Post a song from a musical that you loved from hearing the first note.

Today I am going to post a song from one of my big musical obsessions: Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy. Gypsy begins with one of those overtures that vies for the top spot of ‘Best Overture of All Time’. It is electric. The score then moves through so many fantastic numbers: “Some People”, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (you have to love Jerome Robbins’s objection to the song’s title: ‘I mean, everything’s coming up Rose’s what?), “Together Wherever We Go” and “Rose’s Turn” among them. What is remarkable about Gypsy is that every single number is essential, even those that appear to be throwaways (“Little Lamb”) or frivolous nonsense (“All I Need is the Girl”, “Have an Eggroll, Mr Goldstone”). Lose one number and the show loses something.

There have been many Roses, including Ethel Merman, Tyne Daly, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone. Best of the bunch for me is Angela Lansbury and it is Lansbury who appears in the clip below: