Erik Preminger - Has He Seen The Current GYPSY Revival?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 10:01am

Does anyone know if Gypsy Rose Lee's son, Erik Preminger, has seen the current revival of GYPSY?

[wicked_beast4]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 10:15am

Yes, he has. Leigh Ann talks about it in the Playbill Broadway Yearbook. He told her she was doing a brilliant portrayal of his Aunt. She loved it.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 10:16am

That's great to know!

Thanks for the info.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 10:41am

Erik is keen on seeing every 'new' production of GYPSY... sometimes even major regional productions.

Unfortunately, he chooses to not comment on them.



Updated On: 10/12/08 at 10:41 AM

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 2:16pm

Yes, he has. He and Laura spoke a great deal about his mother and he was apparently very moved by Laura's performance.

Updated On: 10/12/08 at 02:16 PM

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 2:19pm

Wonder if Havoc herself has seen it...

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 5:01pm

I don't think she has, or at least hadn't when I listened to an interview with Leigh Ann Larkin from June (the month). although that was four months ago, so she may have seen it.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 5:24pm

June Havoc has stated that she hates GYPSY and hasn't seen any version of it since the Merman original. She claims it's far off from the truth, but Gypsy herself admited that much of her original book was fabricated.

[fflagg]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 6:41pm

He is given a special thanks in the Playbill.

[winston89]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 7:43pm

I found a video on youtube where Merman was interviewed on The Gypsy Rose Lee show ( I put the video on here as a link). Gypsy herself was telling Merman how she thought the show was wonderful and that Merman did a wonderful job playing her mother.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 10:31pm

June Havoc is still alive? Holy crap!

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 11:01pm

After this revival, though GYPSY! has long been my favorite musical, I began to devour everything Gypsy Rose Lee. Her novels, her films, old reels, her memoir, the memoir by her son - Erik Lee Preminger. Everything differs and "GYPSY: Memoirs of America's most celebrated stripper" is certainly far from the truth.

However, anyone who has read the memoirs will know that it Laurents' book is a far cry from what is on the page. There are striking similarities - complete pages and lines ripped from Gypsy's memories. However, there is no Herbie - there is a character a great deal like him, but he walks out much sooner than our beloved Herbie does. In fact, he leaves before June does. You can see how the musical came from these memoirs, certainly, but neither is an exact replica of the truth.

For an interesting read, and a more specific look at some of the tales we know of Rose and her daughters, I highly suggest Erik Lee Preminger's "My G-String Mother: At home and backstage with Gypsy Rose Lee". He retells tales that his mother told him as well as shows us a real look at Louise.

If you've read the memoirs, you'll agree with me when I say that anyone who reads them feels like they're saying goodbye to a best friend when they finish the last page. She writes with such eloquence that it seems it is for your eyes and your eyes alone. She was an extraordinary woman. I wish I'd truly known her.

Laura has repeatedly said that she reads the memoirs at least once a month to "keep her close".

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 12:22am

Gypsy LOVED to embellish her stories and never told the same story the same way twice. Even the way she was given the name 'Gypsy Rose Lee' was fabricated by Laurents for the musical. When he informed her of this she just said that as long as it sounded good, to do it. June Havoc was equally upset over Gypsy's autobiography as she was with the Broadway musical GYPSY.

Erik Lee Preminger confirms Gypsy embellishing all her stories to make them sound great.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 8:51am

>June Havoc has stated that she hates GYPSY and hasn't seen any version of it since the Merman original. She claims it's far off from the truth, but Gypsy herself admited that much of her original book was fabricated.<

That's no longer true. Havoc saw the Tyne Daly production and became very friendly with that company, inviting them to her farm in Stamford, CT. I think, basically, she made her peace with the show, even though she feels that it makes a mockery of her childhood career.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 12:20pm

I actually have a paperback copy of "The G-String Murders" by Gypsy Rose Lee. Talk about "ghosts" It is a real hoot!

[Producer2]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 12:26pm

June Havoc HAS seen many productions of Gypsy. My friend knows her and has attended the Bernadette revival with her and the reception after. June Havoc has also written Linda Lavin a letter praising her performance:

"June Havoc saw Lavin's performance as Rose Hovick in Gypsy, and sent Lavin a photo of Havoc's mother, the real Rose Hovick, with a note of appreciation for Lavin's particular portrayal of Mama Rose."

Can someone please pm me if they have any Linda Lavin Gypsy "examples"

[kissmeimirish]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:15pm

Lavin was the most difficult Rose to sit through. Hard as nails and probably closest to the real Rose. She took lots of risks and they resulted in a shattering performance. On the downside, it made Gypsy less of a musical comedy and pretty tense to sit through. Lots of foot stomping and shrill screaming but Lavin made it all very powerful.

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:25pm

A lot of people HATED Lavin though. And the same was said about Betty Buckley's Rose. Way too intense, with no comedy. Laurent's also famously told Buckley her Rose would never see Broadway.

[kissmeimirish]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:42pm

Having seen both Lavin and Buckley I can see how some people would be less than thrilled. However, Lavin was watchable and fascinating and had a point of view (love her or hate her). I found Buckley dull and too ladylike. And, as I've noticed many times (and I've seen her on stage many times) she tends to lose focus, flub lines and forget where she is. Love her vocals but she's not my favorite actress. Remember, she took all of the humor out of Norma Desmond, too.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:44pm

Linda Lavin's performance was kind of brilliant, although she was a loser from the very beginning--a tough loser, but a loser nonetheless. In the dramatic scenes and songs, she was desperately needy, angry and, ultimately pathetic--intensified by the less-than-adequate voice. In the comic scenes and songs ("Together," "Goldstone," "You'll Never Get Away from Me"), she was goofy and filled with brio. The two aspects of her performance were the closest anyone could get to approximating what Judy Garland's needy, desperate, goofy, fun-filled performance would have been like. (Although, Garland, of course, would have sung the hell out of it.)

Betty Buckley's performance was excruciatingly painful--both for her and for the audience: mannered, creepy, Wagnerian, remorseless...and not one NOTE of humor. Her "together" was leaden. Her "Goldstone" seemed badly translated from the German. Her "You'll Never Get Away from Me" seemed like a punishment being pronounced on Herbie. It was said at the time that she played Rose as Medea--that was said as both praise and ridicule, depending on who said it. Many in the audience swore that she came out for Rose's Turn with Louise's blood on her hands, but that, apparently, was just a collective hallucination.

I myself had nightmares for weeks after seeing it. I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, "NO! Betty Buckley, NO! Don't LET her play Mame! Not, Dolly, PLEAAAAASE! NOOOOO!!!!!"

[jv92]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 3:57pm

^ LMAO Pal Joey!

Didn't Sondheim particularly enjoy Lavin's performance or was I reading too much into sarcasm on this board?

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 4:30pm

Personally, Tyne Daly scared the hell out of me. At the end of the first act I thought she was going to kill somebody, or die trying.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 8:31pm

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 9:07pm

What was Mama Rose's real name or does anyone have a picture of her they could PM me?

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 9:10pm

Her name was Rose Hovick, lol.

Here's a picture of June, Louise, and Rose.

Updated On: 10/13/08 at 09:10 PM