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DVD Gypsy
This faithful broadcast TV remake of the classic Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim musical looms as a career triumph for top-lined Bette Midler--and a bittersweet measurement of how far mainstream film and TV have retreated from the glories of musical theater. By the time Midler, as the mother of all stage mothers, observes, "I was born too early and started too late," it's only too obvious that the star's words are an ironic inversion. Had Midler been born earlier, she certainly would have reigned as a major musical comedy star. In a role form-fitted to Ethel Merman's brassy persona and brassier voice, Midler more than holds her ground musically and, especially, dramatically.
Titled partly for its source, the life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, Gypsy alludes as well to the itinerant life of her family. The show's focal point isn't the titular character, but rather her manipulative mother, Mama Rose (Midler), who channels her own frustrated dreams of stardom into Baby June, the curly blonde daughter who always eclipses sister Louise. The story follows Rose's machinations as she tirelessly reinvents June to defy the passage of time and even puberty itself. By the time Louise herself conquers the marquee as Gypsy Rose Lee, Rose's single-minded focus has alienated her long-suffering lover and agent, Herbie (a well-cast Peter Riegert), and surrendered to the inherent compromise of burlesque.
Midler's Rose reveals glimpses of vulnerability and a delusional monstrousness that provide a dark, gritty subtext. Studded with wonderful songs, the Styne/Sondheim score underlines those themes deftly, especially in Sondheim's multileveled lyrics. This Gypsy also benefits from uniformly nifty casting: in addition to Reigert (Crossing Delancey, Local Hero), Cynthia Gibb slowly blooms as Louise, and Jennifer Rae Beck, Andrea Martin, Christine Ebersole, and erstwhile new-wave singer Rachel Sweet are delights. --Sam Sutherland
Have heard about Gypsy - glad I have seen it - I recommend it - Bette Midler plays the part so well.
Gypsy is great!
First of all, I was excited to find Gypsy for less than $100 on DVD again! I missed the first round of releases and then it was discontinued so it became a 'rare' item. Naturally, that meant when I saw this in the Gold Box deals I went nuts and bought it right away! It came in perfect condition, and rather quickly as well (I ordered from the US to Canada).
It's a great movie, definitely better in a lot of parts than the Rosalind Russell version. Though the perfect film would be Rosalind Russell's voice, Bette Midler and Natalie Wood's acting, and the more 'open' way that the Midler version is presented. I would recommend this for any fan of burlesque or Bette Midler or musicals in general!
Bette Midler is perfection!
I can only describe this movie with one word- WOW! Bette Midler makes an astounding performance as Mama Rose, the pushy stage mother, forcing her kids into showbiz. It makes you cry! though, then again, I always wonder, why don't they put Betty Buckley in the role? She was great in it when I saw here as Mama Rose (she was at the Paper Mill playhouse in NJ...) but anyway, bette Midler is great, and don't get me wrong, the other movie of Gypsy in 1962 with Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russel, is also outstanding, with a little more time put into it, though! I love this movie and hate Tyne Daly's version, but Bernadette Peters, and Ethel Merman, and Betty buckley are all great too! it would be interesting if they put Streisand in Mama Rose's role....(....hmmmm....), Anyway, i love this movie and hope you enjoy it also!
There are so many words that describe Bette Midler, but one word you will never hear is "ordinary." From the first time you became conscious of this woman, she was a force to be reckoned with.
My memories of Bette Midler begin in the winter of '73 when a friend of mine played a new album for me. The first track was "Do You Want To Dance?" and though I was familiar with the more upbeat tone of this song from the early 60's, I had never heard it done quite this way. It was slow, sexy and very adult. I was barely 15 and I recall quite well how she made me aware that dancing was just a metaphor for what she was actually singing about. By the time the album had finished, Midler had taken me through a wide array of emotions. The tracks ranged from torch songs of the 30's to wartime... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bette Midler DVD Release Date: Released the 28 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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When a psychiatrist (Yves Montand) begins talking to a young woman (Barbra Streisand), he realizes that she can recall a past life while under hypnosis. Although this brash New Yorker is thoroughly modern and somewhat abrasive, he becomes fascinated by the 19th-century English woman who speaks through her. This oddball musical flicks back and forth between period flashbacks and modern times, which may be one reason it never builds up much power in either realm. On a Clear Day You Can See Forever failed at the box office in 1970, one of a number of glossy musicals that could not find an audience in the post-Easy Rider movie world. In fact, one of the film's out-of-place costars is Jack Nicholson, a symbol of the new movies that were making old-fashioned musicals a thing of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Barbra Streisand - Yves Montand Director(s): Vincente Minnelli DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The third volume of Broadway's Lost Treasures continues to mine historic stage performances from the vaults of the Tony Award telecasts. For fans who are used to experiencing musicals only through audio recordings, the benefits are two-fold. First, you can see great stars performing classic songs on stage, including Alfred Drake (Kiss Me Kate's "Where Is the Life That Late I Led"), Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston (Damn Yankees' "Whatever Lola Wants"), and a 33-year-old Jerry Orbach (Promises, Promises' "She Likes Basketball"). Second, you can see more recent, fully staged performances of numbers from shows that you may not have seen on Broadway or on tour, including the opening number of Ragtime, Kristin Chenoweth (You're a Good Man, Charlie... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tommy Tune DVD Release Date: Released the 27 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's terribly boring. period.
This DVD makes me fall asleep very easily.
Too many interviews and the video quality is really bad. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Rick McKay DVD Release Date: Released the 09 November 2004 Usually ships in 6 to 8 days
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This is one movie musical that doesn't bother adapting its stage presentation for the big screen: Li'l Abner cheerfully uses brightly colored, patently fake backdrops and stage sets for its mythical setting. And why not? A movie musical based on a cartoon strip is about as far from reality as you can get. Al Capp's legendary comic about the hillbilly denizens of Dogpatch was brought to Broadway by the estimable comedy team Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, who also produced the movie. Along with sampling Capp's world (the pursuit of noncommittal Abner by Daisy Mae on Sadie Hawkins Day is a major plot device), the movie is a goofy record of 1950s attitudes and concerns--in fact, Dogpatch is threatened with destruction when the government wants to use it as an atomic test site. The... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Leslie Parrish - Stubby Kaye Director(s): Melvin Frank DVD Release Date: Released the 19 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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