What did those poor wrens ever do to you? *
Stephen Sondheim:
Boxing Day is also known as St Stephen's Day or *Wren Day.
Showing posts with label Gypsy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gypsy. Show all posts
Friday, 26 December 2025
Sunday, 6 October 2024
Of hedgehogs, Schubert and Summer
After a flurry of activity in the garden yesterday in the sunshine, today's a much slower affair. It's gloomy and mizzly out there so gardening wouldn't be an option, and I had a verrrry long lie-in without missing anything much.
By way of some unusual "Sunday music" to match the mood, how about one of the quirkiest of bands that I stumbled across on radio recently?
From their own blurb:
Zum Roten Igel (which translates as "The Red Hedgehog") was the 19th century tavern in Vienna where Brahms, and before him, Schubert, would go to drink and smoke and make merry with their friends. They also heard the gypsies play there, and some of this music found its way into their writing. The band ZRI play uniquely re-imagined versions of [the classics], re-scored for a folk ensemble of its time.
You can imagine why I was intrigued...
It doesn't stop there, however - try this!
Faboo stuff.
Sunday, 19 March 2023
Mama's Day!
On this Mothering Sunday, I thought nothing less than a triple-bill of tributes would do!
Of course, here at Dolores Delargo Towers, we do like our tributes to come with a twist...
Have a great day, all you mothers out there!
Monday, 29 November 2021
Sondheim of the Day - Gypsy
Probably one of my favourite musicals of all time, the semi-autobiographical tale of a timid Vaudeville-player-turned-stripping-superstar and her domineering mother, Gypsy was an extremely unlikely storyline for a musical way back in 1959 [hardly the most enlightened of times] - yet, with its book (loosely based on Gypsy Rose Lee's salacious memoirs) by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and the imperious presence of the musical sensation Ethel Merman as its "Mama Rose", it was a huge success.
In a mirror of the plot of overbearing stage mother trying to dominate her children and live her dreams of stardom vicariously through them, it was in fact Miss Merman who pushed the show to be produced in the first place - yet, however, to her eternal chagrin she lost out to Rosalind Russell when it came to casting the film adaptation!
I love Gypsy because of its brash campery, and its plethora of end-of-the-evening arm-stretch-gesturing belt-em-out numbers - and so, Curtain up! Light the lights! Let's start with an unbeatable one:
[Love this - but I'm also rather fond of the Angela Lansbury version]Needless to say, "our gang" went along en masse to see the 2015 West End revival, starring Imelda Staunton, which was utterly phenomenal! - read more about that here.
Fab-u-lous!
RIP, Stephen Joshua Sondheim (22nd March 1930 – 26th November 2021)
[One of a series of tributes I will be posting to Mr Sondheim this week.]
Previous "Sondheim of the Day" entries:
Sunday, 22 March 2020
Mama's got the stuff!
It's a very odd Mothers' Day (Mothering Sunday) here in the UK, what with the current "Self-Isolation Society", and all. My sister and I (and Crog and Madame Acarti) were all supposed to be travelling down to visit her yesterday, but that was off for obvious reasons. However we're keeping in touch as best we can - we're even trying to get her on video-conferencing, which might help; I sent her a nice bouquet which she really loved, and it is gloriously sunny so she can - as have we all day - keep occupied pottering in the garden...
...it also happens to be the 90th birthday today of the most prominent and influential man in musical theatre (and Patron Saint here at Dolores Delargo Towers), Mr Stephen Joshua Sondheim, so let's combine the two things in an appropriate manner, methinks:
To all mothers out there, we salute you!
Sondheim website
Saturday, 11 April 2015
Ya either got it, or ya ain't. And, boys, I got it!
Imelda Staunton has become the “go to” person to tackle larger-than-life characters on stage. If you thought her award-winning turn as Sweeney Todd’s Mrs Lovett was a knock-out then wait until you see her in her Stephen Sondheim follow-up, Gypsy. - Anne Cox, Stage ReviewIt was indeed a stunning performance, and altogether a stunning show - as our gang (me, Madam Arcati, Sal, Hils, Crog, Russ, Joe and Jim) found to our great joy when we turned up en masse at that glittering Art Deco masterpiece the Savoy Theatre last night.
Gypsy is one of Stephen Sondheim's most celebrated classics, with music by Jule Styne and book by Athur Laurents, and is indeed our #1 house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers. Unsurprising, really - it has been described by many an aficionado as "the greatest ever American musical" - Sondheim actually wrote it for our Great Earth Mother Ethel Merman, and it is one of the most archly camp of Mr S's works. Its last appearance here in London was 42 years ago, coincidentally also providing the star vehicle for the last West End appearance of that other musical icon of ours Dame Angela Lansbury, prior to her reappearance last year in Blithe Spirit.
