I've been very fond of the musical Gypsy but somehow never saw the original production. Jule Styne wrote seven songs for the marvelous and unique Broadway singer, Ethel Merman. I did see the movie with Rosalind Russell, who did perform well despite her obviously far less impressive vocal authority. It was fun seeing a tee shirt on sale in the lobby, which listed the actresses who had played Rose, the lead and Gypsy's mother--the most extreme of any stage mother--on Broadway. They were Merman, the original Rose; Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, and Patti Lupone.
Gypsy was the second of only two shows for which Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics but not the music. West Side Story was his first. Styne's songs and music overall was marvelous and Sondheim's lyrics superb and clever. Arthur Laurents's book was all right but not in the rarefied realm of the music and lyrics.
Audra Macdonald was Rose in this revival with a totally racially-integrated cast. Macdonald has a fine voice; I heard her as one of the students in Master Class, which portrayed Maria Callas, played by Zoe Caldwell, teaching such a class. Macdonald was good and I would concede that while no one is ever likely to rise to Merman's incredible vocal heights, Macdonald's singing was in a different style but excellent in its own way.
The rest of the cast, including Joy Woods as Louise, who of course becomes Gypsy Rose Lee, "the stripper with class" and Danny Burstein as the put-upon Herbie, who is in love with Rose but like everyone else who is close to her --her two daughters--ends up walking out on her. Her daughters--Gypsy and June, who became a successful actress as June Havoc--managed to make it in show business despite their Mom's controlling their early lives up through their teens.
The first act ends with that fabulous act-closing number, "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and the whole show winds up with the always amazing "Rose's Turn" during which she seems to be on the verge of a total breakdown but you know she will persevere. I've always thought that the wretched song that Rose included in every awful act she put together when she was trying to make June a star from her earliest moments in kiddie shows to vaudeville--"Let Me Entertain You"--was perfectly brought back late in the second act to be rendered in a wildly different tempo and style to serve as Gypsy's stripping number.
It should be recalled that although burlesque was on its way to theatrical burial following the demise of the "classier" vaudeville, Gypsy Rose Lee lasted on its stage as long as she did because she really was a different kind of burlesque queen. As Wikipedia notes, she "earned her legendary status as an elegant and witty striptease artist. Initially, her act was propelled forward when a shoulder strap on one of her gowns gave way, causing her dress to fall to her feet despite her efforts to cover herself; encouraged by the audience's response, she went on to make the trick the focus of her performance.
"Her innovations were an almost casual stripping style compared to bump & grind styles of most burlesque strippers (she emphasized the "tease" in "striptease"), and she brought a sharp sense of humor into her act as well. She became as famous for her onstage wit as for her stripping style, and—changing her stage name to Gypsy Rose Lee—she became one of the biggest stars of Minsky's Burlesque, where she performed for four years." In her later life, Gypsy had a long career in live theater, movies, and TV. She developed enough learning despite never attending school when her mother was taking the sisters on the road aiming for vaudeville fame to conduct a talk show successfully and succeed in several fields of entertainment. She also wrote several mystery novels and her own memoirs, on which Styne, Sondheim, and Laurents based their musical.
This musical was Ethel Merman's final success, lending her powerful pipes to the seven songs written with her as the intended singer. The revival confirmed that the show still attracts and pleases audiences, even with the singing, especially Macdonald's as Rose, much more stylized and satisfying in its own way than Merman's marvelous belting. If you've never seen it, it's worth heading for the Majestic on 44th St. west of Broadway.
