With June gone, Rose has decided to make Louise a star. The problem is, she isn't talented. Rose, of course, won't accept this fact and is determined, so she hires a group of girls to back Louise and creates the vaudeville act, “Rose Louise and her Hollywood Blondes.” Herbie does everything he can to promote it, but the only gig he can get is at a burlesque house.
The show is a flop, but it pays. At the end of the run, Herbie and Rose are to be married - something Herbie has longed for years. As Rose and Louise are packing up to leave the burlesque, Rose overhears the owner complaining that he doesn't have a star stripper booked for the next two weeks. Rose is elated and rushes in, insisting Louise have the job. Louise must be a star, even if it is just burlesque. The men are desperate, so they agree.
Herbie is infuriated and he leaves Rose for good, but Louise won't leave her mother. She goes on stage as the classiest and most beautiful stripper you'll ever see. It is this act that leads to her famous career as Gypsy Rose Lee, queen of the burlesque.
The story is good enough, but director Mervyn LeRoy takes way too long to get you there. 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. They don't even give Natalie a scene to show off her acting prowess until near the end of the picture.
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.
Overall 1.5/4 Stars
Grade = C-
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 ,