Darlings, Do You Know What Opened On Broadway 60 Years Ago Last Night????????????????

                                    Sixty years ago, last night--sixty!!!!!!!!!!!--"Gypsy," the original production with Ethel Merman, opened at the Broadway Theatre.  You know what is playing there now, girls?????  "King Kong!"  How low has musical theater sunk???????????????

                                     This human Christmas Tree at Minsky's is my favorite image in the show, and was only used in the original. How I wish some production would reinstate it.  You see, what Jerome Robbins wanted, with "Gypsy," would that it would be a series of vignettes turned out as a concept musical, celebrating the history of the American variety stage.  How Rose and her daughters would have figured in this would have been fascinating to see.  Instead, the show ended up as a routine book musical, but one of the best.

                                      So, I include the Christmas tree, but cannot go without mentioning Merman.  Though Patti Lu Pone, whom I saw twice, gave Merman a run for her money, Merman is still the gold standard when it comes to this show.

                                        I think it is fit to honor "Gypsy" with one of Merman's renderings!

                                        Here is Merman in the dressing room scene, and "Rose's Turn."  Those who say she was not being an actress here...……..well, what do they know?  Those others who played  Rose would never have gotten the opportunity, had it not been for Ethel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         "Hold your hats, and hallelujah!  Mama's gonna show it to ya!"