Gypsy

Every Broadway diva worth her salt dreams of playing the greatest musical-theater role of them all, sometimes called the King Lear of musicals: Mama Rose, the all-but-unstoppable stage mother of the world-renowned ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee. Now it's Tony Award hoarder Audra McDonald's turn, and show queens are salivating to see how she will compare to such prior Roses as Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters and (perhaps definitively) Patti LuPone. George C. Wolfe (Angels in America) directs the production, which marks the reopening of the Majestic Theatre for the first time since its 35-year occupation by The Phantom of the Opera. Broadway mensch Danny Burstein plays her long-suffering manager, and Joy Woods is her neglected tomboy daughter.