THEATER REVIEWS / ‘GYPSY’ : In the Spotlight Again : The Cabrillo Music Theatre production in Port Hueneme is funny and touching, and looking very much like a hit

“Gypsy,” one of the best-known and most-revived Broadway musicals, wasn’t a great hit in its original run: While the run lasted for 700 performances and made money, 700 is far from a record number, and the show won no major awards. “Fiorello!” and “The Sound of Music” captured most of those honors for the 1959-60 season.

The Cabrillo Music Theatre’s version of “Gypsy” looks very much like a hit. The run closes this weekend. Some tickets might still be available.

Arthur Laurents’ loosely based his episodic libretto on the memoirs of the world’s best-known striptease artist, Gypsy Rose Lee. His collaborators included several other alumni from “West Side Story,” including lyricist Stephen Sondheim and director Jerome Robbins. The music is by Tin Pan Alley veteran Jule Styne.

Save for a less-than-credibly uplifting denouement, “Gypsy” could be described as a musical tragedy, with Lee’s mother Rose the protagonist and ambition her tragic flaw.

Rose, the ultimate stage mother, pushes her two daughters to anticipated fame and fortune on the vaudeville circuit. Baby June, the younger, is a semi-talented Shirley Temple-type who gets all of the mother’s attention as she’s put into the spotlight for a series of humorously inept production numbers. All of them are versions of Sondheim and Styne’s “Let Me Entertain You” performed in different costumes.

Older sister Louise, meanwhile, is forced into the background of production numbers, as a chorus singer, a newsboy, and the front end of a cow.

Rose’s plans don’t work out. Louise becomes Gypsy Rose Lee, while Baby June--who doesn’t like the act any more than Louise does--fades into a career of un-releasable movies and guest appearances on Bob Hope specials. (Actually, she became a relatively successful film and stage actress, under the name June Havoc.)

There’s a definite bitter undercurrent going on. Nonetheless, the musical is very funny and quite touching as well, with many of the big numbers intentionally god-awful, and Kimberly DeMarco a knockout as Louise, the wallflower who turns into a star.

Deborah Probe does nicely as the less sympathetic June, showing real heart toward the end of her time on stage. Gabriel Vega steals scenes as both talent-show host Uncle Jacco and Pastey, the surly stagehand at a Kansas City burlesque house.

In addition to the Cabrillo amateurs, two very capable professional actors appear in this production: Allen Hunt as Rose’s suitor, Herbie, and John Charron as Tulsa, the singer-dancer whose big number is “All I Need is a Girl.”

Appearing in smaller--though significant--singing and dancing roles are Megan Pryor and Shelley Stenshol as the younger incarnations of June and Louise, and Sandra Gaskell, Catherine Best and Sally Voorhees as a trio of (shall we say) seasoned strippers.

But the show rests on the character of Rose. It would take a very special kind of actress to make Rose at all sympathetic, and that never happens here, but Mary Lee Hulette gives it her all--singing and acting with great intensity and credibility. Her climactic solo “Rose’s Turn” is one of the finest musical numbers from any local group this season.

Linda M. Stiegler directed more than capably, doing double duty as musical director. Kevin Caldwell choreographed the largely klutzy production numbers, and David Pier leads the good-sounding 17-piece orchestra.

The stage sets aren’t quite as opulent as they might be, but Crystal M. St. Romain’s costumes are just fine.

There’s a huge supporting cast, all of whom do just fine. Watch out for twins Ashley and Britton Bickel singing “Ma! He’s Making Eyes at Me” early on.

* WHERE AND WHEN

“Gypsy” concludes this weekend at the Dorill B. Wright Cultural Center at 575 Surfside Drive in Port Hueneme. Performances are at 8 tonight, tomorrow and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. Reserved-seat tickets are $17; $15 for students, seniors and active military. For further information, call 483-8859.