"On A Clear day You Can See Forever" Libretto? / Gypsy Question

[gossipguy215]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 9:44pm

Hello, I have been looking everywhere for a copy of the Original Broadway Production Version of the libretto. I have searched for months, trying to find it. If you know anything, please help! Thank you so much

Also, I have a question about the ending of "Gypsy". Why in the Patti LuPone and Tyne revivals does it end with Loise laughing and rejecting Rose while in the Original and Bernadette Peters (and I imagine Angela Lansbury) productions they walk off, while Rose looks back longingly at the stage? Is there a reason for these different endings (although the dialogue prior remains the same). Once again, thank you so much!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 9:49pm

You imagine correctly: as I recall it, Lansbury and her "Louise" walked off arm in arm and it was clear that a reconciliation of sorts had been achieved. (A rocky reconciliation. I doubt anyone assumed it would be all hearts and flowers from then on.)

Without that, I have to wonder why the final scene is there? After all, every production has to work to get the audience settled down for those final 15 or so lines. Why bother if Rose and Louise are merely continuing the "break-up" they began before "Rose's Turn"?

(I'm serious asking, since I haven't seen a production done that way, but I know Laurents always fought to keep that brief scene after "Rose's Turn" in the play.)

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 9:53pm

gossipguy, are you sure Louise is "laughing and rejecting Rose" in the Daly and Lupone productions? Haven't they already arranged to go to the same party together? Didn't Louise tell Rose she can borrow her fur coat?

Maybe the laughter isn't intended as rejection, but as an acknowledgement that "oh, Mama will always be Mama." And Rose stays behind for one last moment with her fantasy...

(Just a thought. I didn't see those productions.)

[gossipguy215]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 10:01pm

The audio of Patti that I heard had a sort of cray laugh from Loise that lasted a lot longer than a normal laugh should before the curtain music started. I also found this "In the 1974 and 2008 Broadway revivals, although the final dialogue scene remains, there is not a happy ending, but rather a bleak, sad one as all hopes of reconciliation for Rose and Louise fall flat when Louise walks away, laughing sarcastically at Rose's new "dream"." The audience is then left with a Rose whose dream of her own lit up marquee slowly fades away to her craziness within taking over." From just the audio, it sounds a lot more like a rejection then a "Mama will always be Mama."

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 10:22pm

Whom are you quoting? That is not my memory of the 1974 revival (Lansbury). I didn't see it in NYC, but we opened it in Florida with almost the entire original cast shortly after it closed on Broadway.

So I (happily) sat through a week of rehearsals and 32 performances.

I could very well be wrong in my memory of the staging, but I'm sure of how I felt at the end and it wasn't hopeless, not at all. Actually, they cast Cyd Charisse's daughters (Zan Charisse in NYC; Nan Tucker in Florida) who were taller than Angie, so there was a lovely moment during the final (post-"Turn") scene when Angie put her head on Louise's shoulder.

The child becomes the parent of her parent, which Laurents and Sondheim have both written is the point of the play.

I thought they walked off arm in arm with Rose glancing back over her shoulder as "her" lights go out, but I could be wrong. If Louise laughed, it was rueful and even affectionate, but accepting. Sort of "Oh, Mama! You'll never change!"

But Rose's big concession moment is when she agrees to take billing below Louise in their imaginary act. Why would Louise abandon her after that?

Updated On: 4/7/13 at 10:22 PM

[gossipguy215]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 10:29pm

Make what you can of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm9tJpmyFFo

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 10:31pm

Yeah, that doesnt make a whole lot of sense, if for no other reason than it would leave a really bad taste with the audience right at curtain. I saw the Daly production, and ir certainly didnt have that impression.

But then I dont understand why anyone would stage this to suggest Rose was crazy. She's not. Self-deluded, perhaps, but there's nothing in the script (or in the memoir it's based on) to say she was crazy.

Gaveston: I can see the point of the scene. Yes, Rose has had her big turn, but if you ended the show there, there's no real resolution to the conflict between Rose and Louise that's been brewing all night long. It's a tricky scene to stage, but done right, it's really heart wrenching.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 10:34pm

As for CLEAR DAY, I imagine about the best you're gonna find these days is the published version that Random House issued as part of its Fireside books.
On a Clear Day on Amazon

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 10:45pm

Gaveston: I can see the point of the scene. Yes, Rose has had her big turn, but if you ended the show there, there's no real resolution to the conflict between Rose and Louise that's been brewing o night long. It's a tricky scene to stage, but done right, it's really heart wrenching.

That's exactly right, Sean, and, to my knowledge, exactly why Laurents always insisted on including the scene.

Just to be clear, the "silent bow" I described above is just the briefest moment of madness, when we in the audience suddenly realize that all of "Rose's Turn", including the cheering and screaming and mid-show standing ovation, have taken place only in Rose's mind.

The way Angie did it there was the briefest glimpse of madness that came over her eyes. (She's such a great technician you could still see it 15 rows back. I used to have an 8x10 of just that instant, but lost it in one of my many moves. Kills me.) But then Rose regains her composure and returns to reality.

I didn't mean to suggest the play ended with Rose insane.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/7/13 at 10:55pm

I once designed GYPSY for a theatre in the midwest. My director's brief was simple: this is about a traveling family — so I did all these gigantic suitcases. They became just about everything needed during the evening, even beds for the boys to sleep in in the hotel scene. But the best moment was Rose's Turn, when we rigged them to open by themselves, and these gigantic lit marquees came out of them. It was a *wonderful* moment... :: sigh ::