MUSIC
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
A ROSE WITH
THORNS
man (who actually initiated the project after read-
ing the memoirs of striptease artist Gypsy Rose
Lee), the fact that stars as diverse as Angela Lans-
bury, Bette Midler, Tyne Daly, Rosalind Russell,
Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone have success-
fully played the role in frequent revivals demon-
strates the character’s depth.
In a similar way, different productions vary
the import of the ambiguous ending. More than
most works of musical theater, including op-
era, Gypsy catches the complexity of real life —
and conveys it in exciting, unforgettable songs
like “Together Wherever We Go,” “You Gotta
Get a Gimmick,” “Let Me Entertain You” and,
of course, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”
And that complexity, signaled by an unex-
pected turn from opening exuberance to even-
tual disappointment, helped spark a similar
transformation in the American musical itself,
opening it to an unprecedented psychological
complexity that Sondheim and others would
continue to develop.
That makes Gypsy a timeless creation. In
this age of American Idol, The Voice and a bur-
lesque revival that just last year produced a new, made-in-
Portland opera telling the story of Portland striptease artist/
author Viva Las Vegas, maybe the time is again ripe for
Rose’s demented dreams of ecdysiastic elevation.
The notion that you can cure your psychic damage and
find glory — or at least self esteem — by riding the public
revelation of superficial parts of yourself to stardom didn’t
die with vaudeville strippers.
WARD FAIRBAIRN, CLARAE SMITH AND
SHIRLEY ANDRESS IN GYPSY.
The musical masterpiece
Gypsy opens this weekend
at The Shedd
T
he overture to Gypsy kicks off the
show with one of those rousing, fa-
miliar tunes that practically bellows
“classic American musical.” And a
classic this is, the 1959 masterpiece
by writer Arthur Laurents, composer Jule
Styne, choreographer Jerome Robbins and
young lyricist Stephen Sondheim (just off
his breakthrough with West Side Story).
But if it’s most famous for “Every-
thing’s Coming Up Roses,” the blooms are
more like those the Rolling Stones sang
about in “Dead Flowers.” Like the music, the story turns
darker, more complicated and more real than its splashy
opening number suggests.
Running this weekend and next at The Shedd in a
production directed by Peg Major, with music direction
by Robert Ashens and choreography by Caitlin Christo-
pher, Gypsy delivers the memorable big tunes and pro-
duction numbers that fans of musicals crave — while also
limning the depth of character and even darkness rarely
found in musical theater at that time, and too seldom since.
Set in 1920s vaudeville, the story is propelled by an ag-
ing, wannabe burlesque queen, “a pioneer woman without
a frontier … born too soon and started too late.” At heart
it’s a family drama pitting the manipulative stage mother’s
stifled ambitions and fears against her daughters’ indepen-
dence and self-esteem as she labors to vault them to the
vicarious stardom she never herself achieved.
In the process, we come to understand the pain that un-
derlies her craving for recognition.
One indicator of any classic’s greatness (whether a play,
a composition or a dance) is the variety of interpretations it
allows, and in frequent revivals on Broadway and beyond,
Momma Rose has been successfully played by a wide va-
riety of the greatest musical actresses.
Though all inevitably stand in the formidable shadow of
the original Momma Rose, the volcanic-voiced Ethel Mer-
Featuring Shirley Andress as Rose along with Clarae Smith, Ward
Fairbairn, and Kenady Conforth, Gypsy runs for six performances at The
Shedd’s Jaqua Concert Hall: 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, June 16-17 and
23-24, and 3 pm Sunday, June 18 and 25. Tickets $22- $38, available at the
box office, by phone at 541-434-7000 or online at theshedd.org.
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