MEANWHILE IN NEW YORK

Coming up roses: Bernadette Peters bows in Gypsy on May 1. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Light the Lights

Even before new production of Gypsy opened on May 1, some critics sniped that star Bernadette Peters is just too young and too, well, sweet to play larger-than-life Mama Rose in the great Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim show. But one just has to listen to Peters’ furiously alive rendition of Mama’s anthem “Some People,” preserved on the Sondheim, Etc. CD, to know that the actress has more than enough octane for the role created by Ethel Merman.

The cast recording is not yet available. But based on Peters’ blow-off-the-doors “Some People”—from her Carnegie Hall concert, a benefit for Gay Men’s Health Crisis—she will be one powerful Mama.

Sam Mendes, who famously re-imagined Cabaret for the still-playing Broadway production, directs this revival (www.gypsythemusical.com). A hit since its 1959 Broadway premiere, the musical was inspired (as every show-tune queen knows) by the childhoods of ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee and actress June Havoc and their vaudeville-era travels with their relentless stage mother.

In the junior-diva division, Tammy Blanchard plays Louise/Gypsy Rose Lee. Blanchard wowed the audience and critics as the young Judy in the 2001 miniseries Me & My Shadows: Life With Judy Garland, which also starred Judy Davis. —Tim Brookover

Off Her Chest

Naughty but nice: Singer Ruth Wallis, circa 1950. Photo by James J. Kriegsmann

Boobs! The Musical must rank as one of the most attention-getting titles in the theater annals. With the subtitle The World According to Ruth Wallis, the show has been inspired by the saucy party songs written and crooned by the Brooklyn-born chanteuse. Though little known today, Wallis had a performing career that spanned the 1940s to the 1970s. The revue, opening May 19 off-Broadway at the Triad, includes many of her naught but good-natured songs, including “Dave’s Dinghy,” “He’d Rather Be a Girl,” “Ugly Man With Money,” and “You’ve Gotta Have Boobs.” Once dubbed Queen of the Wicked Ditties, Wallis now lives in Connecticut with her son, who oversees the record company she established for herself in 1952.

Boobs! director Donna Drake helms the annual New York drag musical Christmas With the Crawfords (yes, Joan’s family). She also directed the acclaimed 2000 revival of the little-known Splendora, the award-winning 1995 musical based on a marvelous novel by Texas native Edward Swift about a young man who returns to his hometown as Miss Jessie, the new town librarian.

Alas, a multi-city U.S. tour of Boobs! does not include Houston. More info: www.boobsthemusical.com. —TBSeth Rhaps

Diva attraction: Seth Rudetsky. Photo by David Coolidge

He’s been nominated for three Daytime Emmy Awards for his comedy writing on The Rosie O’Donnell Show. He’s interviewed Broadway’s biggest stars. Stand-up NY has voted him “New York’s Funniest Gay Male.” Now Seth Rudetsky is taking the New York theater scene by storm with his one-man play, Rhapsody in Seth, which traces a young man’s journey from humble beginnings as a showtune-belting adolescent on Long Island to cosmopolitan musical director and raconteur to Broadway’s most delectable divas.

What do divas have to say about it?

Betty Buckley: “Rhapsody is rapturous! So funny! So charming! So naughty! You must see it!”

Kristen Chenoweth: “Seth rocks! Moving and funny and beautiful and true!”

Megan Mullally: “Seth is beyond funny! Rhapsody is a scream-and-a-half! I love this show!”

Audra McDonald: “I laughed hysterically one minute and literally cried the next! I love, love, love it!”

Rosie O’Donnell: “Seth rules! It’s like A Chorus Line—only bitchier!”

Bebe Neuwirth: “Seth is f--king hilarious! Get your ass over to his show!”

Directed by Peter Flynn and produced by Peter Breger, Rhapsody in Seth plays off-Broadway at The Actors’ Playhouse (100 Seventh Avenue South, just below Sheridan Square/Christopher Street in Greenwich Village; via subway, take the 1/9 train to Christopher Street or the A/C/E or F/V train to West 4th Street). Performances are Fridays at 10 p.m., Saturdays at 3 p.m., and Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35. For tickets and information, call Telecharge.com at 212/239-6200 or visit www.RhapsodyInSeth.com. —Blase DiStefano

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