i was lucky enough to see ANGELA LANSBURY when Gypsy played the Schubert Theatre in Century City, Los Angeles, before going to Broadway...it was something i will never forget to see the Queen of Broadway in the greatest role ever written for a leading lady!!...btw i think Angela will always be the perfect Mayoress as Cora Hoover Hooper in ANYONE CAN WHISTLE...
Milton Rosenstock was the musical director on this production as he was on the original production. The orchestra sounds great and seems to have a special "swing" to it. They sound marvelous.
I saw the original production 5 times, once in Boston, three times at the Winter Garden, and once at a long-gone place called the Westchester Premier Playhouse. IMO Angela Lansbury in Gypsy gave the single greatest performance I have seen in a lifetime of theatre going. The closing night on Broadway, along with Jennifer Holliday’s last performance of Dreamgirls at the Imperial represent the two most exhilarating evenings in that lifetime (to date) the, ahead of some other incredible evenings that included the RSC Nicholas Nickelby, the Robards / Dewhurst Moon for the Misbegotten, and perhaps the first time I saw Follies at the Winter Garden.
Sounds like I am living in the past, I admit, but those are all legendary productions.
I saw the production in London, then 5 or 6 times on Broadway as well as several performances at the Westbury Music Fair and the Westchester Premier Theater. It was stunning theater.
I saw her Mama Rose in Toronto and later on Broadway. It was an exhilarating evening in the theatre that remains in my memory all these years later.
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I had a standing room ticket at the Winter Garden. I was next to the right center aisle. Watching the kids and Jocko on stage. I was distracted and glanced to my left. There she was. Angela Lansbury standing right next to me! Quite tall. And then she was off. "Sing out Louise!" A moment I obviously never forgot.