Gypsy

October 2006.By The Rake.

Theater Latté Da at Loring Playhouse, October 4-November 5 Theater Latté Da truly excels at plucking gems from the canon of American musicals, dusting them off, and sexing them up for today’s audiences—all the while somehow retaining their original sweetness—the stuff that endears us to such musicals in the first place. Now Latté Da puts a “raunchy, vaudevillian twist” on Gypsy, the 1959 Broadway production loosely based on the memoirs of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee and featuring lyrics by a then-young Stephen Sondheim. Jody Briskey, a local singer with a remarkably big voice, stars as Mama Rose, the overbearing stage mother who pushes her daughters into showbiz and belts out the chestnut “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” 1614 Harmon Place, Minneapolis; 612-339-3003; www.latteda.org.