Gypsy is a 1959
musical with music by
Jule Styne, lyrics by
Stephen Sondheim, and a book by
Arthur Laurents. It is usually referred to as simply
Gypsy. Gypsy is 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." In particular, 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[1]
and
Frank Rich;[2]
Rich even goes so far as to call it the American musical
theatre's answer to
King Lear. Theater critic
Clive Barnes wrote that "Gypsy is one of the best of
musicals...." He described the character of Rose as "one
of the few truly complex characters in the American
musical...."
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