Web Behrens

After eighteen years with the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, artistic director David Zak can certainly speak to its past.

"There are times in our Bailiwick history when it seems like we have the perfect performer for the perfect role," muses Zak, who's currently reinventing the wheel with an eagerly anticipated production of that musical warhorse, "Gypsy." "I think Alexandra and Mama Rose were destined for each other for a long time."

No kidding. A one-woman artistic tornado, Alexandra Billings was clearly born to perform "Some People" -- as anyone who's seen her cabaret act, where she's been singing it for about ten years, can attest. The song expresses the desires and ambitions of Rose -- the ultimate stage mother, the woman who birthed actress June Havoc and burlesque legend Gypsy Rose Lee -- with a Jule Styne melody made for belting and bold lyrics by Stephen Sondheim: "Some people can be content/Playing bingo and paying rent/That's peachy for some people/For some humdrum people/But some people ain't me." Rose's credo also rings bells for Billings, the sort of multitalented performer who garners enthusiastic applause just for making an entrance, a woman who will literally turn cartwheels to keep a crowd entertained.

"The role [of Mama Rose] is something I've been wanting to play ever since I think I can remember," says Billings. "And who wouldn't want to play it? It's one of the great roles of American musical theater."

Billings distinctly recalls the impact the character had on her as a child. "My father took me to see 'Gypsy' in L.A. when I was 7 or 8 years old," she says, "and the thing that struck me the most was the mother. I really hooked into her; I really felt sorry for her. At the end of 'Rose's Turn,'" -- Mama's climactic number and the musical's finale -- "I was in tears."

Years later, Billings decided to add "Rose's Turn" to her nightclub repertoire, "which is ridiculous because it's an odd song to sing out of context, but I don't care," she says, in typically, charmingly brash fashion. "So I was [performing] at the Gentry and David [Zak] was sitting in the audience and I pulled out 'Rose's Turn' -- and over the microphone I said to him, 'So when are we going to do this musical?' And he answered, 'You let me know.' I called him the next day and said, 'Are you serious? Because I don't want to wait till I'm fifty!'"

So she didn't. Billings, 38, seems a helluva lot younger than most of the actresses who've been drawn to Rose -- a list that begins with Ethel Merman, for whom the role was written, and includes Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Bette Midler. Billings once shared the apprehensions of people who thought she was too young to play the part -- but then her headstrong Aries sensibility kicked in. "I didn't want to wait. I wanted to play it now because I thought I was ready," she asserts. "I think there is that preconceived idea that Rose is supposed to be 50 years old, but she actually grows to be 50 [during the course of the show]. The story starts when she's my age."

Billings and Zak are also challenging another assumption about the show: that it's dated or, worse, hokey. A notion fueled by the fact that, since its debut in 1959, "Gypsy" has been mounted endlessly in high schools and dinner theaters. But the Bailiwick folks have a new vision, one uniquely suited for their theater. "David has really pared down the musical; he's given us a look at what true burlesque was and what true vaudeville was," Billings says. "This is not your usual beautiful and shiny and gorgeous 'Gypsy.' These were poor people in the middle of the Depression, trying to make a buck."

Along with a perfectly cast star in the lead role, Zak figures his stripped-down, darker approach is the show's big attraction. "'Gypsy' is a really great piece about a small, dumpy, theatrical world," he says. "What a perfect match for our small, dumpy theater.

"All the people in the cast are really unusual -- really great voices and really different physical types," he continues. "Everybody in the show is really having a great time being in 'Gypsy,' knowing they would never get cast in these roles at Marriott Lincolnshire or some place like that. ... Vaudeville really had people who didn't look like Brad Pitt. What's fun about 'Gypsy' is you can have a variety of people on stage, a closer representation of what life really looks like."

And, Zak says, "Hey, there's kids and there's strippers. What more could you want?"

(2001-01-18)

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