Here's a Quicktime movie of Gypsy Rose Lee's appearance on the television program What's My Line on May 31, 1959, just a few days after the original production of Gypsy opened on Broadway.

Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne: Gypsy -- A Musical Fable

James Troutman

Date: 2003/10/19
Last revised: 2003/11/29

Some people think Gypsy is the greatest musical of all time. While I wouldn't go that far, I certainly wouldn't put up much of an argument. One is probably on firmer ground, however, by saying that it is the best of the Rodgers and Hammerstein-style musicals.

People tend to think of Gypsy as being a star vehicle for a middle-aged diva; the various productions tend to take on the name of the star as we refer to the Ethel Merman Gypsy, the Angela Lansbury Gypsy, the Tyne Daly Gypsy, and of course, today we are fortunate to have the Bernadette Peters Gypsy. There is also a good film version (the Bette Midler Gypsy) and a not-so-good (but by no means awful) film version (the Rosalind Russell/Lisa Kirk Gypsy).

Certainly the part of Momma Rose is a big meaty role, but it's a mistake to place too great an emphasis on it, for at its core, Gypsy is a variation on the classic ugly-duckling story: the untalented, somewhat overlooked, sister grows up to become the queen of the burlesque circuit. It's this tale that gives the piece its lasting emotional resonance.

One of my favorite sequences occurs in the last two scenes of Act 1. Louise has been firmly established as stoically working to help make her younger sister June a star. There seems to be no other choice open to her as long as their domineering stage mother won't let go. But suddenly a choice materializes in the form of Tulsa, one of the boys in their vaudeville act. She catches him rehearsing a proposed night club routine and she realizes that he's planning to leave the act. All he needs is a girl to be his dancing partner. This leads into his solo number ("All I Need Is the Girl") where as he sings and dances, Louise begins to visualize herself as that girl. As the number reaches its climax, Tulsa pulls her into his fantasy world and they finish the dance together. Notice that this number is entirely about Louise and her dreams, even though she doesn't have a single word to sing in the song. In fact, Tulsa isn't even singing directly to Louise; for much of the number he seems oblivious to her presence.

This is immediately followed by a scene in a train station, where we quickly learn that Tulsa and June have just run off together, having been married three weeks earlier. Louise is obviously devastated by this revelation, but there's worse to come. All the boys are quitting the act, essentially leaving them with no act at all. Louise and Herbie seize on this as a chance to get out of show business once and for all, as they try to convince Rose to marry Herbie, settle down, and form a real family. Imagine Louise's horror when her mother turns to her and claims she's had another dream. "I'm going to make you a star!" she says as she begins her anthem of desperation, "Everything's Coming Up Roses."

Gypsy's claim as one of the great musicals of all time is strengthened by its avoidance of Act 2 weakness, a place where even many well-loved musicals tend to falter.

Act 2 begins rather shakily with Madame Rose putting a new all-girl troupe of performers through what is essentially the same act as before, this time with Louise as a not-quite-ready-for-stardom headliner. Happily, this quickly gives way to one of the most engaging numbers in the score ("Together") as Herbie, Louise, and Rose celebrate their mutual affection.

The tone quickly changes, however, once the troupe arrives at the Wichita strip joint and discover that they've been hired only in order to keep the police from raiding the place. The librettist's problem: how to quickly get the audience to empathize with the strippers. The groundwork that Laurents laid in Act 1 pays off, as Louise and Tessie bond over Louise's sewing skills. This is promptly followed by one of the greatest comic numbers in all Broadway musicals, "You Gotta Get a Gimmick."

Of course, in retrospect the entire show has been working up to the transformation of gangling "ugly duckling" Louise into the mature and poised "swan" Gypsy Rose Lee. When Louise looks into the mirror and finally realizes that she is, in fact, a pretty girl the transformation is well under way. It only remains to demonstrate that transformation to the audience in Gypsy's Strip number.

And what can possibly top the Strip? Why only one of the great mad scenes in all theatre, as Rose imagines what she could have been if she had become a star. It's "Rose's Turn," of course, that has become the defining number for the entire piece, firmly bringing the focus back to Momma Rose.

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