My Eighth and Maybe Final ‘Gypsy’
Member Stories
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It’s been a while since we published one of our Theatre Lovers essays, but at Gypsy with Audra McDonald, I began chatting with my seatmate, who saw Ethel Merman in the musical back in the day! We couldn’t resist sharing her memories of many Mama Roses. If you’d like to submit your story for consideration, email TDF Stages.
Our tickets cost around $10, which was a lot of money back then. My family was very frugal: We never ate out and if we could walk where we were going, we did.
After the performance, my mother and I strolled to Central Park and saw Can-Can starring Genevieve at the Theatre-in-the-Park, an outdoor venue set up at Wollman Rink. Two shows in one day—I felt so very special! All these years later, I still consider it the best day of my life.
Now as a 76-year-old grandmother, I see Gypsy as the tale of a mother who sacrificed everything for her children. I really relate to “Rose’s Turn”—that could be my theme song!
In 1974, my son’s father got us tickets to see Angela Lansbury in Gypsy for my birthday. I remember how Louise singing “Little Lamb” hit home. “Did somebody paint you like that, or is it your birthday, too?” Not being in a perfect loving relationship, I felt the same kind of loneliness and longing as Louise did. To this day, I often sing that song in my head and tear up.
Speaking of my son’s father, in 1975 he took me to see Chicago with Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon. When Verdon tossed roses into the audience, he caught one and swore she threw it to him! Nothing more needs to be said.
By 1989 I was an independent woman, and I went to see Tyne Daly in Gypsy on my own. I enjoyed the show because it was Gypsy, but I think knowing Daly from TV tainted my view of her as Rose.
In 2003, I treated myself to a ticket to see Bernadette Peters in Gypsy. As always, I sat in a center orchestra seat. The show was great because it was Gypsy but Peters will always be Annie Oakley from Annie Get Your Gun to me.
In 2008, I bought myself a ticket to see a preview of Gypsy with Patti LuPone. The tone of the production seemed more comedic than previous ones, but it worked. The strippers were very entertaining, and LuPone was such a superstar I decided to go again after opening with a friend who had never seen Gypsy. I was so glad she loved it, too… perhaps not as much as I did, but that would be impossible.
While I love the songs in Gypsy, I relate to the story, too. Like Rose, my mother gave up a lot for me, but I didn’t realize that until I was older. The lost feeling that Louise has was me as a kid. Being an only child with my father in prison, I felt like an outcast.
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