MTW’s Gypsy star on the show vs. real life and the path to becoming a Wichita minister

It’s been 14 years since Karen L. Robu commanded the stage at Century II, playing Mama Rose in Music Theatre Wichita’s “Gypsy.”

And she’s reprising the role to kick off the new MTW season later this week.

Robu uses her character’s daughters and her own two daughters as a yardstick.

“Last time I did it my girls were the age of (Rose’s) two girls when they were younger,” she said. “This time, they’re at the age of the daughters when they were older. I have some lived experience there that has colored the role, the show, differently for me.”

In the years since, Robu said, she has come to relate with Mama Rose, the proverbial stage mother.

“I’d like to think I’m more mentally stable than Rose is, that I have a healthier relationship with my children, but at the same time they’re 20 and 25, they’re adults, so I know what it’s like to have your kids leave,” she said.

Rose again

When Wayne Bryan, longtime MTW artistic director, went against tradition and cast local actress Robu as Rose in 2010, he said it was part of a plan he’d had for years.

“I’ve watched Karen since she joined our company in 1995 in the ensemble and I kept seeing her do increasingly more interesting and honest work,” he told Eagle columnist Bob Curtright in a preview. “Karen’s voice is unique and powerful. She comes at roles as an actress first with the emotion. She is capable of caressing a lyric very intimately.”

Curtright’s review said “Robu stalks, rather than merely walks, the stage, commanding attention and demanding love as she tries to live out her vaudeville dreams vicariously by pushing her two daughters into the spotlight in the 1920s and 1930s. Robu is an actress who sings, rather than a singer who acts, and she carves out surprising nuance and depth in a complex character you love to hate.”

Brian J. Marcum, who succeeded Bryan, didn’t get to see Robu as Rose, but the buzz surrounding her lasted for years.

“Everybody said, ‘Oh, you’ve got to see her do Rose, it’s fantastic,’” he said.

Building this season, dubbed “Year of the Woman,” Marcum knew he wanted to stage “Gypsy,” one of his favorite musicals.

And he knew who would play Rose.

“If I had not cast her, there would have been mutiny in this town,” Marcum said.

“Gypsy” is one of Marcum’s favorite shows, and performed it twice with Tony winner Betty Buckley and “Laugh-In” co-star Jo Anne Worley in the title role.

Directing MTW’s “Gypsy” is Richard Sabellico, who saw Ethel Merman as Mama Rose at age 11, was in the show with Angela Lansbury on Broadway and produced a revival with Tyne Daly.

“He has all these stories and he was (playwright) Arthur Laurent’s right-hand man, so he has all these stories why certain lines are in the show, and so many fun asides he’s sharing with everyone,” Marcum said.

The script has been updated from the earlier version MTW performed, and Robu has caught herself reciting lines from the previous version. Robu said she remembered more of the script than she first thought.

“It’s all back here somewhere,” she said, pointing to the back of her head. “It’s always easier to relearn a part after 14 years than it is to initially learn.”

It takes no hesitation for Robu to say Mama Rose is her favorite role, but is more uncertain whether she likes the character.

“She really is the villain. But there has to be something that you like about her. You can’t watch her for three hours if you don’t like something about her, you know,” she said. “She’s a powerful woman. She took charge of things when women didn’t particularly do that. So, you’ve got to give her that kind of credit, I guess.”

Robu’s ’24 rendition of Mama Rose, she said, differs from the 2010 edition.

“In this performance, the character is going to be stronger all the way through it,” she said. “She certainly has to make a journey. I think maybe I was a little naïve in the first couple of scenes before. Not that it was wrong, it was a choice I made at the time.”

Stage mother

In the 14 years since she was last Mama Rose, Robu said she’s felt some empathy for the character after what was going on in her own life.

Her two daughters had shown talent since beginning dance lessons at 3. Days after her oldest was offered a scholarship from Boston Conservatory at Berklee in musical theater, the daughter changed her mind and decided instead to study at Wichita State.

“There was a feeling of ‘This is what we’ve worked for,’” Robu said, emphasizing the “we.” “I was catching myself going, ‘Oh Lord …’

“I was living through her and thinking maybe she could do what I didn’t get to.”

The daughter has since left WSU, but her youngest daughter is still there, majoring in musical theater and English literature.

Robu said it makes her think of Rose.

