From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gypsy is a 1959 musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. 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...."[3]
