re: Betty Hutton Gypsy
Oct 11
2009, 10:42:51 PM
Unfortunately, there isn't any audio of Betty's performances in "Gypsy" and, as someone mentioned earlier, I don't suspect that video would exist given the time period.
I haven't found pictures or reviews from this production. All I know is that this was a difficult time in Betty's personal life. Her mother had just been burned to death in a house fire a month before the opening and Betty had just given birth to her third child three weeks prior to the opening. Bernadette Peters was actually in this same production as Betty, playing Dainty June. Last year, Bernadette recalled that time in an interview with the Cleveland Free Times: "The poor woman just wasn't up to it, and because of the demands of summer stock, she didn't even have time to memorize her lines." I suspect she didn't have much rehearsal time after just having a baby. Still, I think this may have been one of Betty's favorite roles. Several years later, around 1978, she was interviewed on television and she was asked who she would like to play her if a movie were made about her life. She said Bernadette Peters and talked about how great she was and how she had good memories of her. Also, when Betty did "Annie" on Broadway in 1980, there was an article in the New York Times saying how she warmed up in her hotel room to "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and sounded fabulous.
I know I'm rambling, but as you probably can tell, I'm a big Betty Hutton fan. I actually run a website about her: http://www.satinsandspurs.com/
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