Rutherford 1 Aaron C. Rutherford Jay Berkow THEA 2720 5 November 2015 GYPSY: Its History and Impact "Sing out, Louise," has become an eternally famous quote among both theatre people and the hoi polloi. Those three words trace back to the 1959 Broadway musical GYPSY: A Musical Fable. Based with artistic liberty on the memoirs of burlesque dancer and striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, GYPSY entered the musical theatre world and redefined the word "powerhouse." Ethel Merman gave life to Stephen Sondheim's lyrics, Jule Styne's score, and Arthur Laurents's book in the central role of domineering stage mom Rose. The story explores many facets of the corrupt show business of the 1920s and 30s and the effects love, loss, and mommy problems have on the human psyche. Directed and choreographed by musical theatre legend Jerome Robbins, the original production opened May 21, 1959 and ran for 702 performances, closing on March 25, 1961. The universally affecting themes and messages of GYPSY have propelled it into musical theatre fame, earning two film adaptations as well as many major Broadway, West End, and Chicago revivals and tours, starring such divas as Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Tyne Daly, Angela Lansbury, and recently Imelda Staunton. The show lives on and
Transcript
Rutherford ���1
Aaron C. Rutherford
Jay Berkow
THEA 2720
5 November 2015
GYPSY: Its History and Impact
"Sing out, Louise," has become an eternally famous quote among both theatre
people and the hoi polloi. Those three words trace back to the 1959 Broadway musical
GYPSY: A Musical Fable. Based with artistic liberty on the memoirs of burlesque dancer
and striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, GYPSY entered the musical theatre world and
redefined the word "powerhouse." Ethel Merman gave life to Stephen Sondheim's lyrics,
Jule Styne's score, and Arthur Laurents's book in the central role of domineering stage
mom Rose. The story explores many facets of the corrupt show business of the 1920s and
30s and the effects love, loss, and mommy problems have on the human psyche. Directed
and choreographed by musical theatre legend Jerome Robbins, the original production
opened May 21, 1959 and ran for 702 performances, closing on March 25, 1961. The
universally affecting themes and messages of GYPSY have propelled it into musical
theatre fame, earning two film adaptations as well as many major Broadway, West End,
and Chicago revivals and tours, starring such divas as Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone,
Tyne Daly, Angela Lansbury, and recently Imelda Staunton. The show lives on and
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continues to be, as Brooks Atkinson said in his New York Times review of the original,
"pungent story [told] in a convivial manner.”
GYPSY’s original production opened on Broadway on May 21 of 1959 in the
middle of a time unlike any other in American history. Internationally speaking, U.S.
relations with Russia were not exactly friendly. The Space Race was still in its inaugural
phases, with Sputnik 1 having been launched toward the end of 1957, and the Second
Red Scare was coming to its slow end. Also notable was the U.S.’s relationship with
Cuba, where imminent were both the Bay of Pigs Invasion and Cuban Missile Crisis, and
with Korea and China, where the Korean War ended six years earlier. Society
dramatically reacted to the rocky international relations, as it feared nuclear war at any
moment. According to Ruy Teixeira and Alan Abramowitz, Russia’s development of a
nuclear bomb sent white America reeling:
“Nuclear weapons tests were regularly conducted during the 50s in the Earth’s
atmosphere, spewing radioactive waste across the globe and contaminating the
world’s milk supply with deadly Strontium 90. Middle class families were
encouraged to build fallout shelters to protect themselves in the event of a Soviet
attack and millions of schoolchildren in the United States… regularly participated
in air raid drills.”
Still, the Eisenhower Era and this period of political paranoia were slowly drawing to a
close, making the United States a hotbed for new social ideas to brew, waiting for the
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quickly-approaching new decade. According to the article “1959: The Year That
Changed Everything,” published by CBS News, while the feminist and sexual revolutions
were not born in 1959, they were certainly conceived as the “first steps toward the birth
control pill” were made scientifically. Still, women “faced a hostile environment… if
they aspired to any career other than mother and housewife” (Teixeira & Abramowitz,
2013). For women, college graduation rates were low, and teen pregnancy rates were
sailing. In 1959, over 9% of American women were pregnant as teenagers. Compare this
with 2013, when this statistic was under 3% (“Trends in Teen Pregnancy,” 2015).