The buzz about the show's long-overdue revival has been going on for years, but finally the Great Man's seal of approval is all over this production from Chichester Festival Theatre (a powerhouse of British theatrical successes, alongside our beloved Menier Chocolate Factory), directed by Jonathan Kent and choreographed by Stephen Mear. Indeed, the saintly Sondheim himself went backstage during the recent similarly triumphal revival of his Sweeney Todd and decreed that Imelda Staunton should play Rose. “From that moment,” she said, his suggestion “has been hanging over me like a commandment”.
Reluctantly "commanded" or not, Miss Staunton takes the role of "Madame Rose" and makes it her own. It takes all the skills of an Oscar-nominated actress such as she to really capture all the complexities of this "Gorgon", the "showbiz mother-from-hell", a complex blend of fragile damaged child (abandoned by her own mother), frustratedly ambitious showgirl and psychotic control-freak (with an apparent inability to form emotional bonds, even with her own children).
The part of "Rose" is notoriously challenging for any performer, not least one whose full-time career is not entirely musical - but we were totally and utterly blown away by just how brilliant Miss Staunton's singing abilities are. From sweet (Small World, You'll Never Get Away From Me) to brassy (Some People) to simply hilarious (Mr Goldstone), she was convincing and confident at every turn.
Wringing every sinister emotion out of the scene where Rose's vicarious ambitions turn from the recently-departed June to (the openly terrified) Louise, her Everything's Coming Up Roses was not so much an uplifting number celebrating triumph over adversity as a demonic threat against a child completely under Mother's thrall. The big, big number of the show - Rose's Turn - was similarly transformed from what in other hands might come close to a bitchily defiant "striptease-pastiche" into a frankly terrifying manifestation of a woman who is cracking up in the face of complete defeat.
Sheer perfection.
Of course, Gypsy is more than merely the "Momma Rose Story" - so, what of the rest of the show? Well, the casting director needs some congratulation here, too. The whole ensemble is top-notch, from the remarkably-talented children - especially "Baby June" (who (I think) was played in our showing by Isla Huggins-Blair; there are two child actors credited per role, for obvious reasons) and the "Newsboys" - to the surprisingly good (for a non-singer) Peter Davison as "Herbie" and the cute Dan Burton as "Tulsa".
Special mention must go to Louise Gold ("Mazeppa"), Anita Louise Combe ("Tessie Tura") and Julie Legrand ("Electra"), the three rough-as-rats faded strippers whose show-stopper You Gotta Get A Gimmick convinces "Louise" to emerge from her shell, who were utterly fantabulosa in the campest number of the whole show. It was hilarious - and we had a bit of a "Mexican
Lara Pulver is sublime as the neglected, second-rate, lonely "Louise", whose transformation from "ugly duckling" to the most successful burlesque artiste in history Miss Gypsy Rose Lee is the raison d'etre of the story - based as it is upon the real-life lady's memoirs. She really encapsulated "Louise/Gypsy"'s palpable relief at escaping Momma's shadow (as expressed so well in her duet with the "grown-up June" Gemma Sutton on If Momma Was Married), and her self-discovery through stripping... Let Me Entertain You? She certainly did!
We all left utterly drained and exhausted with the joy and emotion of it all - always a sign of a good show. I can go one better than "good", however. I have not enjoyed a musical as much as this one in absolute ages - it is MAGNIFICENT.
The trailer (footage from its Chichester run) doesn't begin to do it justice:
Gypsy is at the Savoy Theatre "for a strictly limited season".
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Blow a kiss. Take a bow.
Today is the 87th birthday of a truly wonderful icon - an inspiration for showbiz queens everywhere, Miss Angela Brigid Lansbury!
Quite rightly, we have Miss Lansbury in the top row of our pantheon of patron saints, and I have paid tribute to the lady on many occasions before - and will do again, no doubt.
Complementing her screen roles/vocal characterisation in Gaslight, The Manchurian Candidate, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Beauty and the Beast and of course Murder She Wrote, Miss Lansbury is THE star of Broadway - Gypsy, Mame, Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music being her triumphs. We love her, and hope her much-anticipated "final" West End stage appearance does indeed take place, so we can finally see the grande dame in the flesh...
Here she is in glittering form, performing her show-stopper Mame at the 1975 Tony awards:
Here, she tackles one of our eternal theme tunes here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Everything's Coming Up Roses:
...and after that, it's time for some gentle exercise:
I'm exhausted! Yet she's 87!
Angela Lansbury on Wikipedia
Monday, 28 November 2011
Most sensational, inspirational, celebrational
Partly to mark the centenary yesterday of the late, great producer David Merrick, the man who brought such classics as Gypsy and Hello Dolly into existence in the 1950s and 60s, and partly just because it is another Tacky Music Monday and we all need cheering up...
