I've never understood Gypsy
I've never understood Gypsy
Fenchurch
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/16/06
#1I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 4:12pm
First off, everyone says it has the best overture ever, I think its flat and dissatisfying.
And the main character is a liar, a theif and a cheat who uses her children and takes advantage of everyone in her life, and then you're supposed to feel sorry for her in the last moments of the show, because she realizes it too late to repair the damage she's done to her children/men in her life?
I dunno, just my two cents
"Fenchurch is correct, as usual."
-Keen on Kean
"Fenchurch is correct, as usual." - muscle23ftl
"Fenchurch is correct, as usual." - muscle23ftl
#1re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 4:13pm
Small orchestras, don't get Gypsy...
You're gonna have fun on this board!
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
#2re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 4:14pmwtf?
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#3re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 4:18pm
...
For a while I didn't get Sunday in the Park With George. Now I do.
"We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in it's flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung, the dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future too."
- Tom Stoppard, Shipwreck
Julian2
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/10/06
#6re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 4:28pm
Quick! Down this tunnel! Its safer for you here . . .
Your sanctuary . . .
I have several names, one is Julian2. I am also The Opps Girl. But cross me, and I become Bitch Dooku!
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#7re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 4:28pmDo not take this the wrong way but "Are you kidding" ?
Poster Emeritus
#8re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 5:19pmGee, if you didn't like Mama Rose, you must have hated Mrs. Lovett.
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=972787#3631451
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=963561#3533883
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955158#3440952
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954269#3427915
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955012#3441622
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954344#3428699
#9re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 5:24pmIt is The Greatest Musical Ever Written.
"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about." - Oscar Wilde
Updated On: 12/2/06 at 05:24 PM
Junior
Stand-by Joined: 4/12/06
#10re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 5:50pm
UGH! This thread rips my heart out and stomps on it! I ADORE Gypsy (it's definitely in my top 5 all time faves) and IMHO, Mamma Rose is one of, if not THE best characters an actress in the musical theatre can play. But I understand that this IS just MY opinion, and don't expect everyone to agree.
As for the overture, not everyone is INTO overtures. I happen to love them, but I have several friends who feel that overtures in general are just long, boring and pointless. I especially like Gypsy's overture because I feel that it sums up the range of moods and themes carried out through the course of the show: It starts out with the haunting "I had a dream" music (which is the driving force behind the show) which leads into the kick ass act I finale "everythings coming up roses, then touches on the more sweet, tender songs like "you'll never get away from me" (sung to Herbie, but can relate to the children, in a rather eerie way) and "small World" (which shows Rose's manipulativeness (if that's a word) as well as her scathing ability to get what she wants by using her flirtation skills and sex appeal. Yes, it's a rather long overture, but I love it. Just my opinion.
As far as the character of Rose goes, there's just SOOO MUCH you can do with her. Yes, she's a manipulative B*tch, but she's a driven, ambitious woman who is passionate about what she does, or at least wanted to do. Yes, she lives her dreams out through her children, but who, in some degree, doesn't? I'm not saying every parent goes to the extremes Rose does, but think about it. I'm sure you can find SOMETHING, whether it be great or small, that your parents lived out through you. And as far as the whole "feeling sorry for her in the final moments of the show" thing goes, I feel that's just a matter of a person's level of compassion. By the end of the show, we see Rose finally realize that all of her actions have basically bitten her in the ass, and now she's left to deal with this fact by herself. By trying so hard to make a name for her children (and herself) she has turned them against her. Her over-ambition has driven away all of the men her life (Pop, Herbie, all previous lovers) and for the first time in her life, she's left completely on her own. This leaves her questioning her past (Why did I do it? What did it get me? All your life and what does it get you? etc) Whether you feel sorry for her or not, she's a woman who has lost any and all direction and stability in her life, and that's just sad. Whether you feel sorry for her, or you feel that she just got what was coming to her, the important thing is that you feel SOMETHING. I feel that that's the whole point of the last moments of the show.
Now I'm not bashing, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I just feel very strongly about this show and wanted to express my opinions.
whew. that felt good. I'm gonna go listen to it now....
WalkOn
Broadway Star Joined: 8/7/06
#11re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 6:00pm
I myself never understood what was great about KISS, ME KATE, GUYS AND DOLLS and LES MISERABLES
I don't hate them, but my response to them is pretty even. Not much excitement.
I know everyone praises the brilliant score of GYSPY. But to me the book is one of the best ever written. Just about every single line advances the plot and deepens our understanding of the characters. No fat at all.
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart; and you'll never walk alone.
Updated On: 12/2/06 at 06:00 PM
#12re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 6:03pm
GYPSY is the perfect marriage of music, lyrics and book. And Styne always wrote fun overtures. Can you imagine hearing that overture for the first time? More hits per square inch than any show since BABES IN ARMS.
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
Updated On: 12/2/06 at 06:03 PM
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
#13re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 6:47pmI've always thought of Gypsy as Jerome Robbins' A Chorus Line, or well it is more appropriate to say A Chorus Line is Michael Bennett's Gypsy. Either way, both shows are legendary for their meticulous integration of book, music, lyrics, and staging.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#14re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 6:50pm
Comparing Gypsy to Hello Dolly is like comparing a mercedes to a Lincoln Town car. Both are good cars but one is head & shoulders over the other
I am sorry I never got to see the Merm in it but have seen 3 productions - Lansbury,Daly & Peters
Poster Emeritus
#15re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 7:36pm
wow...
i honestly don't even know where to start with this.
Having just a vision's no solution.
#16re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 7:36pmDid you see some elementary school production or something?
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#17re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 7:38pmI think he might like an all kazoo production of Les Mis...
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#18re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 7:46pm"Flat & Dissatisfying"? Brassy, electrifying, strident, maybe even a little bit abrasive, but I've never heard a flat & dissatisfying Gypsy overture.
#19re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 9:17pm
I've to disagree about the overture. It's the best overture ever. But the book is really really crap, cannot even call it decent! A bad mother, every child left her, and her only left behind child hated her at the end, this is actually a good plot, but the mother didn't even think she was wrong. Even in Rose's Turn she kept on saying, "I'm now the big one! I cares about you all!" And then suddenly the child forgave her or something? What the- Seems that it needs to end, so it has to end and in a good way without transition... CRAP!
Somebody sit in my chair, and ruin my sleep, and make me aware of being alive!
Updated On: 12/2/06 at 09:17 PM
#20re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 9:21pmWho ARE you people?
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#21re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 9:21pm
Funny, it's considered by most theatre historians to be an almost perfect book...
Oh well, to each his own. (Unless they disagree with me, of course, then they can just go to $%&*(&)$ 
)
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
#22re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 9:30pm
"I think he might like an all kazoo production of Les Mis..."
Don't say that too loud, Doyle just might use that for his next production!
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#23re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 9:34pm
I'm with Rath and Tom -- who ARE you people?????
Laurents' book for GYPSY is about as perfect a musical book as has ever been written with some of the most psychologically complex and fascinating characters ever created for musical theatre. I'm hard-pressed to name a better one. It's structurally flawless and there isn't a wasted moment of dialogue in it.
Margo is confused and speechless............
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
#24re: I've never understood Gypsy
Posted: 12/2/06 at 9:35pm*takes Margo and Tom out for drinks*
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
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