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Gypsy - A Musical Fable (1959 Original Broadway Cast)
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About Gypsy - A Musical Fable
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 Jule Styne, a young Stephen Sondheim and a force of nature called Ethel Merman teamed to take Broadway by storm with this 1959 musical. Review The old girl from the world of showbiz, Mama Rose, proves both indestructable and a fine vehicle for singing female stars. Originally created by Ethel Merman, for whom it was written, the part has been variously handled by Rosalind Russell in the film version (not available on CD), Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, and more recently Bette Midler, among many others. The quintessential backstage musical, and for many the best ever written, Gypsy related the real-life story of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her sister June Haver, and how each was shaped into a star of the first magnitude by their monster of a stage mother. With a fine, solid book by Arthur Laurents, and a splendid score by Jule Styne (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), the show has endured through repeated revivals, losing none of its freshness and its strength, even though by now its plot and tunes have become remarkably familiar. The three recordings listed here are all superb in their own right, the personality of the actress playing Mama Rose being the main focus. Merman, the belter and originator of the part, is still the best, though the recording itself, an early transfer to CD from the original analog tapes, leaves a bit to be desired sonically. Tyne Daly, in the 1990 Broadway revival, added her own touch to the role, but without significantly altering it, in a performance that has its moments of excellence. As for Bette Midler, in the 1993 television treatment, she camps the part a bit, but she is also remarkably true to the spirit of the original in a performance that has been justifiably lauded. -- © 1998 Visible Ink Press. All rights reserved. -- VideoHound's Soundtracks