“There’s this feeling I sometimes get of what could have been, what I could have done if I pursued it. I’m not a big star, so I feel some of that too,” Robu said. While others their age are dreaming of stardom, “my kids have more of a realistic view, because they’ve seen their dad and I, whereas some of these kids whose family doesn’t have a background in performance are thinking, ‘I’m gonna be a star.’”

Tim Robu, Karen’s husband of 28 years, has notched more than 100 performances with MTW, while the newest “Gypsy” is, by Karen’s calculation, her 60th.

“Every year, we call Music Theatre Wichita our summer vacation,” she said.

Making Wichita home

A native of Windsor, Ontario, Robu moved to Wichita in 1993 with a six-month contract to work at the former Crown Uptown Dinner Theatre.

That contract extended to 10 months, and she answered calls to perform in Florida, Canada and Indianapolis.

After her 1996 wedding to Tim Robu, whom she met when he worked alongside her at Crown Uptown, Karen had an eight-week contract to perform at an Indianapolis theater – coincidentally, in “Gypsy,” albeit a smaller role.

“I thought, ‘I did not get married to spend all my time apart from this person,’” she said. “That was the last time I travelled” to perform.

Tim, a Michigan native who now works in tech at Exploration Place, was “not a big-city person,” his wife said, and they have a spot in the country where Karen can take care of horses, a longtime passion.

“We stayed in Wichita in large part because of Music Theatre,” she said. “We do these great shows with great people and we still get to have our home in the country, 30 minutes outside of Wichita.”

The couple played opposite each other in the 2010 “Gypsy,” where Tim had the role of Herbie, the agent-love interest of the musical. This time, that part goes to John Scherer, who replaced Bryan as the lead role in “The Drowsy Chaperone” in 2022.

Tim Robu plays three roles in this “Gypsy,” Uncle Jocko, a kiddie show emcee; Kringelein, a hotel manager; and Cigar, a burlesque manager – in Wichita. Yes, that’s how it is in the script.

“Gypsy,” which premiered in 1959 with music by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim is based on the memoirs of striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee and her love-hate relationship with her ambitious and domineering mother, Rose, who lived vicariously through the vaudeville careers of her two daughters. Musical highlights include “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Let Me Entertain You” and “Gotta Get a Gimmick.”

Robu remains an unabashed fan of the show.

“It’s the best-written book in musical theater,” she said. “I think a lot of musical theater books are weak – it’s all about the music and they just are filler to get to the next song.”

Rev. Dr. Robu

Robu worked seven years at Crown Uptown in costumes. Usually by herself in the costume shop, she could bring her newborn daughters to work.

As she returned after a three-week break after giving birth to her younger daughter, Robu recalls sitting on the edge of the bed and crying, wondering if there was something more in her life.

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, sent her to church for the first time in 20 years.

“I found it hypocritical and all kinds of things,” she said. “I just wasn’t interested. But after 9/11, I felt the need to go to church that Sunday.”

She became increasingly involved at University Congregational Church and was a member of the Christian education board. It was during a board meeting the announcement was made in 2004 that the church was seeking a children and youth director.

“It was like a light bulb went on,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘That’s my job.’ But then I thought that’s ridiculous, because I don’t know anything about Christian education.”

By 2008, she had enrolled in Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, leaving UCC in 2011 for a position at Plymouth Congregational Church, where she is associate minister.

She received her doctorate in ministry in 2018. Her doctoral dissertation was writing a play, “Suffering Church,” based on 18 months and interviews with more than 50 young people about why they had left church.

“People want to feel like they belong,” Robu said. “They want to be part of a community. So often the church is the cause of suffering because of the rejection of folks.”

Her duties include frequently preaching, as well as adult education, mission work and programming the church’s fine arts series.

“The more I got into ministry and the more responsibilities I took on, I had to reduce the amount I performed,” Robu said. “But I still can’t imagine not performing.”

Plymouth’s senior pastor is retiring this summer, Robu said, and she hopes to be in consideration to be promoted.

“I’m hopeful,” she said.

Robu said it’s easy to see a connection between the theater and Christianity.

“We think about God as creator, right? And the Bible talks about people being created in the image of God,” she said. “I really feel like we’re never closer to God than when we’re creating. Theater and art and music – that’s what makes life worth living.”

‘GYPSY’ BY MUSIC THEATRE WICHITA

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, May 22-23; 8 p.m. Friday, May 24; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, May 25; 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, May 26

Where: Century II concert hall, 225 W. Douglas

Tickets: $36-$76, from mtwichita.org, 316-265-3107 or the Century II box office