The real gpsy rose lee full#
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It also contains kids’ novelty numbers and - generally an audience favorite - strippers bumping and grinding to “You Gotta Get a Gimmick.” The score contains many popular songs, including “Together (Wherever We Go),” “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Small World,” “Some People,” “Let Me Entertain You” and “Rose’s Turn.” (It did win a Tony in 1989 for Best Revival.) Many critics have called “Gypsy” the greatest American musical, though when it initially ran, it was nominated for eight Tony Awards but won none. In the second scene, she tries theft, and in the third scene, she uses sex.

In the first scene, she tries blackmail, but only after schmoozing and then steamrolling both fail. “She’s got a bag of tricks and she uses them until one actually works,” Ms. We have a steamrolling mother who comes in, and regardless of what management says, she just (rolls) on. “There are many faces to Rose, and my job is to find them in each particular scene and expose them. “It was a confidence booster,” she explains. Having performed locally as Lady MacBeth in “MacBeth” helped her prepare for doing Mama Rose, she says. It was her very first speaking part.Īs for playing Mama Rose all these years later, she says, “It was on my bucket list.” McKerrow was 15, she performed in a production of “Gypsy” in Guilford, Conn., playing Tessie Tura the Texas Twirler, a stripper. “She doesn’t have a second to catch her breath,” he says. McKerrow’s reallife husband, plays Rose’s fiancé, Herbie. “It’s like being shot out of a cannon,” she says. Rose has long, dramatic musical numbers and is in almost every scene.įor Mary Anne McAvoy McKerrow, who’s portraying Mama Rose for The Naples Players, one challenge of the part is keeping the energy up.

The real gpsy rose lee full#

She’s full of passion, but she’s not necessarily a very empathic character.” One of the most coveted roles in musical theater, it’s a challenge for any actress because the actress has to find the compassion in Rose, Ms.

The real gpsy rose lee tv#

The role, which was written for the great Ethel Merman, has been played by actresses including Rosalind Russell (in the film version), Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone, Tyne Daley, Bette Middler (in the TV version) and Bernadette Peters. Dunnagan says.Īlthough the script never refers to Rose as “Mama Rose,” that’s how audiences have come to know her. “But it really is Mama Rose’s story,” Ms. With music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents, “Gypsy” is based on Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoirs. “She promised her daughter she’d make her a star, no matter what.” Blonde Dainty June and her Farm Boys.So driven is Rose to make her daughter a star that she loses sight of how it must happen, Ms.