Customer Reviews

Gypsy

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I agree with everything in the previous review, especially the Russell versus Midler versions of the movie. This is a wonderful show, and I am the lucky woman who gets to play Rose in my local theatre's production. I bought this book because Tams-Witmark sends out "sides" for each role -- a small book that includes only the character's lines with just a few words of the cue before. Having the full script is a great help, but be aware that this book is slightly different from the version used by Tams-Witmark. I'm marking the changes in my full script and using it, though, because it's much more convenient.

Do get the memoir Gypsy by Gypsy Rose Lee. It's amazing to see how much of this show was taken directly from the pages of her autobiography. Rose and Herbie were somewhat romanticized in the show, as was Tessie the stripper and many other aspects of the story -- hey this is Broadway! There can't be *too* much misery! But the cow really did come to Rose in a dream and really did get them on the Orpheum Circuit. They really did bleach a gaggle of girls' hair blonde. Both books are great reads.

I am a student in Chicago's New Tuners Workshop, an organization devoted to the writing of new works of musical theatre. In our first year, we are required to read GYPSY. Our artistic director, John Sparks, considers GYPSY to be one of the finest book musicals ever written.

The lead part of the Mama Rose is often considered the musical theatre equivalent of Lady MacBeth or Hedda Gabler. Lucky is the woman who gets to play her. Three women have played her on Broadway: Ethel Merman (in the original production), Angela Lansbury (in a 1970's revival) and Tyne Daly (in a 1990's revival). Lansbury and Daly both won Tony awards for their perfomances. Merman lost in 1960 to Mary Martin in "The Sound Music." She was robbed!

Musical highlights of the show include the character defining "Some People," the desperate "Ev'rything's Coming up Roses" and the tour-de-force finale, "Mama's Turn." A majority of the songs are Mama Rose's, the result, apparently, of Ethel Merman's ego. Nevertheless, it works brilliantly.

If you are looking for a version of this show on video, AVOID the Rosalind Russell version from the early sixties, in favor of the recent Bette Middler version. Not only is the Middler version more faithful to the original play, Bette does her own singing (Lisa Kirk sang for Russell) and her performance rivals Merman's.

If you love musicals, you will love this book. Read it yesterday!

GYPSY in book form is, more or less, the Broadway script of that gem of a musical GYPSY (1959), written by Arthur Lawrence, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. This edition includes the songs in word form only, no musical notation.

It was fun to me to get to read a play that I had only known as a movie, and a pleasant revelation to see how well the dialog was preserved when the play went into movie form (Warner Bros.) in 1962 (the musical production numbers seem to be a little less involved in the play than in the film). The plot follows the Depression-era travails of the girls who grew up to be Gypsy Rose Lee and June Havoc (nee Hovick), pressured into any kind of stardom under the thumb of their mother, the indomitable 'Mama Rose' Hovick.

As a play/movie, GYPSY isn't about show business, it IS show business, and the show in a very sophisticated way marries an absorbing (if slightly altered) real-life bio to songs and production numbers that further the plot, yet are also an implicit celebration of show business, including its foibles and inevitable setbacks. Even the deliberately tacky numbers by the likes of "Madame Rose and Her Toreadorables" ("Extra! Extra! Hey, look at the headlines!") embody the razzle-dazzle and high energy of the best of upscale 1950s Broadway musicals, when Broadway was a much greater cultural force and held a place in American popular music much larger than today. Arthur Lawrence's solid book and Jule Style's energetic and memorable tunes are bound together with the witty internal rhymes and snappy vernacular wordplay of young lyricist Stephen Sondheim, riding high from his earlier success with WEST SIDE STORY. Among the many, many songs that grace this stellar show and have found their place in the American lexicon as well as the American Songbook are "Some People," "Together Wherever We Go," "All I Need Now Is The Girl," and of course "Everything's Coming Up Roses."

For a pulpy paperback of 120 pages, this paperback is not flat-out cheap, but any GYPSY lover should love it. For newbies to the show, Amazon sells for about the same price the Broadway cast album (now a CD) from 1959, with Ethel Merman triumphant as the pushy, galling, smothering, rafter-ratting, insatiable, but ultimately loving Mama Rose. Putting this book together with the CD show tunes gives the enviable witness the chance to marry lyrics and music. Either item would make a good gift for someone who likes American musical theater, or is starting to develop a passion for it.

Gypsy, written in the late-1950s by Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne, and Stephen Sondheim (this being only his second Broadway musical), has been renowned by theater critics since it's first appearance in Broadway. This script is one of the most brilliant every written for the musical theater with one of the most complicated characters written in musical theater. For those who have never seen or read this musical but are interested in the work of any of it's authors or of work of the late-1950s, this is an excellent read. And for those not interested in musical theater, I'd still suggest reading it. Yes, it is that good.

Also, for those interested, the script was edited slightly after the 1973 revival with Angela Lansbury. The new ending of Rose's Turn was put into the script. However, that is the only major change I am aware of in the script.

Thank you for the fast ship and the great book!
It arrived in excellent condition!