Gypsy - 2008 Broadway Cast Recording
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CD Details
Composer: Jule StynePerformer: Laura Benanti
Performer: Boyd Gaines
Performer: Patti LuPone
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Cast Recording
CD Release Date: 2008-08-26
Music Label: Time Life Entertainment
Soundtracks:
- Overture
- May We Entertain You
- Some People
- Seattle to Los Angeles
- Small World
- Baby June and Her Newsboys/Let Me Entertain You
- Have an Eggroll, Mr. Goldstone
- Little Lamb
- You'll Never Get Away From Me
- Dainty June and Her Farmboys
- Broadway
- If Momma Was Married
- All I Need Is the Girl
- Everything's Coming Up Roses
- Together Wherever We Go
- The Strip
- Rose's Turn
- Tomorrow's Mother's Day
- Small World/Momma's Talkin' Soft
- Nice She Ain't
- Smile, Girls
- Who Needs Him?
- Three Wishes For Christmas
Music reviews of Gypsy - 2008 Broadway Cast Recording
Music Review: Stellar Cast Recording Showcases LuPone's Balls-to-the-Wall Turn as Mama Rose
Rating: 5 Stars
I had a dream.
I dreamed it for you, June.
It wasn't for me, Herbie.
And if it wasn't for me,
Then where would you be,
Miss Gypsy Rose Lee?
Every Rose has her day, and Broadway diva Patti LuPone finally has her shot at what is probably the most celebrated female role in musical theater. I am going to be rather biased in my review since I just saw her perform it at the St. James Theater last week. Directed by now-ninety-year-old librettist Arthur Laurents (The Way We Were), the show may be almost fifty years old, twice-filmed, and in its fifth Broadway incarnation with this production. LuPone, however, singes any residue of cobwebs and soars in a no-holds-barred performance that unravels the raw, wounded emotional intensity inherent in a part as megalomaniacal as Mama Rose. It fits her like a velvet glove over an iron fist, and the cast recording from Time-Life Records captures her powerful verve with shimmering clarity.
In case you've been living in a closet, the story purports to be about Gypsy Rose Lee, a famous striptease artist who became a proto-Paris Hilton-type celebrity well before the days of TMZ and tabloid TV. I remember her afternoon talk show in the 1960's and had no idea about her past until I saw the 1962 film version of her life story. Natalie Wood played her in a most flattering manner, but it was Rosalind Russell who dominated as her bulldozer of a stage mother. But before the movie was the classic musical starring the Merm in full-throttle fashion as Mama Rose.
This show is what Broadway is all about. It just doesn't matter how many times or how many versions you see in your lifetime because Jule Styne's infectious music and Stephen Sondheim's clever, perceptive lyrics provide the perfect accompaniment to Laurents' perfectly paced book. The music is sensational starting with the classic overture and sprinkled with joyful numbers all memorable - "If Mamma Was Married" sung as a plaintive duet of yearning by Laura Benanti as Louise and Leigh Ann Larkin as Dainty June; the snappy "All I Need Is the Girl" brought to zestful life by Tony Yazbeck as Tulsa; the "Let Me Entertain You" montage that goes from innocently awkward to haughtily saucy thanks to Benanti's vocal versatility in the title role; and the terrifically bawdy "You Gotta Have A Gimmick" with Alison Fraser, Lenora Nemetz and Marilyn Caskey comically embodying the three strippers who teach Louise what it takes to succeed in the unique art of ecdysiasm.
But let's face it, the disc really showcases LuPone's shining hour. Every number she sings is a tour de force, and she knows it. The angry propulsion of "Some People" is counterbalanced by the comical "Have an Eggroll, Mr. Goldstone". She is joined by Boyd Gaines as put-upon Herbie on the gentle, heartfelt ballads, "Small World" and "You'll Never Get Away from Me". The story's one moment of genuine optimism is conveyed infectiously by LuPone, Gaines and Benanti on "Together Wherever We Go". Regardless, the two defining moments that close each act are LuPone's alone - the ferocious blind faith of "Everything's Coming up Roses" that finishes Act I in a grand crescendo, and of course, the phenomenal eleventh-hour finale, "Rose's Turn", which she fearlessly attacks with the abandon of a madwoman but always keeping in character. When she finished with her primal scream expressing a lifetime of resentment onstage, I couldn't get up fast enough to give her an ovation.
Seven bonus tracks are included in the disc. All cut from the final production in 1959, they have been recorded with new orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. Two are vaudeville numbers that really do little to advance the plot - "Tomorrow's Mother's Day" and an alternate version, "Mother's Day" - and a number meant for the Minsky's strip sequence, "Three Wishes for Christmas". There is a comedy number, "Smile, Girls", which was considered for the opening of Act II but understandably dropped. More interesting are a sauntering solo for Herbie which Gaines sings with aplomb, "Nice She Ain't" revealing his resignation about Rose, and the boldly bitter "Who Needs Him?", which LuPone sings when Herbie leaves Rose for good. It's intriguing to hear the juxtaposition of "Small World" with "Momma's Talking Soft" in which Baby June and Baby Louise comment on their mother's manipulative nature. While clever, it feels wrong to undermine the relationship with Herbie so early in the story and the resulting arrangement feels cluttered.
Broadway musical aficionados should have this on their must-buy list no matter how many previous versions of "Gypsy" are in their collection. Shows this great are rare indeed, performances as great as LuPone's even rarer, and recording it for posterity is a gift for us all.
Description of Gypsy - 2008 Broadway Cast Recording
The Gypsy soundtrack includes bonus tracks.Curtain Up! The smash Broadway musical comes to life in this all new cast recording! It's the new 2008 revival of Gypsy, starring Tony and Olivier award-winner Patti Lupone as the indomitable Momma Rose. This classic American musical by Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim about a fractured family stars the larger than life, true Broadway diva Lupone heading the cast as the "stage mother of all stage mothers," determined to make a star out of at least one of her children. Four time Tony-winner Boyd Gaines is the beleaguered Herbie,a gentlemanly candy salesman and reluctant theatrical agent who loves Rose, and Tony-winner Laura Benanti is the wallflower-turned-world-famous-stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, one of Rose's two daughters.Did we really need yet another recording of Gypsy, the 1959 classic by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim? After all we already have albums headlined by the likes of Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters. The short, answer is an emphatic yes. The 2008 version stars Patti LuPone, superbly supported by Laura Benanti, Boyd Gaines and a luscious 36-piece orchestra. LuPone sinks her fangs into the role of the indomitable Mama Rose, and delivers the show?s epic anthems ("Some People," "Everything?s Coming Up Roses" and "Rose?s Turn") with the right balance of manic energy and slightly cracked vulnerability. Touted in the liner notes as "the most complete recording of Gypsy ever," the album only adds more ammo to the arsenal of those who hold the musical as possibly the best of all time. There is not a single weak cut here. And because this production was directed by the book?s author himself, Arthur Laurents, access was granted to seven goodies cut from the original production and tagged at the end. The highlight clearly is Rose?s "Who Needs Him?," a torchy number that manages to pack a punch in just over a minute.--Elisabeth Vincentelli
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