I saw a production of Gypsy years ago where, among other offbeat casting decisions, a 13-year-old boy played the role of Mr. Goldstone. The Porchlight production was appreciably better, with special acknowledgement of the great E. Faye Butler and the strippers who brought the house down with their rendition of You Gotta Get a Gimmick.

The actors also lent their skills to rapid-fire set changes that reminded me of the Keystone Kops in their helter skelter, yet precision ballet that barely avoids collisions, though there was one moment when someone moving the proscenium arch representing the theaters Lousie played in knocked it into a dress rack that then almost went flying into the wings, without, however, anyone missing a beat. Live theater at its best.

Gypsy has an animal slant, what with a dancing cow, Rose’s dog and the song Little Lamb. Parts of the cow spend a lot of time on stage, which may have led to the guy sitting behind me snorting throughout the second act as if he were a bull in heat. Or, he just may have had a nasal problem.

This was the third show I’ve seen in the last few weeks that featured a dog on stage, the others being Legally Blonde and Nell Gwynn. And The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time also is playing in town. So, for now, you don’t have to go to Broadway to make a living as a canine actor. But after Illinois banned circus elephants, can dogs be far behind?

Or children.  Like many states, Illinois has laws regarding minors employed in entertainment-related performances.  The kids in the Porchlight production were great, although, unfortunately, they weren’t around for the curtain call (presumably home in bed) to get their due.  I only wish the kid I saw play Mr. Goldstone, way back when, had been denied a work permit.

 

 

As I walked into the industrial building Porchlight uses as a rehearsal space, a couple staff members greeted me by name, asked me what color wine I wanted, and pointed me toward the bowl of M&Ms. I love the theater.

At age 13, Bernadette Peters was the understudy for “Dainty June” in the second national tour of Gypsy, when, as the assistant conductor, Marvin Laird, recalled, “I heard her sing an odd phrase or two and thought, ‘God that’s a big voice out of that little girl.”

So I suggest you remember the name Isabella Warren. Get a piece of paper, write it down, and put it someplace where you’ll find it a few years from now. I’m not sure how old she is, certainly not yet 13. Her IMDB page says she played a terrified seven-year-old girl in a 2017 episode of Chicago P.D. What I am sure of is that she’s going to be a star. I know this because, at this first rehearsal, at the end of her big song as Baby June, Isabella held a note so long that the rest of the cast started looking at each other, dropping their jaws, and getting downright giddy about the talent they were witnessing. The only thing that would have been better is if she had done it while standing on her head and drinking a glass of water.

That said, Porchlight built this production around the fact that E. Faye Butler always wanted to play Rose, and she didn’t disappoint at the rehearsal. But the best part of watching the reading, aside from imagining what the burlesque queens were going to be doing during their rendition of You Gotta Get a Gimmick, was seeing how much the actors were enjoying themselves. This is going to be a fun production.