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On this day in New York · May 21, 1959

Gypsy Opens on Broadway

Ethel Merman turned into the stage mother to end all stage mothers at the Broadway Theatre, belting out a Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim score critics still argue is the best ever written for a musical.

Gypsy Opens on Broadway
Wikimedia Commons / Ethel Merman

The facts

Date
May 21, 1959
Theatre
Broadway Theatre, New York City
Creative team
Book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins
Run
702 performances, closing March 25, 1961

Gypsy opened at the Broadway Theatre on May 21, 1959, with Ethel Merman starring as Rose, the mother driving her two daughters toward vaudeville stardom no matter the cost. Arthur Laurents wrote the book, loosely built from the memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim. Jerome Robbins directed and choreographed. Jack Klugman played Herbie, Rose's long-suffering manager and suitor, and Sandra Church played Louise, the daughter who grows up into Gypsy Rose Lee herself. The show ran 702 performances, moving from the Broadway Theatre to the Imperial before it closed in March 1961.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. Miss Merman, her pipes resonant and her spirit syncopated, struts and bawls her way through it triumphantly.

    Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times, May 22, 1959

    Source: The Passionate Moviegoer

  2. Gypsy is nothing if not Broadway's own brassy, unlikely answer to King Lear.

    Frank Rich, The New York Times, in a 1989 review of the Broadway revival

    Source: Wikipedia

Why it still matters

The Styne-Sondheim score, from 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' to 'Rose's Turn,' set a bar the American musical still measures itself against, and Rose remains one of the toughest, richest parts an actress can take on a New York stage.

Sources

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