Track Listing

1. Gypsy
2. Gypsy; Let Me Entertain You
3. Gypsy; Some People
4. Gypsy; Small World
5. Gypsy; Baby June and Her Newsboys
6. Gypsy; Mr. Goldstone, I Love You
7. Gypsy; Little Lamb
8. Gypsy; You'll Never Gey Away From Me
9. Gypsy; Dainty June And Her Farmboys
10. Gypsy; If Momma Was Married
11. Gypsy; All I Need Is the Girl
12. Gypsy; Everything's Coming Up Roses
13. Gypsy; Together Wherever We Go
14. Gypsy; You Gotta Have A Gimmick
15. Gypsy; Let Me Entertain You
16. Gypsy; Rose's Turn
17. Some People (Bonus Material)
18. Mr. Goldstone / Little Lamb (Bonus Material)
19. Momma's Talkin' Soft (Bonus Material)
20. Nice She Ain't (Bonus Material)
21. Who Needs Him (Bonus Track)
22. Michael Feinstein Interviews Jule Styne About Composing the Music for "Gypsy" (Bonus Track)
23. Gypsy Rose Lee Remembers Burlesque (Bonus Track)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83142 in Music
• Released on: 2009-05-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Cast Recording, Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .15 pounds

Customer Reviews

50 years later, this is still one of the best cast albums ever made!
May 21, 1959 (exactly 50 years ago as I write this) Ethel Merman came charging down the aisle of the Broadway theater hollering "Sing Out Louise!" The opening night audience members were jolted out of their seats.

GYPSY had arrived.

How I wish I had been there that night, but I wasn't born yet. But I grew up with the cast album and it's still an essential disc for any musical theatre fan. While others have played the role to great acclaim there is something electrifying in Merman's no-holds-barred performance. Sony has just re-released the cast album, but in truth it has never been out of the catalog since it was released in the summer of 1959.

Despite the solid reviews, and the Merman name on the marquee, GYPSY was not a box office blockbuster. It was a hit, it ran 702 performances and enjoyed a successful tour, but it did not perform as well other shows with similar star power and critical endorsements. The Tony voters preferred the family friendly THE SOUND OF MUSIC over the steamrollering Madame Rose of Ethel Merman in GYPSY.

But the show keeps coming back. Rose is the King Lear of musical theatre and many celebrated actresses covet the role. Still, GYPSY marked the end of an era. When Rose pauses to take one forlorn look over the stage before her final exit, it might as well have been Merman giving a silent goodbye to Broadway. Not completely as she came back for the revival of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN and to take over the lead in HELLO DOLLY for the final months of its run, but GYPSY was her last original role and her best. It was also Jule Styne's best score, and Arthur Laurents' best book for a musical.

So play the cast album today and return to time when Broadway was at the crossroads.

This reissue is essentially the 1999 re-release with a few extra bonus tracks. For that edition, Thomas Sheppard examined the master tapes and restored some material that had been edited out for the original Lp release. The most interesting addition is the restoration of the "Dressy Tessie Tura/Do Something Special" verse in "You Gotta Get a Gimmick." There is also a few extra bars of strip music in "Let Me entertain You" and an alternate take is used for "All I Need is the Girl" so we can hear Louise's giggling response to Tulsa's routine. Otherwise it is essentially the historic cast album we all know and love.

Ethel Merman will always rule as everybody's favorite stage Mama!
I wasn't alive when Ethel Merman played Mother Rose to Gypsy and her sister Baby June but I imagine that she probably gave the definitive performance. This musical is quite sad about the definitive stage mother who pushes her daughter into the striptease world as Gypsy Rose Lee. It's based on a true story and truth is always stranger than fiction. Really, it's Mama Rose that wants stardom. Her daughters don't seem content but they do it to please her. I have to say that I only saw Gypsy with Tyne Daly in 1991 and she did a decent job. I would have liked to have seen Bernadette Peters but I wasn't too crazy about the latest Mama Rose played by Patti LuPone from what I saw on stage at the Tony Awards. Everybody who plays Mama Rose will be compared to the original Ethel Merman. She had the voice and presence onstage. The supporting cast is equally brilliant but Gypsy is not one of my favorite musicals but Ethel Merman delivers and her voice just booms from this compact disc.