Here she is boys! Gypsy is returning to Broadway November 21, with its first preview performance (opening night is December 19). One of the most beloved musicals in the American theatre canon, this is the fifth revival of the Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne, and Stephen Sondheim musical. The new revival is led by six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald as Rose. But before this newest production gets going, we want to look back on the previous productions and to remember the illustrious women who have starred in it (many times to Tony Awards acclaim). 

Gypsy first opened on Broadway in 1959. The musical is based on the memoirs of burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee, detailing her fraught relationship with her mother, Rose, who was known to be overbearing, yet fiercely loving—pushing her daughters to be performers as a way to realize her own unachieved show business dreams. Though he was working alongside theatre legends Laurents and Styne, Gypsy was only Sondheim's second Broadway credit (he wrote the lyrics). Sondheim, alongside book writer Laurents and composer Styne, wrote the show as a star vehicle for Tony Award winner Ethel Merman, who played Rose. They succeeded. The original production of Gypsy was wildly successful; it opened at The Broadway Theatre, later transferred to the Imperial Theatre, and ran until 1961, playing a total of 704 performances. It was directed and choreographed by the legendary Jerome Robbins. It was nominated for eight Tony Awards, including for Merman, Sandra Church (who played Gypsy), and for Best Musical. 

In a 1967 interview with Merman on Gypsy Rose Lee and Friends, the real Lee recalled, "Opening night, [my sister] June went backstage with me to congratulate Ethel; the two of us were crying, and June said, 'Ethel you were absolutely magnificent, you weren't Mother, but you were magnificent.' And Ethel said, 'After all kid, I never met your mother.'" Responded Merman, "I did the best I could!" 

Lee then said, "I never thought of my mother as being Ethel Merman until I got to know you better during rehearsals."

To which Merman responded: "She was really a driver, as you know, but she had so much heart. And whatever she did, she did for the girls, all out. They were her life."  

Since its original production, Gypsy has become a dream role for experienced musical theatre divas, drawn to its anthemic songs (such as "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Rose's Turn") and its showcase of complicated, flawed, yet ambitious women. It seems like every decade, there's a new revival of Gypsy. 

The first Broadway revival occurred in 1974, with Angela Lansbury as Rose, and directed by book writer Laurents. The production was a transfer from London's West End (also starring Lansbury). It earned Lansbury her third Tony Award (she eventually won five, plus a Lifetime Achievement Tony). Though it almost didn't happen. In an interview with Playbill in 1974, Lansbury said she initially turned down the role, saying, "The first time I read the play absolutely nothing appealed to me about Rose. I found her to be quite a despicable person because she was so one dimensional. Consequently, I said, ‘No thank you very much,’ and I continued to say ‘no’ for a year.” In a follow up interview with Playbill decades later, Lansbury said that she wanted her Rose to be more sympathetic and human than Merman's, saying, dryly, "The original Rose [Merman] was not an actress, so she was singing about herself. That’s OK; we all bring slices of ourselves to Rose. What I brought was my total understanding of the character, as a character actress, which I think perhaps I was more so than any of the other ladies who’ve played it. For me, she was a whole character, that’s what I brought, my understanding of this human. [‘Rose’s Turn’] was her finally understanding herself.” The first revival was short-lived, playing on Broadway for just four months.

In 1989, Gypsy was revived again, with Tyne Daly as Rose and again directed by Laurents. At this point, the musical and the role of Rose had already become legendary. Said Daly to Playbill in 1989: "I hope I can claim this character as my own and become part of the history of the play, adding my name to the sisterhood of the actresses who have given Rose a try. It can bolster your spirit to say, ‘I’m part of the tradition of performing this role.’ And now I get to borrow [Jule Styne’s] stuff and see what I can do with it and twist it around so that my personality fuses with Rose’s and nobody can tell the difference. That’s a wonderful chance, to get to sing those songs every night. It’s a lot of fun.” Daly succeeded. The 1989 revival ran for longer than the previous, until 1991. It also won Best Revival of a Musical at the Tony Awards, and Daly received a Tony for her performance. Linda Lavin subsequently succeeded Daly.

Fast forward to the turn of the century, and Gypsy had its third Broadway revival in 2003, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Bernadette Peters as Rose. Peters started out her career in the second national tour of Gypsy when she was in the chorus. "It’s one of the greatest roles ever written with one of the greatest scores and one of the greatest books," said Peters to Playbill in 2003. "And, how lucky am I to be able to do it and with such a wonderful director and with Arthur and Steve’s input!” Laurents and Sondheim were both close friends of Peters, and the former had actually advocated for Peters to do the role. Because she was not brassy like the previous women who played Rose, he told her she was closer in type to the real life Rose Hovick. Said Peters: "He said, ‘You know, you should play that part. They want to do it again, but there's no reason to do it unless we do it in a different manner. And Rose actually looked like you. She was small and blonde.’” Indeed, reviews of the time said that Peters had "broken the Merman mold completely." Peters received a Tony nomination for her performance, and the show ran for a year on Broadway.

The next actor to take on Rose was Patti LuPone in the 2008 revival of Gypsy, which was directed by Laurents (his third time directing the show, though fourth if you consider that the 2008 revival first played as a limited concert engagement at New York City Center). LuPone had waited years to be able to do the role; she wanted to audition for the 2003 production but Laurents (who had veto power over any casting in Gypsy) refused to let her. He had been angry with her since 1995, when LuPone backed out of doing Laurents' play Jolson Sings Again. But after a belated apology phone call from LuPone, the two mended fences and Laurents cast her as his Rose for the fourth Broadway revival. As LuPone told Playbill in 2008, she related to Rose as a mother herself: "She wants the best for her kids. . . regardless of whether they want it or not. . . She loves her children, and she is fiercely protective and desires only the best for them. . . but they're her desires." The 2008 Gypsy revival earned three Tonys, for LuPone, Laura Benanti, and Boyd Gaines. The revival ran for 10 months, until January 11, 2009. It was Laurents' final Broadway show before his death in 2011.

And now, a new Rose is blooming, as McDonald gets ready to take her turn in this iconic role, as the first Black actor to play Rose on Broadway. Will this new, reimagined production of Gypsy, directed by George C. Wolfe, repeat the triumph of its predecessors? We shall see. But in the meantime, look back on previous Gypsy productions, and Roses, below.

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Look Back At Gypsy on Broadway

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