Gypsy review: Audra McDonalds Broadway revival is a badly staged letdown

Three hours, with one intermission.At the Majestic Theatre, <br>245 W.

44th St.“Gypsy” is, by the estimation of many — including me — the greatest musical ever written. But you wouldn’t know it from the slow and unsteady revival starring Audra McDonald that opened Thursday at the Majestic Theatre.The quintessentially American story about driving and moving from place to place while scraping by with a pipe dream of stardom does not satisfyingly drive or move.With stop-start direction from George C.

Wolfe, the sixth Broadway production of Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ musical runs out of gas early.McDonald plays Mama Rose — a k a Rose Hovick, the real overbearing stage mother of famed stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.As far as Broadway roles go, the part has no peer.

She’s been taken on by Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone.Not too shabby.Joining their esteemed ranks, McDonald undeniably makes Rose her own, as her predecessors all did, with a thoughtful portrayal.

In demeanor, her Mama is unusually soft and vulnerable, with eyes that well up long before the climactic finale, “Rose’s Turn.” She’s less aggressive or mean than she is frantic, speaking lightning-fast in an almost mutter while buzzing about the stage, cajoling to get her daughters ahead.The actress goes for maybe half the biting laughs that are available to her.

For a character described in the script as not nice, McDonald’s interpretation is, well, awfully nice.A Rose without thorns.Which brings me to her singing.

The actress’ silky soprano has been celebrated for decades.She’s won six Tonys.

And her voice is as beautiful as ever here — unfortunately, often on songs that flat-out must not be pretty to fulfill their dramatic purpose: the raw desire to succeed in a harsh world. Until “Rose’s Turn,” in which she powerfully cries and shakes as Rose breaks down, her numbers like “Some People” and “E...