Show guide
Gypsy
Gypsy is a dramatic, music-driven look at the fierce stage mother Rose and her two daughters as they climb through the fading world of vaudeville.
- Broadway premiere
- 1959
- Music by
- Jule Styne
- Genre
- Golden Age
- Setting
- 1920s
Gypsy: quick answers
What is Gypsy about?
- Gypsy is about Rose, a ferociously ambitious stage mother who drags her daughters June and Louise across the dying vaudeville circuit in pursuit of stardom, until shy Louise becomes the famous striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee.
When did Gypsy open on Broadway?
- Gypsy opened on Broadway on May 21, 1959, at the Broadway Theatre, starring Ethel Merman, and ran until March 25, 1961, for 702 performances. It has been revived on Broadway many times, with Tony-winning Roses Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, and Patti LuPone.
Is Gypsy a Golden Age musical?
- Yes. Gypsy opened in 1959, near the end of Broadway's Golden Age, and is often ranked among the era's greatest book musicals, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
Where and when is Gypsy set?
- Gypsy is set on the road across the United States, beginning in the early 1920s, as vaudeville fades and burlesque takes its place.
Has Gypsy played in London's West End?
- Gypsy opened in the West End in 1973 at the Piccadilly Theatre, starring Angela Lansbury. Imelda Staunton's 2015 revival at the Savoy Theatre won Olivier Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and Best Musical Revival.
Is there a Gypsy movie?
- Gypsy was filmed in 1962 with Rosalind Russell as Rose and Natalie Wood as Louise, and again as a 1993 CBS TV movie starring Bette Midler, who won a Golden Globe.
The story of Gypsy
Gypsy centers on Rose, a relentless and domineering mother pushing her daughters toward stardom on the vaudeville circuit of the 1920s. As one daughter drifts away and the other is thrust unwillingly into the spotlight, the show becomes a portrait of ambition curdling into obsession, and of a child forced to find her own identity apart from her mother's dreams.
It is often described as one of the great American backstage dramas, using the collapsing vaudeville world as a backdrop for a deeply personal story about family, sacrifice, and the cost of wanting too much for the people you love.
The music and the makers
The music was composed by Jule Styne, whose score for Gypsy is frequently cited among the finest in Broadway history. It moves from brassy, showbiz-flavored numbers that echo the vaudeville stage itself to raw, emotionally exposed solos that dig into Rose's psychology.
The songs function almost like extended monologues, letting the central character's ambition and desperation build across the evening until they erupt in one of the most famous character numbers in the American musical canon.
Gypsy on Broadway
Gypsy premiered in the late 1950s, near the peak of Broadway's Golden Age, and has been revived numerous times since, each time drawing top-tier performers eager to tackle its towering central role. It is often held up as a model of how a musical can achieve the psychological depth of a great stage drama.
Audiences and critics alike return to it for that combination of spectacle and intimacy, a show that gives you the glitter of showbiz alongside a genuinely wrenching family story.
Gypsy: frequently asked questions
When did Gypsy open on Broadway?
Gypsy opened on Broadway in 1959.
Who wrote the music for Gypsy?
Jule Styne composed the score.
What is Gypsy about?
It follows a driven stage mother pushing her daughters toward stardom in the vaudeville world of the 1920s.
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