Gypsy, a musical by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents. New York City Center Encores! Starring Patti LuPone, Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti. This special limited run of "Gypsy" is a marvelous summer treat from Encores! The cast is as good as could possibly be assembled today. At last Patti LuPone gets to do Rose, a role she was born to play and she doesn't disappoint. She slides into the role as if it was written for her. She plays it with ruthless charm: she's a lovable rascal and no monster Mom. As Gypsy, lovely, immensely talented Laura Benanti is certainly the finest exponent of the role since Sandra Church, the original, and is easily the most exalted (no other Gypsy sported two Tony nominations in their resume). Benanti is so good that it really is a tug of war at the end between Gypsy's hard painfully-won stardom and her mother's frustrated hopes and ambitions. Boyd Gaines, recently so magnificent in "Journey's End," is a superb Herbie, the best I've seen. The strength of the cast is amazing. Tony Yazbeck is dazzling as Tulsa and Alison Fraser (Tessie Tura), Nancy Opel (Mazeppa), and Marilyn Caskey (Electra) are luxury casting indeed. Even the mature Dainty June, Leigh Ann Larkin rocks. So did Baby June -what a great little hoofer Sami Gayle is! The audience loved the performance and so did we. But I do wish Encores! had seized this opportunity of a limited run to rethink the staging and choreography. The last major revival of "Gypsy" was in 2003. Did we need to see the same thing again? Even though Jerome Robbins' choreography is justly revered, surely there are other possibilities. That opening number "Let Me Entertain You" seemed a tad stale to me even though the little June was so fabulous. This is a minor quibble though. In the end it is Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, and the overall excellence of the cast that makes this production so special. Was this "Gypsy" worth the commute on a hot summer day? You bet! Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test grade A.

The Return of the Prodigal by St. John Hankin. Mint Theater Company. Directed by Johnathan Bank. The Mint always comes up with intriguing and rarely performed plays that challenge our assumptions and "The Return of the Prodigal" by St. J ohn Hankin, a playwright whose work we've not seen previously is no exception. We were excited to see this 1905 work which has garnered high praise from critics. Alas, we were bitterly disappointed. The decision to update the work, to remove all Victorian trappings and English accents has not kept faith with the material. The dilemmas presented have no relevance today. The idea that a bright young woman would be trapped at home in order to be respectable and live with her mother and father doesn't wash in the Post Princess-Di era. Nor did the not so shocking revelations about the family, the family business, and their lust for a social position make the slightest sense in a modern context. The actors do their best and I would single out the lovely debutante Leah Curney as Violet Jackson, but when a director doesn't trust his material, a production is doomed. While it was fun to sit amongst an appreciative audience mostly made up of NYU Theater program summer campers, we didn't feel it was worth the commute. We don't know if "The Return of the Prodigal" could work today in a period setting, but we do know it doesn't work as presented. Sorry "Governor." Bridge and Tunnel Test Grade D+

Curtains, a musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb, Rupert Holmes at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Starring David Hyde Pierce, Karen Ziemba, Jill Paice, Jason Danielly, Edward Hibbert, and Debra Monk. It seems appropriate that almost a year to the day we posted our first "test report" on our Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test, the "Drowsey Chaperone," we now review another musical that offers a loving look at the Broadway musical in the "golden age." "Curtains" perhaps the last work by Kander and Ebb that will be newly offered on Broadway offers a funny take on musicals like "Oklahoma!" and "Annie Get Your Gun." In Rob Ashford's bright choreography, there are sly allusions to Agnes De Mille's once groundbreaking dances for "Oklahoma!" which remain familiar to many because they are well preserved in the Hollywood film. "Curtains" is a clever and witty murder mystery which takes place behind the scenes and even on stage. The score is an expert concoction by two masters, Kander and Ebb, with help by Rupert Holmes who worked with an Original Book and Concept by Peter Stone. Kander himself was left on his own when Ebb died and wrote (unintentionally perhaps) a moving tribute to songwriting collaborators "I Miss the Music." There are several show stoppers including "Show People," "Coffee Shop Nights," "Wide Open Spaces," "It's a Business," and my favorite number "What Kind of Man?" a ruthless trashing of critics that may have contributed to the show getting less than stellar reviews from denizens of the Fourth Estate without a sense of humor. The critics may not have liked the show, but audiences do as "Curtains" is now playing to near capacity. The audience was wildly enthusiastic. When we went to the half price booth yesterday, only partial views were available, and we found the same result at the Box Office. Nonetheless we had a seat we enjoyed and loved the show, every minute of it. The sets are sumptuous and colorful, the costumes terrific and the talented cast which even includes the great Ernie Sabella (of Pumbah fame) in a small part, is outstanding. David Hyde Pierce sings and dances his way into our hearts along with his ingenue amour played by the beautiful Jill Paice. Debra Monk stops the show with "It's a Business." Jason Danielly sings the heartbreaking ballad "I Miss the Music" with just the right wistfulness. I won't give the mystery away, but I can tell you that the audience was buzzing with speculation up till the final moment when the solution is revealed. Although scribes have written that "Curtains" is a minor entry in the Kander and Ebb canon, I predict that it will assume a proud place in their work and have a long life on the road and in revivals. Another wag wrote that "Curtains" is good, but "Your Grandfather's Musical." Well my Grandfather's musical was "Show Boat," my Father's musicals were "Oklahoma" and "South Pacific" and my own very first musicals were "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Cabaret," so I'm not put off by the comparison. The cast album, which we purchased yesterday, confirmed our pleasure in the score as we happily listened to it on our commute home through the Holland Tunnel and beyond to New Jersey. Our Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test grade for "Curtains" is A-

Old Acquaintance, a play by John Van Druten. American Airlines Theatre, presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company, starring Margaret Colin and Harriet Harris. If, like us, you've ever wanted to see a performance from the so-called "golden age," the age of sophisticated Broadway fare with Kit Cornell, Ethel Barrymore, Roz Russell, Jane Cowl and Peggy Wood, Roundabout's superb revival of the 1941 "Old Acquaintance" by John Van Druten is your chance. The roles taken by Cowl and Wood in the original are most ably filled by Margaret Colin, warm and lovely, and Harriet Harris, who is sensational as the high strung author of best sellers, Mildred Watson Drake. Harris prowls the stage with vibrant assurance, at once satisfyingly vicious and yet believably vulnerable so that you understand her friend's loyalty. She has a priceless bit with a telephone which is high physical comedy. The production is picture perfect, the sets almost distractingly detailed, and the acting by the entire cast finely calibrated. Several critics clearly didn't understand the point of reviving this slender drawing room comedy, but we thought it says something about women's friendships and relationships that is timeless, even if it is securely and stylishly anchored in literary New York of the 1940's . We've seen a lot of John Van Druten's work lately in Princeton: "The Voice of the Turtle," "Bell, Book and Candle" and now this first rate revival on Broadway which is a rare chance. If you know "Old Acquaintance" only from the Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins film , which is more soap opera than comedy, then you're in for a treat. The play is warm, funny, and quite a theatrical time machine. We give "Old Acquaintance" a Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test grade of B+.