Gypsy (1993 film)
Encyclopedia
Gypsy is a 1993 musical
television film directed by Emile Ardolino
. The teleplay by Arthur Laurents
is an adaptation of his book
of the 1959 stage musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable
, which was based on Gypsy: A Memoir
by Gypsy Rose Lee
.
The film features a score with music
by Jule Styne
and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
, and reuses the original orchestrations by Sid Ramin
and Robert Ginzler
. The musical numbers were choreographed by Jerome Robbins
, who directed and choreographed the original Broadway
production. Bob Mackie
designed the costumes.
The film was broadcast by CBS
on December 12, 1993 and then released in theaters in foreign markets. It was released on videotape
and laserdisc
by RHI Entertainment
in 1994 and on DVD by Pioneer Entertainment in 2000 and Lionsgate Home Entertainment
in 2005.
headliner, willful, resourceful, domineering stage mother
Rose Hovick
(Bette Midler
) will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. She drags June and her shy, awkward, and decidedly less-talented older sister, Louise (Cynthia Gibb
), around the country in an effort to get them noticed, and with the assistance of agent Herbie Sommers (Peter Riegert
), she manages to secure them bookings on the prestigious Orpheum Circuit.
Years pass, and the girls no longer are young enough to pull off the childlike persona
e their mother insists they continue to project. June rebels and elopes with Tulsa (Jeffrey Broadhurst), 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
s, which leads to a decline in the demand for stage entertainment. With bookings scarce, mother and daughter find themselves in Wichita, Kansas
, where the owner of a third-rate burlesque
house offers Louise a job.
When one of the strippers is arrested for shoplifting, 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 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.
The film was nominated for twelve Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie
and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for Midler, and won for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction (Michael Rafter).
Emile Ardolino was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Specials.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
television film directed by Emile Ardolino
Emile Ardolino
Emile Ardolino was an American film director, choreographer, and producer, best known for his films Dirty Dancing and Sister Act .-Biography:...
. The teleplay by Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents was an American playwright, stage director and screenwriter.After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S...
is an adaptation of his book
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
of the 1959 stage musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable
Gypsy: A Musical Fable
Gypsy is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Gypsy is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, and focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business...
, which was based on Gypsy: A Memoir
Gypsy: A Memoir
Gypsy: A Memoir is a 1957 book written by striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, which inspired the Broadway musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable.The first edition was published by Harper in 1957. It is now available in a 1999 paperback reprint....
by Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.-Early life:...
.
The film features a score with music
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
by Jule Styne
Jule Styne
Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...
and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
, and reuses the original orchestrations by Sid Ramin
Sid Ramin
Sidney Norton Ramin is an American orchestrator, arranger, and composer.- Personal life :The son of Ezra Ramin, a window trimmer, and Beatrice D. Ramin, he was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 22, with various sources indicating either a birth year of 1919 or 1924. Ramin married Gloria...
and Robert Ginzler
Robert Ginzler
Robert “Red” Ginzler was an influential American orchestrator,principally remembered for his contributions to the landmark Broadway...
. The musical numbers were choreographed by Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally directed films and directed/produced for television. His work has included everything from classical ballet to contemporary musical theater...
, who directed and choreographed the original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production. Bob Mackie
Bob Mackie
Robert Gordon Mackie is an American fashion designer, best known for his costuming for entertainment icons such as Judy Garland, Cher, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, Tina Turner, and Mitzi Gaynor...
designed the costumes.
The film was broadcast by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
on December 12, 1993 and then released in theaters in foreign markets. It was released on videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
and laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
by RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....
in 1994 and on DVD by Pioneer Entertainment in 2000 and Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD distribution arm of Lions Gate Entertainment and most former Artisan Entertainment releases. Its library of more than 8000 films owes some of its size to output deals with other studios...
in 2005.
Plot
Determined to make her young, blonde, and beautiful daughter, June (Jennifer Rae Beck), a vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
headliner, willful, resourceful, domineering stage mother
Stage mother
In the performing arts, a stage mother is a term for the mother of a child actor. The mother will often drive her child to auditions, make sure he or she is on the set on time, etc...
Rose Hovick
Rose Thompson Hovick
Rose Elizabeth Thompson Hovick was the mother of two famous performing daughters: burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee and actress June Havoc.-Life and career:...
(Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
) will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. She drags June and her shy, awkward, and decidedly less-talented older sister, Louise (Cynthia Gibb
Cynthia Gibb
Cynthia Gibb is an American actress and former model who has starred in film and on television. She is 5'-2" tall.-Biography:...
