Our Production of: Gypsy
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Book by: Steven Sondheim
Music by: Jule Styne
Lyrics by@ Stephen Sondheim
Directed by: Mark Thorburn
Musical Director: Peter Holt
Choreographer: Allison Coyne
Gypsy: A Musical Fable. Producer David Merrick first saw the musical possibilities in the autobiography of Gypsy Rose Lee, Gypsy, when he read only a chapter from it in Harpers Magazine in 1957. Without even bothering to read the entire book, he went ahead and secured the theatrical rights. Ethel Merman, who did read the complete book, was determined to play the part of Gypsy’s ambitious mother from the outset. Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Betty Comden and Adolph Green were some of the theatrical giants who said no to creating the stage adaptation. However, Director Jerome Robbins, was sure that if librettist Arthur Laurents, with whom he had worked on West Side Story, were given a crack at it , with Steven Sondheim as composer and lyricist, it could reach the stage. Ethel Merman felt Sondheim was fine for the lyrics, but wanted Jule Styne as composer – someone she felt knew how to write for her voice. It was Sondheim’s mentor, Oscar Hammerstein, who persuaded him to take the assignment in order to experience writing lyrics for a star. We will never know what Sondheim’s music would have been like, but the final Gypsy musical score must rank as one of the theatre’s best and its overture, one of the most exciting of all time. Rose: Emma Southorn
Louise: Jenny Dewar
Herbie : Mark Bolkonsky
Tulsa: Matthew Fowler
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