Relatedly, the formal sex research of Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, now of
Masters of Sex fame, had already been going on for two years. Additionally — and
interestingly, with the piece in mind — huge amounts of psychological research
throughout the preceding decade focused on on the attachment between children and their
mothers. While these sexual and gender issues bubbled below the surface, the Civil
Rights Movement was already in full swing. While many well-known events of the
movement, such as MLK’s walk on Washington, were yet to occur, the case of Brown v.
Board of Education was five years history, and the desegregation of education was a
contemporary pursuit. The campaign had far to go — anti-miscegenation laws, for
example, were not repealed nationwide until eight years later, and while white women
had difficulty finding jobs, black people were even worse off, being hired for menial,
machine-worthy jobs, if any. Educationally, only 20% of black people graduated high
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school in 1959, and under 5%, college (Teixeira & Abramowitz, 2013). Jeff Greenfield
points out in his article “1959: The Year That Changed Everything,” that the United
States was growing and changing artistically as it more firmly began to ground itself
culturally in 1959, which marked the opening of the Guggenheim Museum, which was at
first publicly detested for its avant-garde architecture and for displaying only abstract
works at its opening. Music was also changing and growing, with Miles Davis and
Ornette Coleman challenging traditional jazz with their influential contributions to the
free jazz movement, in many ways challenging the structural elements white people
imposed on the originally black form. Literature, too, faced a new era in the United
States, as literary censorship was challenged in 1959, making Lady Chatterley's Lover,
before considered indecent for domestic readers, available to the public, along with other
previously banned books. For LGBT people, existence itself was practically fatal. Same-
sex relationships were condemnable by U.S. law, and a person’s career and even life
could be at risk for coming out. When thinking in particular of the development of
GYPSY, it’s important to lend focus to the feminist and sexual undertones and
developments of the year, as well as to the effects artistic innovation had on censorship.
The creative team behind the writing of GYPSY consisted of Jule Styne, Stephen
Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents — notably, Jerome Robbins directed and choreographed
the original production, which starred Ethel Merman. Jule Style (1905-1994) served as
composer for the musical. Style was born in London’s East End in 1905, moved to
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America as a young boy in 1912, and had performed piano with Chicago, St. Louis, and
Detroit Symphonies before the age of 10. Styne wrote his first song at 16, and wrote a
total of 1,500 published songs (“Jule Styne: Biography,” n.d.). Many acclaimed stars got
their starts singing Styne’s work, including Carol Channing; Judy Holliday; Mary Martin;
Carol Burnett; Ethel Merman, who was Broadway’s original Rose; and Barbra Streisand,
who may play the role in an upcoming movie. Musically, Styne was influenced when
writing GYPSY by the then-declining convention that Broadway jazz was written to be
covered by popular singers. According to Stephen Sondheim in the interview “On
Gypsy,” Styne actually wanted frequent collaborator Frank Sinatra to sing some of the
score as popular music — this influenced Sondheim as lyricist, as well, as he had to write
alternately-gendered lyrics for several songs. Styne’s other work includes the musicals
Funny Girl, Bells are Ringing, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Peter Pan, as well as the
famous songs “Three Coins in the Fountain” and “Make Someone Happy,” among others.
Stephen Sondheim (1930-present), now musical theatre’s most celebrated composer-
lyricist, wrote the lyrics of GYPSY. Sondheim had a prosperous childhood, during which,
he befriended Oscar Hammerstein II’s son. Knowing that their passions were aligned,
Hammerstein took young Sondheim on as an assistant for four years, repaying him by
helping “[formulate] the young artist’s style,” before Sondheim studied at Princeton
University under Milton Babbitt, avant-garde composer (“Stephen Sondheim,” 2015).
Sondheim worked primarily as only a lyricist, until 1962 when he composed both music
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and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which he also
produced and for which he won his first Tony Award — Best Musical, 1963. Forum later
went on to become a successful film with much of the original cast reprising their roles;
the movie also featured silent film star Buster Keaton’s last on-screen appearance.
