The audience Friday night was the best yet for “Gypsy.” There were almost 200 of them. They got the jokes and laughed, They applauded. Some grooved with orchestra and one lady in the third row quietly sang along with all the songs.

The enthusiasm of the crowd quickly spread to the cast. Even before Uncle Jocko opened with, “Everyone shut up!” One could see the cast members dancing to the overture. It was going to be a good night, everyone knew. And things got steadily better as the show wore on.

But all was not perfect. Again, the Fates, the competition and the lowest common denominator facts of life in Yuba-Sutter continued to work their black magic against “Gypsy.”

Friday night was also the opening game of the Gold Sox, Marysville’s (Calif.) oddball municipally owned professional baseball team, which plays at Bryant Field, just a long line drive away from the Marysville Auditorium where “Gypsy” is ensconced for its three week run.

The city has something on the order of $2 million sunk into the chancy enterprise so it was all for making a big production of the first pitch, run, game – which apparently was lost to the Long Beach at some humiliating score.

Fireworks were laid in with the intention of firing off a volley each time the hometown scored a run, which were not so many. So, in the logic of juvenile firebugs, if fireworks have been bought, it follows, like night the day, they must be exploded. Childish impulse behavior is apparently seated in the basal ganglia and rules over all.

As luck would have it the end of the baseball coincided with the approach of the final denouement of "Gypsy” and Jayne White’s big blowout conflict-resolution with Carmen Smith and lollapalooza windup.

It was just then the firebug-fireworks gang started detonating their unexpended volleys. Ka-BOOM! Ka-boom-boom-boom. Brackle-brackle-brackle-KA-BOOOOOOOOOM!

And it went on and on and on. All the doors were closed to the auditorium but the explosions could easily be heard inside, punctuating the tender moments when Rose learns she must let Louise go, and step out of the stardom. Frustrated, but defiant. Ka-boom-boom!

After a perfect night, White began to trip on certain lines. Maybe she was exhausted from pouring all her energies into each scene – or more like – she was rattled by the seemingly endless fireworks intrusions. Fortunately, the fireworks petered out before Jayne White started her wind-up song.

The crowd, however, didn’t seem phased at all. They were generous with their applause at the bows, giving Jayne White a standing ovation (richly deserved). And they put extra mustard on their cheers for Julie Bryson (June), Carmen Smith (Louise), Jonathon Bryson (Tulsa) and, of course, the three strippers Elizabeth Janiak (Mazeppa), Gail Carter (Tessie Tura) and Jenny Grining (Miss Electra).

More competition comes tonight and tomorrow, with the Marysville Rodeo in for the Memorial Day weekend.

But that may not be so bad.

“Not too many cowpokes go to the theater. I don’t think we draw from the same well,” one lady stagehand observed.

There’s something “Gypsy” director Bob Hechtman should be extraordinarily proud of, although he probably doesn’t know or even think about it. It all has to do with how he, as a professional, teaches others by setting a good example and establishing standards he expects his actors to meet.

Here is a brief anecdote to illustrate it.

Thursday night a local Catholic parochial school held its annual talent show. One of the acts was conceived and led by Alexandria Mazerolle -- one of the several younger “newsboys” in the chorus line backing the young “Baby June” and “Louise.”

In the beginning, Mazerolle was not cast in the newsboys. Hechtman bluntly wrote her off as a can’t-sing, cant’-dance what are we going to do with ‘em non-entity. Hechtman can seem a curmudgeonly W.C. Fields at first glance. But it only takes about 15 minutes attentive listening and watching to know he is the opposite at heart.

Anyway, Hechtman was absolutely right on the can’t-dance score at the time. However, he was grossly wrong when he dismissed Mazerolle’s singing skills and experience. The truth is, the kid can sing and has and does “sell tickets” at other events outside the ken of the Ponderosa Theater gang.

But -- possibly to shut up Mazerolle’s “stage Mom” -- Hechtman relented and elevated Alex from being a prop in the “Uncle Jocko’s Kids” scene to a newsboy. And so the gauntlet was thrown down.

“By hook or crook she was given this opportunity. She’d better deliver,” one friend advised..

Coming in late, things looked bleak for Mazerolle. She could sing, but was so fixated staring down at the other dancer’s feet in hopes of aping their dance steps their steps it was hard to get a peep out of her, much less a smile.

By opening night though she had the routine down pat and was doing a respectable job of dancing, even compared to some of the most talented kids in the line. Moreover, she had taken the advice Jayne White gave out each night to “Sing out, Louise!” and had actually remembered to smile while swinging arms and cross-stepping. Most of the time, at least.

But that’s not the story, as they’ve said many times in the midnight hour when the a.m. ‘K’ wire is clacking its bulletins and Mr. Coffee’s warming up.

The real story is this: Instead resenting Hechtman’s initial estimation of her and the outsider aura it saddled her with, little Alexandria Mazerolle paid attention (albeit, almost invisibly to others), She saw how he drew performances out of the older actors. How he gently insisted on getting things right.

