'GYPSY' is Ready to Bloom Tall and fit, with dark and distinctive glasses, the Boston Conservatory graduate has performed all over the country and is now based just outside New York City. This is Susko's fourth go-round with NBFT (his credits include past productions of "Les Miserables" and "The Producers"). Ducking into a breezy pocket of the building, enjoying a break from the humid, 90-degree rehearsal hall, Mathys, who is only two weeks into rehearsal, looks radiantly together, draped in a colorful striped dress with matching shoes, each perfectly articulated response accented by her bright red lipstick. And no wonder she seems so upbeat. "It's one of the greatest parts in musical theater literature," she says of Mama Rose. "It has been a dream come true for me to be able to play that part." It's one of the most coveted stage roles of all time, in one of the most beloved musicals of all time. It's an eternal story — a "perfect story," as Susko puts it — about a single mother so ravenous for stardom that she pushes her two daughters into the spotlight in the hopes of living vicariously through them. Because of Rose's Ahab-like pursuit of fame, she is eventually deserted by almost everyone in her life. At one point, Rose sings, "Some people can be content playing bingo and paying rent. That's peachy for some people, for some hum-drum people to be, but some people ain't me!" The great part about Mama Rose as a character, according to Susko, is that each actress lucky enough to take her on can put a unique stamp on the role. Originated by the legendary Ethel Merman, who belted out "Everything's Coming Up Roses" more than 500 times during the first run, a conga line of divas has slipped on those toe-tapping high heels, each adding something personal: Bette Midler, Rosalind Russell, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Tyne Daly. "She brings so much more to it," Susko raves about his lead. "Yes, she's the monster, but when she has to, she can play the sexy, flirtatious woman, she can play the fun, loving woman, she can play Daddy's little girl. She wants to be noticed." Mathys has plenty of experience playing indestructible (if sometimes delusional) characters. In "Sunset Boulevard," Norma Desmond is the inverse of Mama Rose, someone who gained fame and fortune and can't deal with it slipping away. "Norma lives in a reality that is in the past," Mathys explains. "Rose lives in a dream reality." Then there was the role of Piaf, the French chanteuse who was somehow not destroyed by a succession of accidents, addictions and illnesses. "She was still standing on stage and belting out those songs," Mathys says. She thinks about it, "Most of the characters in the theater have some kind of edge to them, because if life was fine and in harmony, you wouldn't write a play about it, right?" *************
It takes a wild imagination to turn the sweaty second floor of the First Unitarian Church parish house in New Bedford into Minsky's Burlesque in New York City. But that's exactly what Festival Theatre director Michael Susko intends to do, as he furiously choreographs a scene from "Gypsy" — in which the dancers will eventually be dressed like Christmas presents — with a box of Munchkins in one hand and an eye on the carefully taped numbers all along the floor.
With his seemingly limitless energy, Susko is a perfect match for his leading lady, Zurich native Sue Mathys, who comes to New Bedford with a formidable resume. Fluent in three languages, she has taken German and Swiss audiences by storm as Maria Callas in "Master Class," Edith Piaf in "Piaf," Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard," and Sally Bowles in "Cabaret." Recently, Mathys gave a special concert at Carnegie Hall.
'Hello, Dolly!' opens at Cider Mill Playhouse in Endicott
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Tony Award Winner CADY HUFFMAN WITH THE ARTISTIC STAFF OF THE FESTIVAL THEATRE
(MOSS HART MEMORIAL AWARD-LES MIZ)
Cider Mill's '8-Track' embraces the varied music of the 1970s NEW BEDFORD THROWS A FESTIVAL WITH '42ND STREET'
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THE PRODUCERS
AND THE PRODUCER
Tom Gleadow (Max Bialystock--,Motif Magazine award for BEST ACTOR) with Producer Armand Marchand
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MOTIF MAGAZINE ARTICLE (click)
TBTS taps into patriotism with GEORGE M!
Two Saturdays ago, while most Rhode Islanders were seeking comfort from the season's first heat wave, two dozen or so hardy-and sweaty-souls assembled in an old, non-air conditioned building in Wakefield. This steamy structure acually belongs to Theatre-by-the-Sea (TBTS) and serves as their off-site rehearsal space. As for the sweat soaked individuals, they represent most of the cast, primarily tap-dancers, for TBTS's upcoming production of George M!
And though several fans were spread about a large room with open windows everywhere, nothing alleviated the oppressive heat. But, other than some sweaty T-shirts, this seemed to have no ill effect on the dancers. In fact, with less than a week of rehearsals under their feet, I was impressed with how much they had accomplenergy put forth by these hoofers on such a sultry afternoon.
"We're almost there, but not quite...my lovelies," acknowledges Susko at one point before quickly, and quietly, turning to the dance captain, "good, good, good. That's a number!"
I recall the first time I met Susko-He choreographed New Bedford Festival Theatre's production of 42nd Street last summer-and I remember him telling me he simply treats dancers the way he would want to be treated if he was one of them, which he has been on hundreds of occasions.
Yet, upon recently turning 40, he relates how he now feels it is time to enter the next stage of his career: directing and choreographing. And while the youthful looking choreographer begins to make the transition in earnest, one watches with awe as he demonstrates a series of dance steps... I was equally impressed by the quality of the dance and the abundance of Several of the large numbers in Act I were already completed.
(an excerpt from Mark Morin's Motif Magazine article--June 18, 2008)
