About the work
Gypsy is a musical by Jule Styne (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), and Arthur Laurents (book), premiered on Broadway in 1959. Based on the memoirs of the burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee, it is regarded by many critics as one of the finest American musicals ever written.
Plot
The ambitious stage mother Rose drives her two daughters relentlessly through the dying world of vaudeville, determined to make them stars. Her favourite, June, eventually elopes, so Rose turns all her ambition onto the shy Louise. As vaudeville collapses, Louise lands unexpectedly in a burlesque house and rises to stardom as "Gypsy Rose Lee." In the final confrontation between mother and daughter, Rose reveals her own unfulfilled dreams in Rose's Turn.
Cultural significance
Gypsy is often called the "King Lear of musicals"—the role of Mama Rose is one of the genre's greatest and most daunting, played by Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, and Audra McDonald. Songs such as Everything's Coming Up Roses and Let Me Entertain You became standards. The work fuses showbiz dazzle with an unflinching psychological study of ambition and maternal obsession.