LET THEM ENTERTAIN YOU: Opera House’s ‘Gypsy' wows on all levels

Chase Harrison
Jun 24
6 min read

*NaTasha Yvette Williams plays Mama Rose in ‘Gypsy.’ Photos by Bryan Putnam*

After Friday night’s performance of Opera House Theatre Company’s “Gypsy,” I found myself wondering how many times “Gypsy” has been staged. Boasting one of, if not the most, enticing role for an actress to undertake, “Gypsy” is the summit anyone who enters the musical theatre arena dreams of surmounting.

So it is with no exaggeration that I report that director Suellen Yates and her entire creative team have crafted a pinnacle of this storied production.

The musical is an adaptation of Louise Hovick’s memoir by the same name. Hovick, better known to the world by her stage name, Gypsy Rose Lee, was a burlesque star and the highest paid striptease artist of her era. The plot serves as a backdoor origin story for Gypsy Rose, but the true focus is the blind ambition of her mother, Rose, the ultimate stage-mom. As something of an advent to the Hollywood tell-all, “Gypsy” depicts decades of the hell-or-high-water tactics a parent will force their children to endure to achieve “their shared” dream—a sense that Yates resoundingly captures with her staging of this production through its trifecta of singing, dancing, and acting.

Before the theater’s house lights could dim, the powerful overture led by musical director Bryan Underwood begins, and the pace never lets up. The tempo of the show is imperative— it needs to match the fast-moving, wheeling-and-dealing mind of the matriarchy main character, Mama Rose. Let me assure you: once it starts, the show is firing on all creative cylinders till the end!

The iconic role of Mama Rose is brought to life by the mesmerizing NaTasha Yvette Williams.Williams emboldens Mama Rose with an unflinching confidence. She delivers the opening line flawlessly, entering through the theater house aisle and engrossing the audience in the world of the show.

Williams’ performance balances a mother’s love (albeit a misplaced love) with a cut-throat manipulative nature, willing to play anyone for her end goal. From shunning big breaks for her youngest daughter, all the way to pushing her oldest into stripping, Williams never hides the unsavory elements of Mama Rose. But she also never loses the character’s humanity, a prime example of a protagonist who isn’t the story’s hero.

Williams’ vocal prowess utterly owns the historic Thalian Hall venue. She creates magic with every number. It’s during the final number, “Rose’s Turn,” however, where jaws will drop. Alone on a bare stage, Williams bares her soul in what could be one of the absolute best performances the venue has ever seen. (At one point, I just wrote “WOW! WILLIAMS! In my notes.)

Williams isn’t the only bright beacon on stage, though. The daughters of Mama Rose, Louise and June, are doubled-casted roles: younger actors start the show then shift into their older counterparts to achieve a passage of time effect. Victoria Jackson as Young Louise and Julia Massey as Baby June bring an adorable charm to the stage with their short amount of time on it. It’s also during this time where the number “May We Entertain You” is first heard as an innocent children’s song.

The time jump happens during the number "Baby June & Her Newsboys," where the once popular act grows tiresome as the girls grow up. In some of the greatest uses of choreography put to stage, the younger cast dances off-stage while the older cast dances onto it, signaling the production’s seamless jump forward in time.

From that point on, the roles are taken over by Anne-Sophie Hill as Louise (aka the future Gypsy Rose Lee) and Bianca Shaw, who has moved on from the stage-name Baby June to the equally infantilized Dainty June. During the back-to-back numbers of “Dainty June & Her Farmboys” and "Broadway," Shaw’s disdain for the dying vaudeville act is palpable. When she’s handed a set of batons by her mother to twirl, any eagled-eyed audience member will catch Shaw’s exasperated eye roll. A perfect bit of subtle stage work by the actress, punctuating just how over it she is with her mother’s stale act.

One of the most refreshing aspects of the production is how Hill and Shaw share an earnest sisterly warmth between them. It could have been easy to play the two as rivals due to their mother’s favoritism towards Baby June, but these actresses instead play to the idea that they’re in this together. They played this dynamic well in the only non-show-within-a-show number the two share, “If Momma Was Married.”

When Danity June has finally had enough of her mother’s “managing,” though, she bails on the act and her family. The eruption of rage that spews from Willaims in this moment is hammered home by the double meaning line, “I made her; I’m her mother!” (Does Mama miss her daughter, or her meal ticket?)

Once June is out of the picture, Mama sets her sights on her overlooked eldest daughter, making all the same empty promises of fame and fortune to her. Louise, always the amicable of the two daughters, agrees to her mother’s plotting through tearful eyes and a broken smile. This role allows Hill’s talents to shine in the second act. It is during the first act song “Little Lamb” when lamenting the show biz life forced upon her that the actress’s alluring siren-like singing voice rings out. This also marks the first time the show intentionally slows its pacing, letting the emotion reverberate over the audience. This is not Louise’s dream; it wasn’t even June’s—it was Mama’s, and they were only pawns in her achieving it.

The majority of the Louise role calls for Hill to play a rather meek, introverted, and second fiddle for her baby sister’s act. In the second half of the show, however, the act is accidentally booked at an ill-begotten house of burlesque. It’s in an act of desperation; Louise is volunteered to do the striptease finale as a last-minute replacement, and by her mother no less. Hill’s exquisite work throughout the montage dance number “The Strip” is a transformation of both vocality and physicality. What starts as a comedic sight changes to the repulsion of a young woman thrown to the wolves, a deer-in-the-headlights stare on her face. Slowly, assuredly, and sensually, Lousie finds her own agency and claims it—thus Gypsy Rose Lee is born! This number would’ve had Tex Avery himself howling at the moon.

Fracaswell Hyman serves as something of Jiminy Cricket for Mama Rose and the girls in the role of Herbie, a talent agent turned candy salesman turned talent agent again. Hymen and Williams share an amazing chemistry together on stage. It’s love at first sight for Herbie when he meets Mama, a sentiment that seems shared in their duet “Small World.” However, Williams drops just enough hints to show the audience she has an agenda, and this man is a means to an end. Hymen shares an affable nature with the actresses playing Louise and June, seeing them more as his step-daughters than talents he represents. A beautiful moment is shared driving home in the number “Together, Wherever We Go” between the three leads, who look like a happy nuclear family.

With every step of choreography, Bradley Barefoot accentuates the dancers and the story, and most importantly, keeps the production on pace. One highlight is the cavalcade of differentiating dance styles in the number “Have an Eggroll, Mr.Goldstone,” all done in a roulette. Barefoot’s skill is really put on display through the motion and movement of Liam O’Toole’s performance of Tulas, a background dancer with his own dreams of breaking big.

The scenic design by Tory Rudeseal and Joe Gallucci is simplistic and sparse but always offers enough detail to clarify the setting. The set pieces for the Baby June Barnyard act were a standout. I also loved the decision to show the back of the set pieces at times, allowing glimpse of the cast backstage at a theater during the “Small World” number.

Taking on a classic is a daunting task, but Suellen Yates, with her cast and crew may have just staged Wilmington’s best musical of 2026. OHTC’s “Gypsy” is not one to miss!