Gypsy

Just how far will a mother go to make her little girl a star? The last,
desperate gasps of vaudeville provide the backdrop for Gypsy, a
timeless story of ambition and family. Featuring classic songs like
“Let Me Entertain You” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,”
Gypsy is a vivid retelling of the emergence of the little girl who
would become the notorious Gypsy Rose Lee–with a little help
from mom. The Express production of this landmark of musical
theatre features cabaret sensation Libby Whittemore and a
posse–say, 22–of Atlanta’s finest performers.

Gypsy opened atthe Broadway Theatre on May 21, 1959 and closed on
March 25, 1961 after 702 performances. It was made into a motion
picture starring Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russell in 1963 and a TV
movie starring Bette Midlerin 1993. A Broadway revival was staged in
1974 with Angela Lansbury and again in 1989 with Tyne Daley.
Suggested by the memoirs ofthe notorious stripper Gypsy Rose
Lee, Gypsy tells the story of Rose, an overbearing stage mother who is
determined to break into the big time by pushing the vaudeville career
of her younger daughter June. However, unwilling to tolerate her
mother’s manipulations, June elopes with a dancer. Rose then turns all
of her attention to her older and less talented daughter Louise. Rose’s
dreams come to fruition when Louise’s careertakes off on the
burlesque circuit as a stripper. Confronting the reality that she is no
longer needed in her daughter’s life,the play concludes with Rose and
Louise coming to an understanding aboutthe true legacy of a mother’s
desire to live out her own dreams through her children.
Theatre people are obsessed with stories abouttheatre people. We
know deep down thatthe very pathologies thatfuel our commitmentto
this work-low pay and crazy hours and the constant emotionalroller
coaster of approval and validation inherentin a performer’s life-well,
that stuff makes for greattheatre. And there’s no more vivid rendering
of a performer’s drive than this beautiful story of a mother who lives
through her daughters.

Our creative team’s outstanding-the amazing Libby Whittemore, Obie-
winning director Emma Griffin, pageant designer Jay Reynolds on

clothes, notto mention a cast of 21 humans AND a little dog called
Rambo – Gypsy is easily the largest projectthe theatre has undertaken
in my three seasons here. With its relevance to the season’s core
themes-lostinnocence, and the liberating,redemptive power of
performance-and the sheerresources it demands to bring itto life, it’s
no exaggeration to say we’ve built our year around it. Plus, it’s really fun
to open a season with Gypsy,the definitive American musical, and close
it with Hedwig, her crazy,trouble-making progeny.