Sondheim was influenced in his work by Milton Babbitt, Jerome Kern, DeSylva, Brown,
and Henderson, the compositions of Beethoven and Bach, and Bernard Herrmann, and
his other work includes Saturday Night, Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Company, Do I Hear A
Waltz?, Evening Primrose, Follies, The Frogs, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music,
Merrily We Roll Along, Pacific Overtures, Passion, Road Show — alternately titled
Bounce, and Sunday in the Park with George, as well as the revues Side by Side by
Sondheim and Sondheim on Sondheim. Sondheim, who is an avid film lover, has also
won an Academy Award for Dick Tracy, for which he penned the songs “What Can You
Lose” and “Sooner or Later,” sung by Madonna, and co-wrote the script for the non-
musical film The Last of Sheila. Playwright Arthur Laurents wrote the book of GYPSY.
Laurents was famous as a librettist, stage director, and screenwriter, and he was an LGBT
advocate even before it was legal. His activism on that front lead to the Laurents/Hatcher
Foundation, which grants $150,000 annually to “an unproduced play of social
relevance” (“Athur Laurents,” 2015). Laurents was influenced by Bernstein, Lawson,
and briefly Marxist ideas, which he later denied, and his work was known for mirroring
current events, including the LGBT struggle, with works such as La Cage Aux Folles,
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race relations with West Side Story, and World War II, during which he was drafted.
Laurents frequently collaborated with Sondheim, including on West Side Story, The
Madwoman of Central Park West, and famous flop Anyone Can Whistle. He wrote the
book for the musicals Nick & Nora; Hallelujah, Baby!; and Do I Hear a Waltz, and wrote
the plays A Clearing in the Woods, The Time of the Cuckoo, and Invitation to a March,
and films The Way We Were and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope. As a director, Laurents worked
on the 1983 production of La Cage Aux Folles and the 1962 production of I Can Get it
For You Wholesale, as well as the 2008 Patti LuPone revival of Gypsy and the 2009
revival of West Side Story, which featured new Spanish lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Jerome Robbins, who had previously worked with Sondheim and Laurents on West Side
Story, directed and choreographed GYPSY, which initially featured low comedy and
vaudeville clowning sketches (Sondheim, “On Gypsy”), and the production starred
Broadway’s leading beltress Ethel Merman as Rose, which she considered the most
challenging role she ever tackled.
I. Source material
A. Historical context
1. Similar to above (source material comes out two years prior to musical)
2. Historical context of Gypsy’s actual life (as opposed to the historical context
of her memory)
a) Early years of American striptease
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(1) Stripping not seen as an art
(2) Stripping not very classy
(3) Stripping seen as work for those who cannot find any other work
b) Gypsy revolutionizes striptease and becomes an iconic American
entertainer and artist
c) Great Depression — Gypsy Rose Lee gives hope to people
B. Literary context
1. Memoir
a) Began as a series for The New Yorker
2. Written in the Gypsy persona but recalls life as Louise
C. Information
1. Plot
a) The story follows Gypsy’s life, much like the musical but starts before the
show does, and ends before it does as well
(1) Much of the musical is also based on real-life facts that were not in her
memoirs, which I will also analyze as source material, though w/ a
focus on the memoirs which suggested the musical
(2) Other stories included in the memoir include stories of working with
Fanny Brice and of gangster Waxy Gordon
2. Characters
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a) Louise/Gypsy Rose Lee
b) June
c) Rose
d) Big Lady (grandma)
e) Billy Rose
f) Fanny Brice
g) Erik (son) — writes afterword for the memoir
h) Waxy Gordon
3. Themes
a) Making a way for one’s self
(1) Forging identity
b) Family dynamics
c) Artistry
D. Adaptability
1. High interest in source material — Gypsy Rose Lee was and is an American
pop icon
2. Story involves music and ‘show biz’ in and of itself as it centers around
vaudeville Orpheum Circuit, Hollywood
a) real life also includes burlesque
3. Other information can be taken from June’s memoirs
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a) I mean to find copies of these books and read them as well in my research
but they are unavailable at any local library - so was Gypsy’s but I order a
copy
(1) According to Shteir, June writes much more bitingly of Rose
II. Adaptation to the musical // “Gypsy: a memoir” to “Gypsy: a musical fable”