), around the country in an effort to get them noticed, and with the assistance of agent Herbie Sommers (Peter Riegert
Peter Riegert
Peter Riegert is an American actor, screenwriter, and film director, best known for his role as Boon from Animal House and crooked New Jersey State Assemblyman Ronald Zellman on the HBO original series The Sopranos.-Early life:...
), she manages to secure them bookings on the prestigious Orpheum Circuit.
Years pass, and the girls no longer are young enough to pull off the childlike persona
Persona
A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...
e their mother insists they continue to project. June rebels and elopes with Tulsa (Jeffrey Broadhurst), 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
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with 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, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
s, which leads to a decline in the demand for stage entertainment. With bookings scarce, mother and daughter find themselves in Wichita, Kansas
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
, where the owner of a third-rate burlesque
Burlesque
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 shoplifting, 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 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
- Bette MidlerBette MidlerBette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
as Mama Rose HovickRose Thompson HovickRose Elizabeth Thompson Hovick was the mother of two famous performing daughters: burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee and actress June Havoc.-Life and career:... - Peter RiegertPeter RiegertPeter Riegert is an American actor, screenwriter, and film director, best known for his role as Boon from Animal House and crooked New Jersey State Assemblyman Ronald Zellman on the HBO original series The Sopranos.-Early life:...
as Herbie Sommers - Cynthia GibbCynthia GibbCynthia Gibb is an American actress and former model who has starred in film and on television. She is 5'-2" tall.-Biography:...
as Louise HovickGypsy Rose LeeGypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.-Early life:... - Jennifer Rae Beck as June Hovick
- Edward Asner as Pop
- Christine EbersoleChristine EbersoleChristine Ebersole is an American actress and singer.-Early life:Ebersole was born in Winnetka, Illinois, where she attended New Trier High School...
as Tessie Tura - Michael JeterMichael JeterMichael Jeter was an American actor.- Early life :Michael Jeter was born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. His mother, Virginia , was a housewife...
as Mr. Goldstone - Andrea MartinAndrea MartinAndrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress and comedienne. She has appeared in films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on stage in productions such as My Favorite Year, Fiddler on the Roof and Candide, and in the television series, SCTV.-Personal life:Martin, the oldest of three...
as Miss Cratchitt - Linda HartLinda HartLinda Hart is an American singer, musician, and actress, mainly appearing in musical theatre.- Biography :As a child, Hart sang in her church choir; at age seven, she joined her father and the rest of the family in The Harts, a weekly gospel television series. Hart attended Los Angeles City...
as Miss Mazeppa - Anna McNeely as Miss Electra
- Jeffrey Broadhurst as Tulsa
- Tony ShalhoubTony ShalhoubAnthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk...
as Uncle Jocko - Keene CurtisKeene CurtisKeene Holbrook Curtis was an American character actor.-Film career:Curtis made his film debut in the 1948 Orson Welles adaptation of Macbeth...
as Mr. Kringelien - Lacey ChabertLacey ChabertLacey Nicole Chabert is an American actress and voice actress, known for her roles as Claudia Salinger in the television drama Party of Five and as Gretchen Wieners in the movie Mean Girls...
as Baby June - Elisabeth MossElisabeth MossElisabeth Singleton Moss is an American actor. Her notable roles include that of Zoey Bartlet, the third and youngest daughter of President Jed Bartlet, on the NBC television series The West Wing , and secretary turned copywriter Peggy Olson on the AMC original series Mad Men .-Early life and...
as Baby Louise - Spencer Liff as Clarence
Musical numbers
- "Some People" - Rose
- "Small World" - Rose and Herbie
- "Baby June and Her Newsboys" - Baby June, Baby Louise, and Chorus
- "Mr. Goldstone" - Rose, Herbie, and Chorus
- "Little Lamb" - Louise
- "You'll Never Get Away from Me" - Rose and Herbie
- "Dainty June and Her Farmboys" - June, Louise, and Chorus
- "If Momma Was Married" - June and Louise
- "All I Need is the Girl" - Tulsa
- "Everything's Coming Up Roses" - Rose
- "Together, Wherever We Go" - Rose, Herbie, and Louise
- "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" - Tessie Tura, Miss Mazeppa, and Miss Electra
- "Small World (reprise)" - Rose
- "Let Me Entertain You" - Louise
- "Rose's Turn" - Rose
Awards and nominations
Midler won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. Gibb was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and the production was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film.The film was nominated for twelve Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie
This is a list of the winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, which is awarded since 1992. The category was originally called Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special.-1980s:*1980: The Miracle Worker...
and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for Midler, and won for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction (Michael Rafter).
Emile Ardolino was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Specials.