Peter Felicia (55:59)
Well, if y'all can stand it, we have some more music from Gypsy, although I guess the wrinkle here is actually, it's two songs that were cut from Gypsy. But first, parenthetically, before I start in line with what you just said, that funny story you just told Peter, I had said in my review of Gypsy that I wasn't thrilled with all of the new orchestrations and arrangements and I thought that some of them were, were very much inferior to the originals. And one of our readers wrote in and said, well, maybe George Wolf was just paying attention to, you know, maybe he had a dream and was. In which Mr. Orpheum said to him, get yourself some new orchestrations. That's great, but I love it when our listeners write in with stuff like that. Anyway, yeah, I've had, you know, Gypsy is such a rich show to begin with and this production is so newsworthy. I just had some follow up thoughts and I invite you both to jump in. One thing I did want to mention that I forgot is that at the performance I attended, there were what I thought were two flubs by Audra that were minor in a way, but not really minor. The first one is there's a line that's supposed to be. Herbie says to Rose at one point, Rose, what you expect? And she very quickly replies, I'll get. And after I get it, I promise I'll marry you. I even promise to keep my promise. But at the performance I saw, he said, what do you expect? And she said, I'll get and then I'll marry you. I even promised to keep my promise. And I thought, well, gosh, no, you kind of screwed that up a little bit. So I don't, I, I assume that was just a flub. But then the other one, I initially thought this was a flub, but I, I don't know, I think maybe it is a, a very ill advised change in Rose's turn right before Rose begins to babble and break down and start saying, mama, Mama. The last line she's supposed to say before that is Mama's letting go. And it's clear to me that the reason why that causes her mental break is because she cannot let go. And so that's why the specific line before that has to be Mama's letting go. But I. But at the performance I attended and on two bootleg recordings that people have posted online, that's not what she sings. She sings, she sings. I've got it written down. Let me make sure she sings. Mama's gotta move. Mama's gotta go. And that's when she starts breaking down. Now Mama's gotta go is not the Same as Mama's letting go go. And since she sings it the same way in both of those performances, plus the one that I attended, I have to think that maybe she or George Wolf decided that for some reason they wanted to change. Mom is letting go to mom has got to go. If that's so, I just think that's small in one way, but really, really unfortunate change. And so, I don't know, maybe I'll see if I find somebody in the cast who knows the answer to that question. But anyway, that's my last comment on this production itself. I just had some general thoughts about Gypsy that I wanted to share. One thing I find so interesting is that in the score, the very first song title is written as May We Entertain you. And then in this, I actually don't have a copy of the score, but I have the script, so I'm assuming it's the same. Then when, then when June and Louise perform the number as Baby June and her newsboys, it changes then to Let Me Entertain you. And then of course, at the very end when Gypsy is going to be about to become a star by stripping at the burlesque house, Rose says you can do June's Let Me Entertain you number. So I think Let Me Entertain you is the title that most people know it by. But it's interesting that it is technically supposed to be May We Entertain you when it's performed in the audition sequence at the very beginning and on the original cast album it's listed as May We Entertain youn, but sung as Let Me Entertain youn that first time. So there seems to be a lot of question about that. And it would be fascinating to imagine the conversations between Sondheim and Robbins and I suppose Arthur Lawrence and Julie Stein around that. So there's that the vaudeville numbers in Gypsy is a question of how bad they're supposed to be, you know, and are the performers supposed to know that they're bad? Are they supposed to sort of telegraph that to the audience? It's interesting also that there is no mention in the script of Gypsy who supposedly wrote the material for the act. I mean, are we supposed to think it's Rose? Are we supposed to think she wrote the music and the lyrics and the arrangements and the orchestrations? Now, you know, I didn't expect them to get into a big discussion of who wrote the material, but it could have been, it might have been fun to have like a one line joke about the guy who writes their stuff and how maybe I should, you know, give him some money for that. Sometime. So that's, that's interesting to me. But also it's, you know, I guess those songs are supposed to be bad and corny, but ultimately they have music by Julie Stein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. So it's like, it's. It's like the best bad music and lyrics you could ever possibly imagine. What else? Try to be brief here. Oh, all I need is the girl. We've discussed that a bit, but there's a change in the movie where in the movie, June does not run off with Tulsa. She runs off with another boy in the act. And a lot of people hate that change because they think it's more heartbreaking if June runs off with a boy that Louise was in love with. But on the other hand, apparently this, the movie version is more accurate, first of all. And also because Tulsa does not run off with June, that gives him a really touching goodbye scene with Louise at the train station. So he's leaving anyway. So she's still heartbroken, broken, and. But plus she gets that goodbye scene and so does he. So I don't really mind that change, I have to say. And what else? Oh, one of our listeners wrote in to say, Michael, I just listened to your very intelligent review of Gypsy. I have always loved your insight. As far as Little Lamb goes, both June Havoc and Gypsy Rosalie stated many times throughout their lives that it wasn't until they were in their 20s that they actually found out when they were born their mother had destroyed their birth certificates and depending on what state they were performing in, forged their birth certificates. So I had expressed. Expressed doubt that, that when, when Louise sings I Wonder how old I am. I didn't think she meant that literally, but I think I might have been wrong about that. You know, according to Mark Milligan and, and, and I've read things now that bolster what he say. I mean, I, I would think that, you know, I would think Louise would have a rough idea of how old she was, but she might not have known exactly. Oh, and Here's a wonderful 2 2. Kerr, in reviewing the. The Angela Lansbury production, wrote this must have been one of his Sunday pieces. I would say, right. Probably not something that appeared right on opening night. He wrote the crucial sequence. The moment when we understand that Gypsy is capable of unexpected but apparently limitless dramatic expansion probably comes in an alleyway outside a stage door while Louise sits with desperate fixed on a male dancer. The dancer is in the process of building his own act. The girl who would like to be the girl is right there. But her taut tomboy's face is composed, her neglect entirely without self pity, as the quite remarkable Zan Charisse plays and refuses to primp her. She seems to have had the braces removed from her teeth just yesterday to be as sexless and as patiently pensive as a ruaut clown. I don't get that reference. But anyway, without the boys noticing that she is at last impulsively on her feet behind him and miming him exuberantly in a flash finish, but dancing perfectly, she doesn't look like his partner. For one thing, she's still wearing the brown felt trousers assigned to her. In baby June's act, she plays the hind legs of a cow. When we learn a scene later that the boy she has matched step for step has promptly run off with baby June, we realize through our quite genuine dismay how perfectly we've been set up for the fall. Playwright, composer and librettist have for us glued two people in the number, then ripped them apart. After that, we can expect almost any degree of substance that they care to give us in the second act. And then finally, in a truth is stranger than fiction moment. This is from Wikipedia. Are you ready?
