Curtain Up! Inside the Starry Opening Night of Gypsy

Audra McDonald during her curtain call.

Photo: Jenny Anderson

Starring alongside McDonald is Danny Burstein as Rose’s put-upon agent and lover, Herbie. Burstein’s path to the role began two years ago, when he and McDonald were working together on The Good Fight. He recalls her taking a call during a break on set, and after hanging up, “she looked deep into my eyes and kind of squinted and went, ‘There’s a project that’s upcoming that you would be so right for.’” They didn’t talk about it further, but he put the pieces together after a meeting with Wolfe over the summer.

Burstein’s Herbie is lovable and warm, but also fierce enough to spar with McDonald’s formidable Rose. “I’m the luckiest son of a bitch in the world. I get to stand there while she sings ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’ and just marvel at her brilliance every single night,” Burstein says. The famous number is Rose’s big Act One closer, and as the curtain went down for intermission on Thursday, it was clear to the crowd they were witnessing a singular performance. McDonald describes Rose as a tornado, and it is exhiliarting to watch her wind up her talents to their full capacity. During intermission, Erivo and Lena Waithe mingled with Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen as raves began to circulate.

As Rose’s daughters, Joy Woods and Jordan Tyson are equally captivating. Tyson, playing the favorite child, June, is bracing and heartbreaking, while Woods’s transformation from awkward duck to soigné striptease artist is deftly graded. “I think it’s the first role where I don’t have singing or anything to hide behind,” says Woods, who starred in The Notebook earlier this year before joining the Gypsy cast, though her “Little Lamb” is quietly moving.

McDonald, Woods, Wolfe, and choreographer Camille A. Brown.

Photo: Jenny Anderson

On going toe-to-toe with McDonald, whom Woods, 24, grew up watching on YouTube, she added: “Her kindness and openness freed me to do what I was going to do. That lady has so many words in this show to say! She’s busy doing her thing, which freed me up to not think what she thought of me and do my thing.”

And McDonald is doing her thing, indeed. “Rose’s Turn,” the show’s famous 11 o’clock number signaling the character’s psychological collapse, is a heaving tour de force. While standing at close range on the passerelle, she lets rip the tears, sweat, and spit of a woman at the end of her tether, McDonald’s pristine, honeyed voice going rough. The performance, and Wolfe’s direction, succeed in expanding the imagination of a beloved classic. (Earlier quibbles about the race of the characters and the actors in this production evaporate in the presence of McDonald’s towering performance.)

The cast of Gypsy.

Photo: Jenny Anderson

After the show, guests made their way uptown to the Plaza for a glittering celebration, the iconic hotel’s marble and gilt stairway drenched in electric red, the show’s signature color. Egg rolls—“Have an egg roll, Mr. Goldstone!”—and latkes were passed as the crowd awaited the stars’ arrivals. McDonald made her entrance after a couple of hours, resplendent in a crimson Christian Siriano gown, the mire of Rose well and scrubbed off. McDonald explained that she and stylist Jake Sokoloff were subtly referencing the show, doing a bit of method dressing, evident in the Gypsy red color. Following her was Woods in a flawless mauve-brown column, catching her breath from the crush of well wishes. Alec Baldwin and Adrienne Warren congratulated McDonald as the champagne flowed and the dance floor crowded; a big, sparkling Broadway night in celebration of an unforgettable performance. Rose’s words easily apply: “You either got it or ya ain’t.” And boys, she’s got it.