A. Similarities
1. Much of the plot reflects the actual historical events, though wildly simplified
2. Focus on the early part of June’s career, including her familial relationships,
touring on the Orpheum Circuit, starting in burlesque
B. Differences
1. Rose is much more a monster in June’s memoirs than in Gypsy’s, and is
further examined as a central character in the musical
2. Omission of early life and of life after reconciling with Rose (the first time)
a) Omission of life after first reconciliation with Rose probably for sake of
plot and also because Gypsy was a household name
(1) Omission of Gypsy becoming a practical recluse
3. Omission of Gypsy’s “other” gimmicks
4. Gypsy’s short-lived Hollywood career eliminated from plot of musical, though
it is where the memoir ends
5. Herbie and Tulsa both fictional characters, though June did elope
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a) “I wish I had come up with that” — Gypsy on Herbie
b) Rose most likely a lesbian woman
C. Musicalization
1. Period context
a) Music written so as to be sang again by popular singers
(1) Because the play was set during a time of early jazz, this actually works
out quite well - melding of older jazz styles (i.e. vaudeville/ faux
“burlesque” sounding music) with popular music
(a) Frank Sinatra story
b) Play takes place in early 1900’s America
(1) Vaudeville setting => vaudeville music
(2) Music in show progresses with the years
2. Why characters sing
a) Some times, characters actually are singing
(1) “May We Entertain You”
(2) “Baby June & Her Newsboys”/“Dainty June & Her Farmboys”
(3) The Strip
b) Rose almost always sings with/to someone else to convince or coerce them
into something
(1) “Some People” => trying to get Dad to give her money
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(2) “Small World” => coercing Herbie into romantic relationship
(3) “Mr. Goldstone”/“Together” => both group numbers, in both Rose is
attempting to pacify and/or celebrate
(4) “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” => convince Louise that she is and
will be a star; convince herself that she’s okay with June leaving
(5) Only exception is her mental breakdown at “Rose’s Turn”
c) Louise almost always sings alone at a time when she is discovering
something about her life or herself (forging identity) or when she is
actually singing
(1) Exception in “Together,” she is celebrating
(2) Exception in “If Momma Was Married,” shows relationship with June
and shows that June is not the spoiled brat you might expect her to be
d) June almost always sings when she is actually singing
(1) Exceptions in “If Momma Was Married” and “Mr. Goldstone,” which
show more about her as a human and make her a more sympathetic
character
e) No ‘chorus’ numbers that wouldn’t be an actual chorus number with
exception of “You Gotta Have a Gimmick,” which is more of an
introduction to burlesque and new bawdy music style/time period; actually
a featured number as opposed to a chorus number
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(1) Only chorus numbers: “Baby June…” and “Dainty June…”
3. Stylistic choices
a) Jazz music that reflects earlier jazz but is contemporary in 1959
b) Motifs/Themes/Repeated passages of music
(1) “Rose’s dream” motif
(2) “Entertain” motif - grows with implication as orchestration decreases
(3) “Small World” - changes to reflect relationship with Herbie
(4) “Rose’s Turn” becomes the giant conglomeration of previous themes
and where we understand what they mean to Rose, who is the actual
central character of the musical
c) Choice for neither chorus opening or ending — the ending is not sung at
all to reflect ambiguity with Rose and Louise’s new relationship
III. Success or failure of adaptation
A. Themes
1. “DESTRUCTIVE POTENTIAL IN THE YEARNING FOR
ACCEPTANCE” (Isherwood)
a) Perseverance / winning no matter what // DREAMS
(1) This is an American theme (Christenson) which contributed highly to
its success here
2. Corruption
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a) In showbiz, in family relationships, of money
(1) family relationships, most significantly mother/daughter and sister/
sister (female-centered) *
3. Forging identity
4. Women in careers/show business
B. Story
1. Tweaks to the story and honing in on what parts of the story exactly were to be
expanded upon vs. left out makes the story more readily accessible for
audiences
a) Leaving out small details and deciding what story Laurents, Sondheim, and
Styne wanted to write
2. Original production includes a happy ending of reconciliation/forgiveness—
this was not exactly true to real life, and the ending has been played with in
subsequent productions
C. Music
