Two days in a row with film versions of shows that starred Ethel Merman, but where the film didn't. At least with Gypsy, the story and music from the show are faithfully preserved in the film.
Despite it's title, the show is not really about Gypsy, but about Mama Rose. Or perhaps its about how Mama Rose created Gypsy--or rather how Gypsy created herself for Mama. Regardless, this is a first rate musical, well done on film, with all the showbiz hokem and human desires to fill a big story against a bigger cyclorama.
Rosalind Russell is very good as Mama and if her singing doesn't quite live up to the demands of Jule Styne's powerhouse music, Ms. Russell's bravura more than makes up for it. Karl Malden is also great as fast-talking Herbie, a very different type of role for him from most of his film and television credits. I may be in the minority (again) but I like Natalie Wood as Gypsy; I think her personal history with a poor background and pushy stage mother helps inform her performance.
A tangent that is truly tangent. A few years ago I read February House by Sherill Tippins. It tells about a house in Brooklyn where in 1940 and 1941 an unusal collection of artists lived. The unlikely group included composer Benjamin Britten, tenor Peter Pears, authors Carson McCullers, W.H. Auden, Jane Bowles, Paul Bowles, Richard Wright, and budding memoirist Gypsy Rose Lee. Do communities like this exist today, where artists of varying disciplines and varying experience come together to foment their ideas?
Well, with all the drinking and Benzadrine-taking that took place in February House, maybe the artists are better off if they don't congregate too much.
Regardless, the musical Gypsy offers a good time at the theater or on the screen.
Gypsy
Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Arthur Laurents
Film directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Released by Warner Bros. in 1962
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Karl Malden, Natalie Wood
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