Gypsy

Cast

Act One

Act Two

Additional Musical Numbers Lists

These song lists document any changes that the production went through aside from the opening night song list.

• Philadelphia Song List (4/13/1959)

During the summer of 1960, the production shut down for five weeks. When it reopened on August 15, having moved from the Broadway to the Imperial, the Christmas sequence at Minsky's had been downsized. Originally, there had been seven showgirls in the sequence, on an enormous Christmas tree unit, along with all six of the actresses who played the Hollywood Blondes, and also with Faith Dane, who played Mazeppa, and possibly Chotzi Foley, who played Electra.

This sequence had caused much contention among the creative team before the opening. After the opening, discussions continued for months, and those discussions got testy. At one point, co-producer Leland Hayward, who seems to have been the person pushing the issue (at least in the letters that survive), asked Robbins if it would be OK for Danny Daniels to come in and try to redo the sequence. Hayward even suggested that he might try to fix it himself, to which Robbins, unsurprisingly, responded, "No other choreographer or director will touch this show." That letter from Robbins to Hayward was dated Oct. 5, 1959.

Discussions continued into January, focusing on a new costume for Gypsy (Robbins's idea), with Hayward responding that costume designer Raoul Pene duBois was in Europe and unavailable to design a new costume. 

In any case, after the break and the move, the sequence was trimmed down. It's not altogether clear if the Hollywood Blondes were still part of it, but the playbill listed only four showgirls, one of whom was Faith Dane, who had always been in the sequence but had not been listed in the playbill as one of the showgirls. The Hollywood Blondes were also never listed as among the showgirls.

Also perhaps in an attempt to cut down on expenses, at some point (perhaps starting only after the move), the actress playing Electra doubled as the Maid in the backstage scene at Minsky's.

Main Run

• Broadway Theatre (New York, NY)
  May 21, 1959 - July 9, 1960
• Imperial Theatre (New York, NY)
  August 15, 1960 - March 25, 1961 [On layoff December 19-24, 1960.]

Tryout

• Shubert Theatre (Philadelphia, PA)
  April 13, 1959 - May 16, 1959

Commercial Recordings

• Original Broadway Cast (May 24, 1959)
  Karen Moore (i) , Jacqueline Mayro , Ethel Merman , Stephen Sondheim , Bobby Brownell

Private Recordings

• Original Broadway Production, Closing Cast (March 25, 1961)
  Ethel Merman , Jack Klugman , Paul Wallace , Julienne Marie , Merle Letowt

Broadcast Recordings

• No broadcast audio listed yet.

Archival Recordings

• No archival audio listed yet.

Commercial Recordings

• No commercial video listed yet.

Private Recordings

• Original Cast (1959)
  Mort Marshall , Willy Sumner , John Borden , Jody Lane , Karen Moore (i)

Broadcast Recordings

• No broadcast video listed yet.

Archival Recordings

• No archival video listed yet.