Coming Up Roses Character Analysis
An analysis of the role of the mother in the musical Gypsy
INTRODUCTION
Ethan Mordden, in his book ‘Coming Up Roses’ sums up Gypsy as a musical “about how your mother destroys you” (1998, p.245). The musical originally opened in 1959 on Broadway with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne and lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim, and was most recently revived in a production directed by Jonathan Kent at the Chichester Festival in 2014 before moving to the Savoy Theatre in 2015. It tells the story of the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, but the real star of the show is her mother ‘Momma’ Rose (played by Imelda Staunton), whose character commands the stage and the plot with a vice-like grip (Wolf, 2002). Rose pushes her two daughters ‘Baby’ June (played by Gemma Sutton) and Louise (Lara Pulver) in the world of vaudeville, and eventually pushes Louise into the world of burlesque, leading her to become Gypsy Rose Lee. This is essay will look at the role of the mother within Gypsy, and the relationship mother-daughter relationship as a central relationship, starting with an analysis of the characterisation of Rose and then moving on to examine the …show more content…
Stage mothers are a staple character seen in 1950s films; often they are punished for their actions. Wolf explains how this reflects American society’s uneasiness about pushy stage mothers, and in fact about powerful mothers in general. They were seen as a threat to their children, turning their sons into perverts and the weak-willed. The excessive caricature of the stage mother pushes beyond the feminine, she is crude and savage, as seen in the very first scene of the play when Rose grabs Uncle Jocko by the by collar to force him to hire her daughters (Wolf, 2002). However, in contrast to the treatment of stage mothers onscreen, Rose is never redeemed or punished for her terrible parenting (Mordden,
INTRODUCTION
Ethan Mordden, in his book ‘Coming Up Roses’ sums up Gypsy as a musical “about how your mother destroys you” (1998, p.245). The musical originally opened in 1959 on Broadway with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne and lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim, and was most recently revived in a production directed by Jonathan Kent at the Chichester Festival in 2014 before moving to the Savoy Theatre in 2015. It tells the story of the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, but the real star of the show is her mother ‘Momma’ Rose (played by Imelda Staunton), whose character commands the stage and the plot with a vice-like grip (Wolf, 2002). Rose pushes her two daughters ‘Baby’ June (played by Gemma Sutton) and Louise (Lara Pulver) in the world of vaudeville, and eventually pushes Louise into the world of burlesque, leading her to become Gypsy Rose Lee. This is essay will look at the role of the mother within Gypsy, and the relationship mother-daughter relationship as a central relationship, starting with an analysis of the characterisation of Rose and then moving on to examine the …show more content…
Stage mothers are a staple character seen in 1950s films; often they are punished for their actions. Wolf explains how this reflects American society’s uneasiness about pushy stage mothers, and in fact about powerful mothers in general. They were seen as a threat to their children, turning their sons into perverts and the weak-willed. The excessive caricature of the stage mother pushes beyond the feminine, she is crude and savage, as seen in the very first scene of the play when Rose grabs Uncle Jocko by the by collar to force him to hire her daughters (Wolf, 2002). However, in contrast to the treatment of stage mothers onscreen, Rose is never redeemed or punished for her terrible parenting (Mordden,