I was very disappointed in Gypsy. I went into the film expecting at least slightly interesting characters and a decent plot line, but that is definitely not what I got. The film is watchable and the last 15 minutes or so are decent, but that's about it.
This is a musical based on the life of real life burlesque queen, Gypsy Rose Lee. The majority of the film takes place in Gypsy's childhood, when she went by Louise. Louise is part of her mother's vaudeville act starring her sister, Baby June. Louise is just background noise for now. Louise's mother, Rose (Rosalind Russell), is the typical stage mother, pushing her daughters hard and not listening to anything anyone else has to say.
On an audition for an act in Hollywood, Rose meets Herbie (Karl Malden). At the time it doesn't seem important, but when the two of them meet again by accident in Oregon, something starts to brew. He offers to drive her and her children up to her father's house in Seattle on his way to Chicago.
While on the road, Herbie becomes quite attached to Rose, June, and Louise, and promises to book them an act in Chicago at the Weber Theatre. It's not long before a telegram comes from Herbie, informing them they're booked and on their way to the big time. All they have to do is get some boys in the show, which they do.
Once in Chicago, the Baby June show really takes off. They're booking vaudeville circuits weekly all over the country. The success continues for several years, but then the Depression hits, and people aren't interested in vaudeville anymore. The shows are becoming less frequent, and the venues less prestigious.
June is getting fed up with playing the same role night after night, and wants to pursue other activities, so she runs off and gets married. The boys are aware that vaudeville is dead, and leave to pursue other interests. The only people left with Rose are Louise and Herbie, who knows vaudeville is dead, but is too in love with Rose to leave her.
Article comments
1 - ostrova
"The music is mediocre at best and there's maybe one song with a slightly catchy tune. The rest you won't remember right after they're done singing it."
Which is why those revivals, they jes' keep rollin' along. BTW, that's a quote from a musical called "Showboat". I get the impression you might want to study up on your Broadway musical history a bit if you want to be taken seriously as a critic, dude. This show has been revived, in New York and London, with Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, and Bernadette Peters as Mama Rose (which is the lead BTW, even if it isn't the title role), and Patti LuPone is in this year's NYC revival. Bette Midler also made her own version for TV.
I'm wondering which songs you find "forgetable". Could they be "Everything's Coming Up Roses"? "Some People? "You Gotta Get a Gimmick"? "Let Me Entertain You"? Songs most people call, oh, what's the word, "famous". Yeah, that's it. BTW, Sondheim wrote the lyrics but Jule Styne wrote the music. If you were bummed because you were expecting something along the lines of "Company" or "Sunday in the Park With George", well, this isn't it. This is what he did before that, when he was still just a lyricist (professionally speaking) and new shows opened all the time and got made into movies with movie stars in the star parts, whether or not they could do them justice.
This is what happened here. Ethel Merman didn't get to make movie versions of her Broadway shows (ex. "Call Me Madam"). Rosalind Russell is a crummy Mama Rose. Just as Betty Hutton was a terrible Annie Oakley, hamming and yelling her way through "Annie Get Your Gun" which was another Ethel show. (You can look it up, dude.)
I appreciate that you recommend stuff around the office, but, ummm, what do your co-workers say after they rent the videos?
The only way I'd recommend Gypsy is if you live for Stephen Sondheim musicals. If not, then do yourself a favor and skip it.
2 - Brian
What was meant in my review is that in the film version with Rosalind Russell performing the songs it makes them forgetable. If they were to have someone who could bring some life to the performance than I'm sure they would stand out a lot more. For example, everyone knows and loves the song "House of the Rising Sun" as performed by the Animals, but does anyone remember it as performed by Dolly Parton? No because it just wasn't nearly as good. I know that's a completely different medium but the point remains the same. I didn't explain this in my review because the point of the review is to tell people whether or not it's worth seeing. Oh, and the songs I said were forgetable were every one of them except for "Let Me Entertain You."
3 - Brian
Oh and one more thing, when I said most useless Sondheim musical, it meant most useless Sondheim musical brought to a screen adaptation
4 - gina gatewood
cant belive you didnt like it lots of great tunes and evething coming up roses is great . song so is evrthing but the girl they flowed with the movie ,