Gypsy, Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace.
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This 1959 masterpiece fuses a wisecracking but substantive script and unmatchably snappy songs into theater that’s both entertaining and psychologically probing, a refreshing reminder of how great a musical can be. Based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, it traces her development from vaudeville kiddie-show second banana to the classiest stripper in burlesque under the guidance–and the thumb–of her mother. Jule Styne’s bouncy melodies and Stephen Sondheim’s clever but never show-offy lyrics, full of references to dreams and roses, create an upbeat score, but the show’s power comes from the songs’ juxtaposition with Arthur Laurents’s economical, darkly funny script, whose subjects–family dysfunction and denial–give Gypsy relevance beyond its show-biz milieu.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Greg Kolack.
