Gypsy - A Musical Fable (1959 Original Broadway Cast) [Cast Recording]

Stephen Sondheim, Jack Klugman, Sandra Church, Jule Styne, Gypsy (Related Recordings), Ethel Merman | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 18, 1999)
• Original Release Date: 1959
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000J28I
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,551 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #16 in Music > Broadway & Vocalists > Musicals > Classic Musicals

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Considered by many to be the last great musical comedy, Gypsy tells the backstage tale of vaudeville entertainer turned stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her overbearing mother, Rose. Stephen Sondheim's lyrics--composed in advance of Jule Styne's infectious music--provide a tight structure and natural language to the 1959 score, which produced more than its share of Broadway standards, including "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "Small World," "Some People," "If Momma Was Married," "Together Wherever We Go," and the climactic "Rose's Turn." Although the role of Rose has seen subsequent memorable interpretations by Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, and Bette Midler, the show was written for Ethel Merman, and she remains the definitive stage mother.

For this 1999 release, the recording has been remastered with numerous short passages restored and four tracks added. Merman sings alternate lyrics to "Some People" and a medley of "Mr. Goldstone" and "Little Lamb," all with piano accompaniment. Two other tracks are songs cut in tryouts: "Momma's Talking Soft" (gently swung here by Laura Leslie) was a duet for June and Louise that provides some context to the later line "Momma's talking loud," while "Nice She Ain't" is crooned by Bernie Knee, who is infinitely more suave than Jack Klugman ever would have been. Expanded to 63 minutes, this essential cast recording is now even more essential. --David Horiuchi

Product Description

Gypsy Original Broadway Cast (1959) by Various Artists

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Is The "Gypsy" Recording To Have: An Essential, January 26, 2005

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gypsy - A Musical Fable (1959 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

Love her or hate her, for all practical intents and purposes Ethel Merman (1908-1984) was the voice of the Broadway musical for more than thirty years: a larger-than-life, flamboyant woman with a larger-than-life voice that could rip a door off its hinges. Her roles are legendary, ranging from Kate in the Gerswhin's GIRL CRAZY to Reno Sweeny in Cole Porter's ANYTHING GOES to Annie Oakley in ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. Near the end of her Broadway career she capped all previous triumphs with what most regard as her signature role: Mama Rose in the Sondheim and Styne GYPSY.

Although generally based on the life of celebrated stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, the play focused less on Gypsy and her sister actress June Havock than upon Mama Rose, the bombastic and endlessly determined stage mother from hell who propelled both daughters to stardom largely against their own inclination. By turns hilarious and monstrous, comic and tragic, Mama Rose was perhaps the only role that made full use of Merman's dramatic talents--and it didn't stint her on music either. GYPSY is one helluva show, and this remastered release of the original 1959 cast recording caputures it at full throttle.

There may be other contenders, but to my mind GYPSY has the single finest overture ever written for a Broadway play, an explosion of brass that sends chills up the spine. And when Merman explodes with her first number, "Some People," she puts chills on the chills! Although backed by a superior cast that includes Jack Klugman, it's Merman's show all the way, peaking with the frightening "Everything's Coming Up Roses"--perhaps the single finest example of denial ever found in a musical--and finishing up with the devastating "Rose's Turn." It is an amazingly powerful performance, more than deserving of all the accolades it received.

Over the years the dark GYPSY has received numerous stage revivals and two film versions, with stars that included Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daily, Bernadette Peters, Rosalind Russell, and Bette Midler--but whatever their individual merits, this is the GYPSY to have: all else seems ashes and dust beside it. The bonus of additional songs cut before the play's opening simply make it that much more desirable, but in the end it is Merman, pure, unfiltered, planted at center stage and still able to blow the doors off the joint. An essential.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best album of GYPSY just got better!, August 6, 2000

By 

Mark Andrew Lawrence "Theatre Reviewer" (Toronto) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gypsy - A Musical Fable (1959 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

Anyone considering a career in musical theatre should study this show: It brought together several top people whose collaboration brought out the very best in one another. This is Jule Styne's very best score. Sondheim's lyrics perfectely explain the story and charactres (you can easily follow the plot just by listening to the songs, athough a detailed synopsis is included); Arthur Lauents' swift-moving book provided the framework that holds the score together, and as a "star vehicle" they got the biggest star Broadway would ever know: Ethel Merman. But it wasn't just a Merman show: Sandra Church as the reluctant Gypsy and Jack Klugman as Rose's long suffering boyfriend provide admirable support. Less than a week after the triumphant opening, the cast recorded this album and it remains one by which others are judged. The early stereo sound is wonderful. The performances are exciting and each number tops the one it follows. The extra bits that have been edited back in (after 30 years on the cutting room floor) only add to the excitement. This was the apex of musical comdey. The era is gone. Merman, Styne, Klugman are no more... but the record is here to stay.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent recording of a true musical theatre classic., December 11, 1999

By 

Matthew Murray (New York City, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gypsy - A Musical Fable (1959 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

"Some People." "Everything's Coming Up Roses." "Together." Ethel Merman got some of her most indentifiable songs from Gypsy, and this recording demonstrates why. But her powerful voice is only one reason to buy this cast recording--the music is excellent, and the rest of the cast extremely entertaining as well. Though the extra material included in this version isn't quite as essential as has been the case in other recordings in this series, this remastered version preserves this classic the way it was meant to be heard. Don't miss it!