Angela Lansbury in "Gypsy"

[quote] Bonnie Langford as Baby June gives a definite performance.

Why couldn’t it have been Bonnie Franklin??

It's missing the "Dainty June and her Farm Boys/The Cow Song/Broadway, Broadway" sequence.

I saw it. I don't remember much about it except that it looked cheap and Angela Lansbury played it like an annoying schoolmarm.

Note that it's Mary Louise Wilson as Tessie Tura. Her delivery is pretty unmistakable.

The audio obviously can't convey two of Lansbury's unique moments. After Rose's Turn, she kept bowing after the applause faded with the entire number now clearly in Rose's head. Also, the look back at the stage at the end. Rose is finished but she can't help imagining what might have been.

r3 = Patti

A friend of mine once directed it in my city, and he said it's an incredibly difficult musical to do. Not only do you have to have a professional level orchestra to do the score (which is actually quite hard, and has a lot of tricky things for horns to do), but you have to have two absolutely first-rate actresses as well as singers to play both Momma Rose and Louise, and you have to have a genuinely star-quality belter and dancer to play Dainty June (or else no one really cares that she's being held back by her mother).

Like me, he is too young to have seen the original production, but he has seen every one of the Broadway revivals, and he said each of them had two of the three required talents for the Hovick family but was missing the third, with Louise usually the hardest to cast (since she has to go from being a vulnerable androgynous dreamy virgin to a sassy burlesque star and make it seem all of a piece). I can't remember who was the wrong person in the revivals he had seen except for the Angela Lansbury one, where he said Zan Charisse just did not have the acting chops to pull off Louise.

I saw her in this twice on Broadway and she was magnificent. At the time much was made of her revelatory choice to make Rose charming and flirty, at least in Act I. You have to remember that until then, only Merman had played the role in NY.

And yes, Mary Louise Wilson was a hoot as Tessie Tura.

I honestly don't remember much else except the physical production did look a bit cheap, like a touring production that came in after too long on the road (which it sort of was).

I remember Mr. Robbins being quite sexy, OP.

R9, he also showed peen in The Changing Room, but he still sucked in this production.

I still stand by my assessment.

I've seen it countless times, but unfortunately I'm too young to have seen La Lansbury. But I've seen the movie, the TV movie, Tyne, Linda Lavin, Bernadette, La LuPone, and even Miss Rita Moreno.

I have to say, I think the most exhilarating moment in the history of the musical theater is the last 25 seconds of the Gypsy Overture. It announces a BIG, IMPORTANT show biz story is about to be told. I get goosebumps just thinking of it.

Herbie and Louise aren't deal breakers in this show. The reason Benanti was lauded was because they cast an actual Broadway lead-level performer in the role.

Here's a few clips of Angela

Just cause we're talking about Gypsy, something in the 2008 production really stood out. Aside from Patti's amazing performance. By the time I saw that production, I must've seen Ya Gotta Have a Gimmick performed a dozen times. Remember, it was also in Jerome Robbins' Broadway. And, it usually got some laughs. Nothing huge. But in the 2008 production, it was absolutely hysterical. It KILLED.

Usually, the main laughs in the number go to Mazeppa. And Lenora Nemetz was very good, and funny. What was completely unexpected was that Marilyn Caskey as Electra actually built on and surpassed the Mazeppa laughs. I honestly don't think I've ever had genuine belly laughs in the theater like I had at her minute or so in that number. They decided to make Electra so old she could barely move, or speak for that matter. That, coupled with the lights on her body was shockingly funny. I was red faced laughing. Then Alison Fraser as Tessie Tura was good too. By the end of the song, I'd had such a great time with it, I was primed for the dramatic turn the show was about to take. What an evening!

I wonder if it was Arthur Laurents' idea to make Electra nearly invalid. If it was, it's pretty impressive that he came up with a while new angle on the character at age 99.

I've never seen "Gimmick" not kill. I've seen about half a dozen productions of GYPSY.

I think the hardest material to put across in present day is Jocko joking about the tits of the balloon girl's older sister.

As good as Benanti was, she overplayed the dressing room scene. I've never seen a Louise kill that scene. The Louise in the Caroline O'Connor production I saw blew out her head mic, she shouted so loud.

If they remake GYPSY on screen, it would make more sense to make Louise a three actor role. The "final" Louise could turn up on screen when they arrive at the house of burlesque. Thus, they can cast a real teen for "Little Lamb" up to "Together" etc.

