''Gypsy'' is a 1993 American

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

comedy-drama film Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, illness, betrayal, grief, etc. ...

directed by

Emile Ardolino Emile Ardolino (May 9, 1943 – November 20, 1993) was an American television and film director and producer, best known for his work on the films ''Dirty Dancing'' (1987) and ''Sister Act'' (1992). He won an Academy Award for Best Documentary F ...

. The teleplay by

Arthur Laurents Arthur Laurents (July 14, 1917 – May 5, 2011) was an American playwright, theatre director, film producer and screenwriter. With a career spanning seven decades he received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, ...

is an adaptation of his

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

of the 1959 stage musical ''

Gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

'', which was based on the 1957 autobiography '' Gypsy: A Memoir'' by Gypsy Rose Lee. Gypsy Rose Lee's son, Erik Lee Preminger, was instrumental in getting the film in production and was the main source for research. He had tried to get the musical filmed with

Bette Midler Bette Midler ( ;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her five-decade career Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Bette Midler, numero ...

, who had always wanted to play Rose, in the principal role 10 years earlier, but it required the approval of five entities to obtain the rights. One of the obstacles had been

himself, who wrote the book for the musical based on Lee's memoirs. He had hated the 1962 film version and was initially opposed to a remake.Marilyn Beck (13 Mar 1993) "Preminger Gives Bare Facts for Film on Stripper Mom",'' Orange County Register'', p. K02 "Not for all the money in the world will we let them make another film version of ''Gypsy''," he had said. The film was originally broadcast by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

on December 12, 1993, and then released in theaters in foreign markets. It has been released on home video multiple times.

Plot

Determined to make her young, blonde, and beautiful daughter, June, a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

headliner, willful, resourceful, domineering stage mother Rose Hovick will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. She drags June and her shy, awkward, and decidedly less-talented older sister, Louise, around the country in an effort to get them noticed, and with the assistance of agent Herbie Sommers, she manages to secure them bookings on the prestigious

Orpheum Circuit The Orpheum Circuit was a chain of vaudeville and movie theaters. It was founded in 1886, and operated through 1927 when it was merged into the Keith-Albee-Orpheum corporation, ultimately becoming part of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) corporatio ...

. Years pass, and the girls no longer are young enough to pull off the childlike

persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...

e their mother insists they continue to project. June rebels, and elopes with Tulsa, one of the dancers who backs the act. Devastated by what she considers an act of betrayal, Rose pours all her energies into making a success of Louise, despite the young woman's obvious lack of singing and dancing skills. Not helping matters is the increasing popularity of

sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...

s, which leads to a decline in the demand for stage entertainment. With bookings scarce, mother and daughter find themselves in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...

, where the owner of a third-rate

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

house offers Louise a job. When one of the strippers is arrested for soliciting, Louise unwillingly becomes her replacement. At first, her voice is shaky, and her moves tentative at best, but as audiences respond to her, she begins to gain confidence in herself. She blossoms as an entertainer billed as Gypsy Rose Lee, and eventually reaches a point where she tires of her mother's constant interference in both her life and wildly successful career. Louise confronts Rose and demands she leave her alone. Finally, aware that she has spent her life enslaved by a desperate need to be noticed, an angry, bitter, and bewildered Rose stumbles onto the empty stage of the deserted theater and experiences a moment of truth that leads to an emotional breakdown followed by a reconciliation with Louise.

Cast

Musical numbers

# " Let Me Entertain You" - Baby June, Baby Louise # "Some People" - Rose # "Small World" - Rose and Herbie # "Baby June and Her Newsboys" - Baby June, Baby Louise, Chorus # "Mr. Goldstone" - Rose, Herbie, Chorus # "Little Lamb" - Louise # "You'll Never Get Away from Me" - Rose, Herbie # "Dainty June and Her Farmboys" - June, Louise, Chorus # "If Momma Was Married" - June, Louise # "All I Need is the Girl" - Tulsa # "

Everything's Coming Up Roses "Everything's Coming Up Roses" is a song with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, written initially for the 1959 Broadway musical ''Gypsy.'' Introduced in the show's inaugural production by Ethel Merman, "Everything's Coming Up Ro ...

" - Rose # " Together (Wherever We Go)" - Rose, Herbie, Louise # " You Gotta Get a Gimmick" - Tessie Tura, Miss Mazeppa, Miss Electra # "Small World" (reprise) - Rose # "Let Me Entertain You" - Louise # " Rose's Turn" - Rose

Soundtrack

The film features a score with music by

Jule Styne Jule Styne ( ; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer widely known for a series of Broadway theatre, Broadway musical theatre, musicals, including several famous frequ ...

and lyrics by

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received Lis ...

, and reuses the original orchestrations by

Sid Ramin Sidney Nathan RaminGates, Anita ''The New York Times'', July 5, 2019. Accessed April 15, 2020. (January 22, 1919 – July 1, 2019) was an American orchestrator, arranger, and composer. Life Sidney Nathan Ramin (or Sidney Norton Ramin), born in ...

and Robert Ginzler. The musical numbers were choreographed by

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

, who directed and choreographed the original Broadway production. Bob Mackie designed the costumes.

Critical reception

Jule Styne said "I'm so excited. I just watched a tape of the movie and I cried. It is the most outstanding singing and acting performance I've seen on the screen within memory." Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote "Ms. Midler the toughest and brassiest Mama Rose ever... Most everything comes up roses here all right." Jennifer Stevenson wrote "Probably the best movie of the television year..." Barbara Jaeger wrote "Midler deserves both an Emmy and a Grammy." "Midler was sensational as Mama Rose in the recent TV version of ''Gypsy''," wrote ''

The Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. On January 29, 2020, th ...

''. ''

The Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily Non-profit journalism, nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation am ...

'' wrote "Midler has the perfect blend of energy and maturity to portray vaudeville's ultimate stage mother. But the guiding force behind the new, sparkling ''Gypsy'' comes from the perceptive and reverent direction of Oscar winner Emile Ardolino, who artfully preserves the spirit of a stage play within the confines of television." In another article, the publication wrote "Bette Midler's star turn in CBS' ''Gypsy'' not only brought the TV musical back from the dead, but it also helped the network win another ratings season."

Nielsen ratings

The film received an 18.6/28 household rating/share, ranking 4th out of 90 programs that week, and was watched by 26.2 million viewers.

Awards and nominations

Home video

It was released on

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...

and

laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

by RHI Entertainment in 1994 and on DVD by Pioneer Entertainment in 2000 and

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Lionsgate Studios Corp. (simply known as Lionsgate Studios) is a Canadian-American film and television production and distribution conglomerate, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and primarily based in Santa Monica, California. It was f ...

in 2005. In recent years, the film has also been released to several digital download and streaming outlets such as Amazon and iTunes. On March 12, 2013, after several years of unavailability, Mill Creek Entertainment reissued the film on DVD in a double-feature set with the 2001 television remake of '' South Pacific''.

References

External links

* * * (1993) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gypsy 1990s biographical films 1990s musical comedy-drama films 1993 television films 1993 films CBS films American biographical films American musical comedy-drama films 1990s French-language films Films directed by Emile Ardolino Films about entertainers Films based on biographies Films based on musicals Films based on works by Stephen Sondheim Films shot in Los Angeles Films about striptease American musical television films Musical films based on actual events American drama television films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language musical comedy-drama films English-language biographical films 1993 musical films