On January 11th, 2009, Patti LuPone, Boyd Gaines, and Laura Benanti offered their final performances in their Tony-award winning roles in the most recent revival of Gypsy. Despite previous announcements that the show would run until March first and rumors that the production would be filmed for commercial release, the producers announced in December that “due to these uncertain financial times” the show would instead close in January, and it went unfilmed. Gypsy was one of many Broadway shows which closed this month in the wake of the current economic crisis. Other shows included long-running hits Hairspray and Spamalot as well as more recent shows like Spring Awakening, the 2007 revival of Grease, last season’s Young Frankenstein, the Tony-winning revival of Boeing Boeing, and the recent new musical 13.When it closed, the 4th Broadway revival of Gypsy had played a total of 332 performances and 27 previews (plus a three-week “try-out” at New York’s City Center in the summer of 2007). This was the second shortest run of a Broadway Gypsy with only the Lansbury revival of 1974 playing fewer performances on Broadway. Nevertheless, statistics like these can be deceiving and the context must be considered.
While the Lansbury production played by far the fewest performances of all the Gypsys on Broadway, it was the only production to play on the West End. Dolores Grey took over for Lansbury when she departed after six months to take the production on a North American tour which included a limited stop on Broadway. The 30th anniversary revival starring Tyne Daly also toured prior to its Broadway engagement and is unique in being the only Broadway production of the musical to have replaced its star. Linda Lavin played Rose for the final months of the initial engagement. Daly brought the production back for a few months the following spring, ending the engagement after a total of 476 performances
While the 2003 Bernadette Peters production played just over a year and close to as many performances as the previous revival (451), it was the first Broadway Gypsy that did not tour either pre or post-Broadway.
The recently-closed 2008 revival would likely have closed in March as originally planned if not for the current economic situation. It may have suffered somewhat from over-familiarity with the piece as it had not been five years since the closing of the last production when the new production opened. Nevertheless, the LuPone-headed Gypsy like the original and Lansbury productions before it was met with critical praise from almost all of the major critics. (Daly and Peters both met with critical dissent, though the New York Times praised both and Daly won the Tony). It also became the first Gypsy to win Tonys for both its Louise and Herbie, Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines, and LuPone became the third Tony-winning Rose.
Again though, context is important. The original production of Gypsy, which played more than twice the number of performances than the LuPone production, ran far longer than the other productions. The Daly revival was closest to the success of the original, running for approximately two thirds of the original’s 702 performances. Merman also took the show on a highly successful national tour after closing on Broadway which was followed by a second national company. Still, even the original production was apparently looked at as somewhat of a disappointment by producer David Merrick. The Sound of Music was one of two musicals which bested Gypsy for the Best Musical Tony in 1960 (Fiorello tied with SOM) and went on to play more than twice the number of performances on Broadway and become a phenomenon, touring for years, spawning numerous international productions and ultimately becoming one of the most successful movies of all time.
All this is to say that Gypsy has always been more a critic’s show than a huge box office success. The 2008 revival apparently did not turn a profit and at ten months had a relatively short run. Nevertheless, it can be considered an artistic success, winning three Tony awards and high critical praise. LuPone, in addition to the Tony award, won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance and cemented her reputation as Broadway's reigning diva.