R14 Dear lord....exactly as I remembered it: "it looked cheap and Angela Lansbury played it like an annoying schoolmarm."

R19, I thought Cyndi Gibb did the best Louise I've ever seen. What a shame it was wasted in that Bette Midler abomination. She seemed the right age until the very last scene but she certainly acted it well.

You know who was said to be a lot better than Zan Charisse...? Her sister, Nana Visitor.

Someone I've always thought would make a strong Louise is Jemima Rooper. She played Elvira in the last major production of Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury as Arcati. Rooper still reads as a teen onstange even thought she's late thirties.

[quote] The "final" Louise could turn up on screen when they arrive at the house of burlesque.

No, that would not make any sense. Louise needs to be young and impressionable still during "You Gotta have a Gimmick" and for the first time she takes off the glove while singing "Let Me Entertain You" solo for the first time.

But they could introduce a third Louise (in her twenties) for the "Pack up your apples, girls, and back to the trees!" scene at Minsky's and thereafter

[quote] [R19], I thought Cyndi Gibb did the best Louise I've ever seen.

She was great, though she runs into the problem most Louises who can play the androgynous Louise have--she had no tits for the later scenes where she's supposed to be the world's greatest stripper.

[Quote] No, that would not make any sense. Louise needs to be young and impressionable still during "You Gotta have a Gimmick" and for the first time she takes off the glove while singing "Let Me Entertain You" solo for the first time.

I take your point but you could cast a young actress as the third Louise - many a twentysomething can play "teen" or inexperienced well. The problem is when they cast twentysomethings (or older) to clutch a lamb to which they sing. And even something as simple as babyfat can make a big difference. Laura Benanti and Lara Pulver have such chiselled faces that their attempts at playing youthful naivete were hampered. Nevertheless, their strip numbers worked very well. That Herbie would believably offer to treat them to an ice cream, less so.

I have no idea if Olivia Rodrigo can act but she has the right look for Louise. She's sufficiently "soft" looking to play even younger than she is (17/18).

Gypsy Rose Lee was not well endowed. She was the "intellectual" stripper.

Is there any confirmation that Merman saw it?

The idea of Bernadette and Betty Lynn as Louise and June back in the early 1960s is pretty delicious. They both actually played June (though Bernadette's regular role was as a Hollywood blonde) but Bernadette's loveable quality would have worked well for Louise. She also could have played sweet to sweetly sexy very well. Betty Lynn would have been a believable smoker.

R18, Excuse me?

[quote]A friend of mine once directed it in my city, and he said it's an incredibly difficult musical to do.

Plus, Ethel Merman didn't know legato singing if it kicked her in her obbligato. So listening to the OBC is detrimental if you're doing the show.

[quote]Is there any confirmation that Merman saw it?

Lansbury said she did.

I've always thought it strange how GYPSY took so long to get to London. Someone posted to YouTube a screen test of Chita Rivera where she mentioned that a London production was imminent. The test looked to be from about 1963 or 1964. I read that the movie did quite well in the UK. Perhaps that killed producers' interest in the property for the duration of the 1960s? I think it was also long hoped that Merman would recreate her role in London.

Have y'all heard Joyce DeWitt's "Rose's Turn" (performed on stage to a backing track CD, no less)?

In People Magazine, they asked Merman if she would follow Lansbury in another role on Broadway to which she quipped "I wouldn't follow her with anything but a shovel." Lansbury said that Merman was always nice to her in person but obviously felt wronged that she got a Tony which Merman deserved.

I, for one, could not be emotionally invested in a Louise if suddenly played by a different actress, no matter how perfect, in the final 20 minutes of the show. As a matter of fact, I can't believe this is being seriously discussed here.

Well, I suggested the burlesque house section, which is the majority of the second act, not just twenty minutes.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

You probably would have said that about the Xmas strip vs Garden of Eden.

[quote]Rooper still reads as a teen onstange even thought she's late thirties.

You're saying a typical DLer in their own mind?

Lamsbury's London production was originally intended for Stritch. But despite Stritch's having lived in London several years and being a relatively popular stage and TV star there, the producers couldn't raise the money on her name. They withdrew the offer to Stritch and offered it to Angela. They raised the money very quickly. You used to be able to find images of London newspaper ads on Google announcing Stritch for the show but a search just now didn't turn up any.

^ Lansbury, not Lamsbury. Maybe I was thinking of her secret furry persona.