy 10 years later?” Klobuchar said. “Yes, you might. But let’s at least look at these on a factual basis and a risk basis, instead of just in the middle of the night a month before a president leaves.”



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12/15: Face the Nation – CBS News

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12/15: Face the Nation – CBS News


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This week on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” President-elect Trump promises big change for America’s role in the world – but with much of the world on fire, will his policies extinguish the flames or fuel them? Margaret Brennan speaks to Rep. Michael Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, as well as Cindy McCain, director of the U.N., World Food Programme.

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