...here's darling Liza, hamming it up on The Muppet Show, culminating with a fab version of one of Gypsy's greatest numbers - Everything's Coming Up Roses!
Hope your week's a good one...
...here's darling Liza, hamming it up on The Muppet Show, culminating with a fab version of one of Gypsy's greatest numbers - Everything's Coming Up Roses!
Hope your week's a good one...
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Let me make you smile
We are well overdue a visit to the movies here at Dolores Delargo Towers.
And who better to act as our usherette than the Tired Old Queen himself? In his latest review, the marvellous Steve Hayes (who I raved about in the Big Gay Musical) tackles one of my all-time favourite films (and favourite musicals), Gypsy!
Fantabulosa, sweetie!
And who better to act as our usherette than the Tired Old Queen himself? In his latest review, the marvellous Steve Hayes (who I raved about in the Big Gay Musical) tackles one of my all-time favourite films (and favourite musicals), Gypsy!
Fantabulosa, sweetie!
Friday, 6 May 2011
Let me entertain you
RIP another hero...
From the BBC:
Arthur Laurents, writer of such classic stage musicals as West Side Story and Gypsy, has died in New York aged 93.Over at Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp today, there is more on Mr Laurents - read my blog.
The director and screenwriter died at his Manhattan home from complications of pneumonia, his agent said.
Born in Brooklyn, the attorney's son began in radio and wrote military training films during World War II.
His screen credits include the Alfred Hitchcock film Rope, Barbra Streisand romance The Way We Were and 1977 ballet drama The Turning Point.
Laurents won a Tony award in 1968 as author of the book for the musical Hallelujah, Baby!, and another, in 1984, for directing La Cage aux Folles.
He remains best known for writing the books for West Side Story and Gypsy, hit Broadway shows that were later turned into movies.
As a little tribute to a great man, here are not one, not two, but three of Broadway's greats performing Let Me Entertain You from Gypsy!
Read the BBC article
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Come up and see me
Happy 60th birthday today to actress Ann Jillian. Who? I hear you ask...
Almost completely unknown on this side of the channel, Miss Jillian has been a long-running stalwart of daytime TV comedy in the US.
However, on investigation I found out that amongst her other achievements the lady was not only the original "Dainty June" in the Hollywood movie of house favourite musical Gypsy alongside Roz Russell and Natalie Wood, but she also received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of another of our patron saints here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Miss Mae West - and for that, we salute her!
Frankie and Johnny:
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
The biggest little headline in Vaudeville
Sad news of the death of June Havoc, who died on the weekend at the venerable age of 97. June who? you may ask...
Miss Havoc was better-known as "Baby June" during her vaudeville years as the the sister of Gypsy Rose Lee - the inspiration for one of the best musicals of all time, Gypsy. Unaffected by her sister's notoriety, she later went on to appear in a number of movies in the 1940s and 50s such as Four Jacks and a Jill, My Sister Eileen, and Gentleman's Agreement, and on Broadway in Pal Joey.
Here is Miss Havoc herself in a "well-known" role as The Girl With The Big Sombrero:
And here is the trailer for the original and particularly magnificent movie Gypsy:
June Havoc on IMDB
Friday, 27 February 2009
Some people ain't me
As it is a sunny Friday and everyone is looking forward to a good weekend ahead, here's a little inspirational number that really should get you motivated. It works for me...
Some people can get a thrill
knitting sweaters and sitting still.
That's okay for some people
who don't know they're alive.
Some people can thrive and bloom
living life in the living room.
That's perfect for some people
of one hundred and five.
But I at least gotta try
when I think of all the sights that I gotta see
and all the places I gotta play,
all the things that I gotta be at.
Come on, papa, what do you say?
Some people can be content
playing bingo and paying rent.
That's peachy for some people,
for some hum-drum people to be,
but some people ain't me!
Some people can get a thrill
knitting sweaters and sitting still.
That's okay for some people
who don't know they're alive.
Some people can thrive and bloom
living life in the living room.
That's perfect for some people
of one hundred and five.
But I at least gotta try
when I think of all the sights that I gotta see
and all the places I gotta play,
all the things that I gotta be at.
Come on, papa, what do you say?
Some people can be content
playing bingo and paying rent.
That's peachy for some people,
for some hum-drum people to be,
but some people ain't me!
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Three old broads
In these times of doom, gloom, cold weather and redundancy, I cheer myself up by delving into the world of showbiz. And what better way is there?
Here's a fabulous extract from The Royal Variety Show in 2001 that features three of the greatest showgirls ever to work together - Miss Babs Windsor, Miss Cilla Black and... Miss Lily Savage! Enjoy...
Here's a fabulous extract from The Royal Variety Show in 2001 that features three of the greatest showgirls ever to work together - Miss Babs Windsor, Miss Cilla Black and... Miss Lily Savage! Enjoy...
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