Gypsy is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Gypsy is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, and focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business mother." It follows the dreams and efforts of Rose to raise two daughters to perform onstage and casts an affectionate eye on the hardships of show business life. The character of Louise is based on Lee, and the character of June is based on Lee's sister, the actress June Havoc. The musical contains many songs that became popular standards, including "Small World," "Everything's Coming up Roses", "You'll Never Get Away from Me," and "Let Me Entertain You." It is frequently considered one of the crowning achievements of the mid-20th century's conventional musical theatre art form, often called the "book musical". Gypsy has been referred to as the greatest American musical by numerous critics and writers, among them Ben Brantley and Frank Rich. Rich even calls it the American musical theatre's answer to King Lear. Theater critic Clive Barnes wrote that "Gypsy is one of the best of musicals..." and described the character of Rose as "one of the few truly complex characters in the American musical....". The original Broadway production opened on May 21, 1959 at The Broadway Theatre and subsequently transferred to the Imperial Theatre, running for 702 performances after two previews. In 1973, it was announced that Elaine Stritch would be starring in the first London production of the show. However, when ticket sales proved to be unsuccessful, producers hired the more familiar Angela Lansbury. (According to Craig Zadan, "The ...producers were not able to raise the required capital on Stritch's name, and the promise of a new production...became ominously distant." The London production opened at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End on May 29, 1973 and closed on March 2, 1974 after 300 performances. It was produced by Edgar Lansbury (Angela's brother) and directed by the show's author, Arthur Laurents with choreography reproduced by Robert Tucker. The supporting cast featured Zan Charisse, Barry Ingham, Debbie Bowen and Bonnie Langford. On September 23, 1974, Lansbury's West End production transferred to Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre for a planned limited run of 120 performances after four previews. The cast remained mostly the same in New York, except that Rex Robbins played Herbie, Maureen Moore (later Bernadette Peters' understudy as Rose in the 2003 revival) played the adult June, and Mary Louise Wilson was Tessie Tura. Angela Lansbury, having reprised her role as Rose, won the 1975 Tony Award. 01 - Overture 02 - Some People 03 - Small World 04 - Let Me Entertain You (Montage) 05 - Mr. Goldstone 06 - Little Lamb 07 - You'll Never Get Away From Me 08 - If Monna Was Married 09 - All I Need Is The Girl 10 - Everything's Coming Up Roses 11 - Together 12 - You Gotta Get A Gimmick 13 - Let Me Entertain You 14 - Rose's Turn LINK
