Theater: Besoyantique

The Student Gypsy. Composer, Lyricist, Librettist and Director Rick Besoyan has moved from Off-Broadway to Broadway, and from a Little Mary Sunshine to a lot of deadly nightshade. Sunshine was a mildly pleasant little spoof of bygone musicals featuring red-coated forest rangers. Gypsy is an ornately boring take-off on woebegone musicals starring mythical Balkan kingdoms. Besoyan is about as creative as a coroner, and his flaming wit conceives ashy dialogue.

When it isn’t lost in a silly maze of plottage, Gypsy bursts into songs that are tonic and tuneful, most notably Ting-A-Ling Dearie. What Besoyan should have done was junk the show and release the cast recording.