Gypsy

A made-for-television retread of the 1962 Mervyn LeRoy/Rosalind Russell/Natalie Wood version of the Stephen Sondheim/Jule Styne/Arthur Laurents musical about Gypsy Rose Lee, the world's most famous stripper.

This version has a characteristically belting performance from Bette Midler as the mother of the essentially demure (well, at least according to Lee's autobiography) Gypsy Rose Lee (Cynthia Gibb), a role that was played by Ethel Merman in the original hit Broadway production which was choreographed by Jerome Robbins whose .

Stylistically, the film looks and plays out like it was made in the 1940s when musicals depicting the days of the vaudeville circuit were popular fare. Director Emile Ardolino, however, only manages to make it feel passé rather than imbue it with retro charm. More importantly, too much of the film is concerned with Gypsy Rose's lacklustre early days under her showbiz mother's tutelage, training which amounted to little more than doing the same act in different costumes for twenty years.

Despite the original talent involved Ardolino does nothing of interest with what is potentially comedic but in actuality repetitious, material and, bar Ms. Midler, the film unfolds largely devoid of pizzaz, only picking up in the last thirty minutes or so, by which time it is too little, too late. Gibb, who plays Gypsy with charm had some big screen exposure in the 1980s, her first role being as a teenage fan in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980) but she has since worked mainly in television.

 

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