Matt Howe, on his great website barbra-archives.com, provides us with the very latest on Barbra's new screen version of Gypsy:
Plot: Gypsy was a Broadway musical
(1959) with tunes by Jules Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by
Arthur Laurents. It originally starred Ethel Merman (pictured above,
center) as Rose.
The Advocate provides a great summation:
One of the great backstage musicals, Gypsy is based loosely
on the memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, but the focal character is
really her ambitious and often frustrated single mother. Mama Rose drags
her daughters, Louise and June, to any gig they can get, even as
vaudeville is dying in the 1920s. June, first as Baby June and then the
adolescent Dainty June, is the star attraction, but when she goes off
on her own (she eventually became a noted actress under the name June
Havoc), Rose puts Louise out front. As Gypsy Rose Lee, Louise goes on to
hit the heights of fame, accompanying her sexy dances with
unexpectedly intellectual patter. Rose is left to wonder, in words
written by Sondheim, “When is it my turn? Don’t I get a dream for
myself?”
Songs include the classics: “Let Me Entertain You,” “Small World,”
“Together Wherever We Go” and “Everything's Coming Up Roses.”
Gypsy has had several successful Broadway and London
stage revivals with Angela Lansbury (1974), Tyne Daly (1989), Bernadette
Peters (2003) and Patti LuPone (2008) all playing Rose.
Film History
Gypsy was made into a movie in 1962 with Rosalind
Russell as Rose, Natalie Wood as Louise, and Karl Malden as Herbie.
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, the film was photographed by Streisand's first
cinematographer, Harry Stradling. Malden, by the way, played
Streisand's father in the 1987 film,
Nuts.
Gypsy was filmed in 1993 as a made-for-television movie
with Bette Midler as Rose, Cynthia Gibb as Louise, and Peter Riegert as
Herbie. Directed by Emile Ardolino, this TV production adhered closely
to the Laurents book. [
Order the Midler Gypsy DVD from Amazon by clicking here.]
Streisand Film Version
In 1989, news began spreading of Streisand starring in a new film version of
Gypsy
with Madonna as Louise. The show's writers addressed it in the press.
After the 1962 film, “the show was dead in stock,” Jule Styne explained.
“It took almost 30 years to offset that lousy picture.” Writer Arthur
Laurents said, “Not for all the money in the world will we let them make
another film version of
Gypsy.”
Flash forward to January 2011. News broke (i.e.
leaked) that Warner Brothers and producer Joel Silver were developing a film version of the musical
Gypsy for Barbra Streisand, who would star as Mama Rose and also produce the film.
Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book for the original Broadway show
told the press that “now things are serious and a movie is truly in the
works.” Laurents even mentioned that Tom Hanks would be a great addition
to the cast as Herbie.
Laurents was not a fan of the 1962 film version starring Rosalind
Russell. Mr. Laurents said, “I would be very pleased if we had a
different film version for the historical record.”
As for Streisand being too old for the role (she turned 70 in
2012), Laurents told the New York Times, “First of all, they can do
magic in Hollywood. Second, does it really matter?”
Laurents, Stephen Sondheim (who wrote the show's lyrics) and the
estates of Jule Styne (music) and Jerome Robbins (original Broadway
director) had to approve a new film as they hold the rights to the
original Broadway production.
Meanwhile,
The King's Speech director, Tom Hooper, was
interested in directing Streisand as Rose. (He ended up directing the
film version of another Broadway musical,
Les Miserables.)
Two months later, after speaking with Sondheim about the project,
however, Laurents had changed his mind. Sondheim, Laurents told the
press, “told me something that he got from the British — and it's
wonderful. He said, 'You want a record because the theater is ephemeral.
But that's wrong. The theater's greatest essence is that it is
ephemeral. You don't need a record. The fact that it's ephemeral means
you can have different productions, different Roses on into infinity.' ”
Laurents, therefore, concluded, “So I don't want it now. I don't want a
definitive record. I want it to stay alive.”
