Gypsy Bernadette

Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers & Hammerstein ... and if they could hear this collection, they would love her right back. The curly-haired, honey-voiced Tony-winning star has been more closely associated throughout her career with Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman, but she's perfectly suited to the grand waltzes and introspective moments of the R&H canon. "If I Loved You," "It Might As Well Be Spring," and "Something Wonderful" would probably make anyone's wish list for this combination of star and songs (a list that would also last much longer than 46 minutes). Other welcome selections include "Some Enchanted Evening," "Out of My Dreams," the little-known "I Haven't Got a Worry in the World" (from the play Happy Birthday), and the inside joke of "There Is Nothing Like a Dame," all supported by the baton and orchestrations of Sondheim favorite Jonathan Tunick. This is a warm valentine to the beloved songwriting team. --David Horiuchi

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22 track New Broadway Cast soundtrack.

The casting of cute, petite Bernadette Peters as the formidable Mama Rose in the 2003 revival of Gypsy led to a few raised eyebrows: Was this egregious miscasting? After all, previous Roses have included Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, and (on TV) Bette Midler, all of them strong women who can belt with the best of them. Peters took a slightly different approach to the role, emphasizing the dramatic reading of her songs instead of blasting her way through sheer power--she acts the material as much as she sings it. Nowhere is this as convincing as on "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and especially "Rose's Turn," the latter as good a rendering of showbiz madness as you're ever likely to hear. Peters's acting skills are further emphasized by the generous helpings of dialogue that frame the musical numbers. The rest of the cast is superlative, and Marvin Laird conducts a spirited orchestra. Discussions as to which recording of Gypsy is the definitive one will never end, but this album certainly deserves to be included among the finalists. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

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Billed as an updating and retelling of Irish folk legend, Lord of the Dance is less Erin Go Bragh than Hooray for Hollywood. Michael Flatley, late of Riverdance, gives us the old razzle-dazzle, fashioning a Celtic-influenced spectacular that wanders far away from its Riverdance roots. The light-show presentation is closer kin to another contemporary Irish musical group, U2. Flatley himself has gone designer chic. With close-cropped haircut, earring, buffed abs, and tight black pants he bears more than a passing resemblance to Bono. But you have to hand it to the guy--he works hard for the money, as does his attractive corps. The one maddening aspect of this glitzy, entertaining 90-minute festival is the overzealous editing. No image remains on screen for more than a few seconds. Neither Flatley nor his talented troupe deserves to have such craftsmanship sliced and diced like an MTV music video. --Richard Natale

Our Vocal Selections songbook is a great collector's edition celebrating the latest Broadway revival of Gypsy, starring Bernadette Peters. In addition to piano/vocal/guitar arrangements of 11 fantastic songs, you get a history of the past stage and screen

This digital document is an article from American Drama, published by American Drama Institute on January 1, 2003. The length of the article is 2577 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: Bernadette Peters on Gypsy.Author: Gabriel MillerPublication: American Drama (Refereed)Date: January 1, 2003Publisher: American Drama Institute Page: 175(10)Distributed by Thomson Gale

A Letter from Author Karen Abbott My grandmother used to tell me stories about growing up during the Great Depression, and she once related a tale about a cousin who saw Gypsy Rose Lee perform in 1935. “She took a full fifteen minutes to peel off a single glove,” the cousin said, “and she was so damned good at it I would’ve gladly given her fifteen more.” This story got me thinking: who was Gypsy Rose Lee? And how did an awkward girl named Louise Hovick become her? I spent three years researching the answer, research that included connecting with Gypsy’s late sister, the actress June Havoc; I was the last person to interview her. When I arrived at June’s Connecticut farm I found her lying in bed, her hair done up in pert white pigtails. She was ninety-four years old, give or take, and the legs that once danced on stages across the country were now motionless, two nearly imperceptible bumps tucked beneath crisp white sheets. Her eyes were a bold shade of blue and painfully sensitive to light. She told me the musical Gypsy distorted her childhood so thoroughly it was as if “I didn’t own me anymore.” She realized her sister was “screwing me out in public,” and that, in the end, there was no stopping either Gypsy or Gypsy; the play was both her sister’s monument and her best chance for monumental revisionism. It took another visit for June to share more personal memories: money was Gypsy’s “god,” and she would do anything to anybody, including June, to make more of it. Gypsy did in fact do things, not only to June but also to herself—“terrible” and “awful” and “shocking” things, things beneath her sister’s formidable intellect and keen wit, things that made June believe, to that day, that love (even love fraught with competition and jealousy) never existed between them at all. I asked and listened, for as much time as June gave me. I asked until her patience wore thin and her eyes watered with the effort to stay open. “I hope I didn’t upset you today,” I whispered. “That’s not my intention.” “I know,” June said. Those startling eyes found their focus, settling on mine. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more open about some things… I’m still ashamed for her. I wish they hadn’t happened.” “Would Gypsy wish the same?” I asked. “She had no shame.” A pause, and I said, feebly, “You were a good sister to her.” A hand tunneled out from the sheet. She coiled long, blade-thin fingers around my wrist. “I was no sister,” June said. “I was a knot in her life. I was nothing.” She retracted her hand, gave her eyes permission to close. I kissed her cheek and crept out the bedroom door. I was grateful she let me inside—even on the periphery, even briefly¬—and I suspected she was saving her own questions for the day she reunited with the sister she did profess to love, the one she still called Louise.

With the critically acclaimed Sin in the Second City, bestselling author Karen Abbott “pioneered sizzle history” (USA Today). Now she returns with the gripping and expansive story of America’s coming-of-age—told through the extraordinary life of Gypsy Rose Lee and the world she survived and conquered. America in the Roaring Twenties. Vaudeville was king. Talking pictures were only a distant flicker. Speakeasies beckoned beyond dimly lit doorways; money flowed fast and free. But then, almost overnight, the Great Depression leveled everything. When the dust settled, Americans were primed for a star who could distract them from grim reality and excite them in new, unexpected ways. Enter Gypsy Rose Lee, a strutting, bawdy, erudite stripper who possessed a preternatural gift for delivering exactly what America needed. With her superb narrative skills and eye for compelling detail, Karen Abbott brings to vivid life an era of ambition, glamour, struggle, and survival. Using exclusive interviews and never-before-published material, she vividly delves into Gypsy’s world, including her intensely dramatic triangle relationship with her sister, actress June Havoc, and their formidable mother, Rose, a petite but ferocious woman who seduced men and women alike and literally killed to get her daughters on the stage. American Rose chronicles their story, as well as the story of the four scrappy and savvy showbiz brothers from New York City who would pave the way for Gypsy Rose Lee’s brand of burlesque. Modeling their shows after the glitzy, daring reviews staged in the theaters of Paris, the Minsky brothers relied on grit, determination, and a few tricks that fell just outside the law—and they would shape, and ultimately transform, the landscape of American entertainment. With a supporting cast of such Jazz- and Depression-era heavyweights as Lucky Luciano, Harry Houdini, FDR, and Fanny Brice, Karen Abbott weaves a rich narrative of a woman who defied all odds to become a legend—and whose sensational tale of tragedy and triumph embodies the American Dream.From the Hardcover edition.