Monday, March 03, 2008

Let them entertain you; Two classic revivals, "Gypsy" and "South Pacific" are now playing on Broadway and Applause Theatre Service has your tickets!

Already running in previews, "South Pacific", starring Kelli O'Hara, began performances this past Saturday March 1st at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.

And beginning tonight is "Gypsy" starring Patti LuPone at the St. James Theatre. These have two of the best Broadway scores ever written for the stage. This is the first revival of "South Pacific", if you can believe that! Amazing that this hasn't been done since the original production opened in 1949. South Pacific is generally considered to be one of the greatest musicals of all time. Several of its songs, including "Bali Ha'i" "Some Enchanted Evening," "Younger than Springtime," and "A Wonderful Guy" have become worldwide standards. South Pacific is the only musical ever to have won all four Tony Awards for acting. It was nominated for nine Tony's and won all of them.

Gypsy on the other hand has had several incarnations, with the last one just a few years ago with Bernadette Peters(probably the least successful revival). I saw the concert version of this show this past Summer at City Centers Encore series. I was blown away by this show and particularly the three leads, Laura Benati as Gypsy, Boyd Gaines as Herby and the powerhouse Mama Rose herself Patti LuPone who was born to play this role. The musical contains many songs that became popular standards, including "Small World," "Everything's Coming up Roses", "You'll Never Get Away from Me," and "Let Me Entertain You." It is frequently considered one of the crowning achievements of the mid-20th century's conventional musical theatre art form, often called the "book musical."

Gypsy has been referred to as the greatest American musical by numerous critics and writers, among them Ben Brantley and Frank Rich; Rich even goes so far as to call it the American musical theatre's answer to King Lear. Theater critic Clive Barnes wrote that "Gypsy is one of the best of musicals..."

So which one IS the Greatest Musical of All Time? Well you have to check out these great musicals for yourself. Tickets are going fast, so call an Applause Theatre Service sales expert now at 212-307-7050 or order online at our award winning website, http://www.applause-tickets.com/. If you're looking for a great price, act now and mention the Applause Insider Deals.

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