A week or so after Laurents made it sound like the project was over, it was reported that Universal
was interested in the property. Then, sadly, Laurents died on May 5, 2011 at the age of 93.
In May 2011,
Gypsy film producer Joel Silver told the New York Times that Laurents gave his blessing (and his signature) to the film version of
Gypsy
before he died, calling for the film to be “substantially similar” to
the stage musical. “I last spoke to Arthur in April,” Silver said,
“brought him up to speed on everything, and then I think I surprised him
a little by asking him to make the movie with me. I felt that he
understood ‘Gypsy’ better than anyone, and that he understood Barbra,
since he cast her in her first big musical, ‘I Can Get It for You
Wholesale.’ And he said yes. We were talking about him coming out to
L.A. in May.”
“We just have to find our team and a writer,” Streisand told USA Today in August 2011.
Julian Fellowes was named as
Gypsy's screenwriter in March 2012. The press release from Universal Films read:
Producers Barbra Streisand and Joel Silver have
set Academy Award®-winning writer Julian Fellowes to pen the screenplay
adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ Tony Award winning
musical, Gypsy, which Ms. Streisand and Mr. Silver are currently
developing for Universal Pictures. Ms. Streisand will portray “Momma
Rose” in the new version
N.Y. Post's Page Six reported in October 2012 that producer “Silver’s been trying to put together financing for his version of
Gypsy
with Streisand starring as Momma Rose. We’ve heard Streisand won’t
fully commit unless Silver has the finances together, but backers are
reticent to fork over the funds unless Streisand is fully aboard.”
Vanity Fair's December 2012 story on Julian Fellowes
characterized his screenplay as “a big-screen reconceptualization of
Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’s
Gypsy.”
And Joel Stein's December 2012 story on Streisand contained this tantilizing sentence: “she told me she’s thinking of casting
Lady Gaga as the lead in her remake of
Gypsy.”
Streisand later recanted her statement about Gaga when she spoke
with Entertainment Weeky's Marc Malkin. She said she "got into trouble
for mentioning" Gaga and that "It was an idea."
If cast, Gaga would play Louise, who transforms during the movie into the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.
As for directing and starring in the picture, "I don't know if I
would direct it. I'm not sure about that," Barbra said to Marc Malkin.
Streisand told more to the press about her
Gypsy project in December 2012:
- She is “still working out one rights issue” before the movie
can move forward and that “it should happen, but it just takes forever.”
- “Age is just a number,” she told Entertainment Weekly about
being too old to play Rose. “Some people look old at 45. Some people
look younger at my age…. I saw CGI of an actor that made him go from
60 to 30, by the way. What they can do now, technically.”
"I hope it comes to fruition," Streisand said about
Gypsy.
"My will is weak but I can't stand anything. I sound crazy but I think
I'm going crazy," Monroe wrote on Hotel Bel-Air letterhead stationery.
"It's just that I get before a camera and my concentration and
everything I'm trying to learn leaves me. Then I feel like I'm not
existing in the human race at all."
CULVER CITY, CALIF. (March 25, 2013) – Legendary superstar Barbra Streisand demonstrates why she’s the greatest star in her Academy Award® winning role (Best Actress, 1968) as “Fanny Brice” in the celebrated musical biography FUNNY GIRL.
Commemorating its 45th anniversary, the classic film was meticulously
restored from the original negative by Sony Pictures Entertainment in
4K at Sony Pictures’ Colorworks and will screen at the 2013 TCM Classic
Film Festival on April 25th. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will
release FUNNY GIRL for the first time on Blu-ray April 30th, exclusively available at Amazon. [
Brooklyn
designer Haleh Nematzadeh designed the clothing shown on the far left.
Yoko Ono’s clothing is shown on the far right. Barbara Streisand,
center, is wearing the famous “hands” outfit designed by Ann Roth in
1970 – and reworked for the Broadway play “The Nance,” starring Nathan
Lane. Photos courtesy Gonna Walk the Night, eBay, and Opening Ceremony
