All Pawtucket All The Time

The Community Players will open their 88th season with the Tony-award winning musical, Gypsy. With a score by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents, Gypsy is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, and is based on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with “the ultimate stage mother.” The story revolves around Rose’s determination to break into the big time by pushing the vaudeville career of her younger daughter June (stage and screen actress June Havoc), who rejects her mother’s manipulations and elopes with a dancer. Rose’s dreams eventually come to fruition when she turns her attention to her younger and less talented daughter Louise, whom she transforms into the famous burlesque stripper known as Gypsy Rose Lee. Recently revived on Broadway, Gypsy features such musical hits as “Let Me Entertain You,” “Together Wherever We Go,” and the show-stopping “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”

Director and Choreographer Bill Whitehead Jr. has assembled a large and talented cast of area adults and youth which includes Catherine R. Fox as Rose, Jennifer Mischley as Gypsy, joined by Felicia Baker, Andrew Bobola, Emily Boss, Rebecca Boss, Kaelyn Boss, Rachel Chrystie, Lucie Contente, Heather Contente, Shawn Contente, Kerri Lynn Costa, Carl DeSimone, Tracie Finan, Margaux Fontaine, Greg Geer, Dalita Getzoyan, Lee Hakeem, McKai Holston, Albert Jennings, Kathy Joyce, Tom Lavallee, Michael Maio, Cameron Marcotte, Ed Mastriano, Stephen Pare, Sarah Pothier, Ashley Rodrigues, Pam Sheiber Shapiro, Eve-Marie Webster, Jaret West and Manon Yoder Kreider. Musical direction is by Esther Zabinski-Souza.

Gypsy will be presented November 7-23 at Jenks Auditorium, Division Street, Pawtucket, RI (across from McCoy Stadium). Curtain is at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for students through high school. Discount rates are available for groups of 20 or more.

On Friday, November 7 there will be a special opening night party following the performance, at which audience members are invited to meet the cast and crew, take a backstage tour and enjoy complimentary refreshments.

For reservations, call (401) 726-6860.