What Hechtman was teaching and Alex was learning were, of course, the basic tenets and traditions of good showmanship:

 Make the curtain.
 Wait for your cues.
 Enter on time.
 Hit your marks.
 Know your lines.
 They bought a ticket; give ‘em a show.
 Give it your best.
 Don’t disappoint.

We know this because when the annual talent show came around, Mazerolle put them into practice, all on her own.

She cajoled two of her school chums into joining her in a song and dance act she adapted from “Gypsy” -- it was “Together, Wherever We Go,” the trio bit done by Jayne White, Timothy Van Zant and Carmen Smith.

Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery, and thus Hechtman, White, Van Zant and Smith should feel very proud of themselves – the examples they set and the worship they inspired..

Hechtman’s influence can be seen in the theatrical way Mazerolle cast her friends. She had many “best friends” but recruited only those with the most talent. She’d obviously learned the value of a good director's shrewd eye.

White, Van Zant and Smith can see their unintended legacy in the little girl’s choice of their “Together” number. They should also see it in the comment by a parent of one of the other girls in the act.

“We were amazed how dedicated Alex was,” one Mother said. “The others wanted to play, but she was very insistent. With (Alex) it was: Practice, practice, practice.”

All those long rehearsal nights spent watching White, Van Zant and Smith -- and also Julie Bryson and Smith in another number -- labor over and over again to get their dance and song just so, apparently taught a worthwhile lesson.

Carolyn Foy-Hoffer, “Gypsy’s” official choreographer, could also see her influence at work, if she ever saw the videotape of Mazerolle’s final Notre Dame School Spring Talent Show act.

The White-Van Zant-Smith trio worked out their own song-and-dance, but it was approved by Foy-Hoffer. Mazerolle’s adaptation borrowed from it and was similar, but by recombining the steps and positions in a different way, the Mazerolle and her Notre Dame pals made it their own.

Prizes are not distributed these days at talent shows in these wimpy times. Everyone must get a prize or no one, otherwise it would not be a win-win situation for all concerned. A win for one, would be a loss for someone else and that’s non-no in this mushy age.

However, eyewitnesses can attest that the “Together” act created by Mazerolle from what she learned from Hechtman, White, Van Zant and Smith got then biggest hand.

And, in the final analysis, isn’t that what showbusiness is all about?

Well, tonight comes the fourth performance after a four-day lay-over. We'll see how it all holds together.

A few days have passed allowing time to think about the second and third performances. The consensus among the regular attendees is that each performance has been better than the last. What fools these mortals be!

Backstage, the racing and griping and complaints about stepped-on lines and flubs increased. But maybe that was just general actors’ complex.

The little flapper identified herself as Ellie Oliver, so there’s one mystery name put to rest.

Conductor Dan Soares maybe explained the nature of the schizophrenic audience.

Much debate has flowed back and forth and on and on about the subject matter of the play. In a God-fearin’ community like Yuba-Sutter, where there are 23 gas stations and 132 churches, the mere idea of glorifying the showbiz world of vaudeville and – perish the thought – burlesque, was supposed to shock one and all.

Well, one, but not all.

“My wife loved the strippers. She talked about it all night,” Soares said.

So much for churchy preachments.

Between the little boy’s pants falling down and the repeated show-stopper performance of the strippers in “Gotta Getta Gimmick,” we prove once again H.L. Mencken’s observation that ‘No one ever went broke underestimating the good taste of the American public.”

Meanwhile, "Weber" had a few complaints. On Sunday his stomach was upset. Not having the precise timing of the San Juan Capistrano swallows, his opening night butterflies arrived two days late.

On the second night, the timing of his two entrances were dysfunctionalized by the stage manager, Ernie Ballard, who chose precisely the wrong moment to give Jaynie White a few helpful tips on how to cross the stage. Next, the stage crew started moving the newsboys bulletin boards around, just as Weber was to enter again. Nothing like surprise activity to throw an actor’s timing off.

And there were other inexplicable decisions – at least as far as Weber was concerned..

Opening night, Weber was told at the last minute by director Bob Hechtman to stop using “the hand” as part of his colloquy with “Rose.” Then, at the very last second, Timothy Van Zant -- the excellent “Herbie” – advised him to cut out “the handshake,” allegedly by order of Hechtman.

“He wants me to carry this pencil and notepad, instead,” Van Zant said by way of explanation.

Two eleventh-hour changes. What were they thinking? What were we doing during all those weeks of rehearsals? These helpful hints to Jaynie and revisions of Weber’s stage business couldn’t have been made, like the day before? Well, that’s showbusiness, as they say.

Linda Plummer has reportedly been on the air at KUBA radio giving out free tickets to “Gypsy.” The crowds have been anorexic thin and this may be a move to put meat on their bones.

And it’s a good thing! Because this “Gypsy” is a great production, well mounted by Hechtman. The public deserves – nay, owes it to themselves – to see, hear and cry with Jayne White, Tim Van Zant, and the other two stars of considerable merit, Carmen Smith and Julie Bryson.