1. Music popular both as jazz standards (“All I Need is the Girl”) and in musical
theatre canon
a) Mama’s Talkin’ Soft — cut song — recorded by Petula Clark
b) Other cut songs
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2. Music forwards the plot significantly, but some numbers are just in for good
fun - however, the story as it is could not exist without the music
a) Music serves to explain emotional highs and lows and complexities and
synapses and idiosyncrasies of both Louise/Gypsy and Rose, the two
central characters
b) The songs that were cut were mainly joke songs that did not move the plot
forward — interesting
IV. The original production
A. Who/What/When/Where/How
1. Who & How
a) Leland Hayward & David Merrick produced
(1) Merrick & Merman had the idea for a musical version of Gypsy’s
memoirs; Merrick approached her for the rights
(2) Robbins & Merman both wanted Hayward to co-produce
b) Arthur Laurents wrote the book
(1) Merrick & Hayward approached him; he originally wasn’t interested
until he saw Rose as living vicariously through her children
c) Jerome Robbins directed and choreographed
d) Sondheim - lyrics, Styne - music
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(1) Cole Porter and Irving Berlin both declined the project (imagine how
different it would have been!), so Robbins approached Sondheim, who
accepted and had previously worked with both Robbins and Laurents
on WSS — they wanted a known composer, so they got Styne
2. What
a) Merrick read Gypsy’s memoirs; he and Merman decided they wanted a
musical version
b) Received 8 Tony nominations (Best Musical, Best Actress in a Musical,
Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical, best
Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Direction of a New
Musical) but won 0
3. When
a) Opened May 21, 1959, closed March 25, 1961 (702 performances, 2
previews)
b) After closing, two nat’l tours
(1) First natl tour, with Merman, opened immediately following — March
1961, ran till December
(a) Bernadette Peters in ensemble, understudies Dainty June — her
resume said Dainty June, though
4. Where
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a) Opened at the Shubert’s Broadway Theatre, transferred to the Imperial
B. Description
1. Original production featured vaudevillian comics between many scenes. These
were non-singing roles and often doubled as minor characters (for example
Rose’s Father)
C. Background on process
1. See Who/What/When/Where/How
D. Influence on society & on theatre
1. This was the first big Broadway musical to deal with female relationships on
such a complex level, which completely changed the game for upcoming
musicals and for female performers
2. Rose is considered the best female role in musical theatre
a) Ethel Merman considered Rose the most challenging role she has ever
played, and in all major productions/films, Rose is played by a veritable
powerhouse who individualizes the role so much that they practically
redefine it, immortalizing the role even further as they bring new meanings
to the brilliantly and thoughtfully composed words and music
3. Attention drawn to show business/domineering stage mothers and not
generalizing all of this information but analyzing humans individually
4. Made into 2 films and currently talks of a third
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a) Barbra Streisand in talks to direct and play Rose; Lady Gaga to play
Louise; John Travolta to play Herbie
V. Critical Reaction
A. Original production
B. Revivals
C. Films
VI. Other interesting notes about the show
A. Interesting to note two of B’way’s Roses, LuPone and Peters, both performed in
the show at young ages
1. Peters in ensemble and understudy Dainty June for 1st nat’l tour, plays the role
of Dainty June in summer stock
2. LuPone as Louise in high school when she was 13
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Works Cited
Abbott, Karen. American Rose. New York: Random House. 2010. Print.
“Arthur Laurents.” LGBT History Month. Equality Forum, 2015. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
Atkinson, Brooks. “‘Gypsy,’ Good Show!” The New York Times. N.p. 22 May 1959.
Web. 9 Oct. 2015.
“Biography for Arthur Laurents.” Turner Classic Movies. Turner Entertainment
Networks, Inc., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.
Berkvist, Robert. “Arthur Laurents, Playwright and Director on Broadway, Dies at 93.”
The New York Times. N.p. 5 May 2011. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Brantley, Ben. “What Ever Happened to Momma Rose?” The New York Times. N.p. 16
July 2007. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
Christenson, Michael. “‘Gypsy:’ Perseverance musical tells tale of success at any cost.”
