Theatre: Sweet Charity at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (April 2005)

Sweet Charity is a musical directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria. However, where Fellini's black-and-white Italian film concerns the romantic ups-and-downs of an ever-hopeful sex worker, in the musical the central character is a dancer-for-hire at a Times Square dance hall. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1966, where it was nominated for 9 Tony Awards, and also ran in the West End as well as having revivals and international productions.

Christina Applegate starred in another revival of the show, opening on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on May 4, 2005, after a troubled three-city preview tour. The show went into production beginning January 25, 2005 at the Historic Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. Audience-attended previews began February 8, with the Opening Night performance held February 17, 2005. The Minneapolis engagement closed on February 20. Applegate broke her foot in Chicago, the second stop on the tour, and was replaced by her understudy. Then, after the final leg of the tour in Boston, the producers announced that the production would not be continuing to Broadway due to lack of interest. However, two days later, the Broadway engagement was on after Applegate convinced the producers to continue. A week into previews, Applegate rejoined the cast.The show was nominated for three Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actress in a Musical for Applegate. Reportedly, pop icon Britney Spears was asked to replace Applegate when her contract expired, but declined the offer. The musical ended its Broadway run on December 31, 2005, after 279 performances.

Act I

The young woman Charity Hope Valentine is a taxi dancer at a dance hall called the Fandango Ballroom in New York City. With a shoulder bag and a heart tattooed on her left shoulder, Charity meets her boyfriend Charlie in Central Park. While Charlie silently preens himself, Charity speaks the pick-up lines she imagines him saying, and tells him how handsome he is ("You Should See Yourself"). Charlie then steals her handbag and pushes her into the lake (usually the orchestra pit) before running off. Passers-by discuss the apparent drowning but do nothing, until a young Spaniard finally rescues her. In the Hostess Room of the Fandango Ballroom, Charity tries to convince both herself and the other skeptical taxi dancers that Charlie tried to save her. Nickie, a fellow dancer, tells Charity that her problem is "you run your heart like a hotel — you've always got people checking in and checking out". The manager, Herman, arrives to tell them it is time for work. The hostess dancers proposition the audience in the front room of the Fandango Ballroom ("Big Spender"). Helene and Nickie try to comfort Charity about Charlie's absence ("Charity's Soliloquy").
On the street, after work, Charity gives to every beggar who approaches her until she realizes she has no money. Just then, film star Vittorio Vidal rushes out of the smart Pompeii Club, in pursuit of his beautiful mistress, Ursula. Ursula refuses to go back inside with Vittorio, who promptly takes the only-too-willing Charity instead. Inside the Pompeii Club, the dancers are dancing the latest craze, The Rich Man's Frug. To everyone's astonishment, the famous Vittorio is accompanied by the unknown Charity. She tries to steer him away from the subject of Ursula. Finally, he wants to dance. Not having eaten since breakfast, Charity faints. There is general agreement amongst the dancers that she needs to be "laid down". Vittorio asks "where?", and Charity recovers enough to prompt Vittorio with "your apartment!".

Lying down on Vittorio's bed, Charity claims she is no longer hungry. She admits she is a dance hall hostess, putting it down to "the fickle finger of fate" (a favorite expression of hers). Vittorio is struck by her humor and honesty. Starstruck, Charity asks for a signed photograph to prove to the girls she was really in his apartment. While Vittorio fetches props from his old movies for further evidence, Charity remarks on her good fortune ("If My Friends Could See Me Now"). Ursula arrives to apologize for her jealousy; Charity is swiftly bundled into a closet before Vittorio opens the door to Ursula. ("Too Many Tomorrows") While Charity watches from the closet, Vittorio and Ursula make love inside his four-poster bed. The following morning, Charity is escorted from the room by a mortified Vittorio. In the Hostess Room, the girls are disappointed that Charity failed to get more out of Vittorio. Nickie announces she is not going to remain at this job for the rest of her life, prompting the girls to speculate on alternative careers ("There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This"), but Herman brings them back down to earth. Charity decides to seek some cultural enlightenment from the YMHA on 92nd Street, where she gets stuck in a broken elevator with shy tax accountant Oscar Lindquist. While trying to calm him down, Charity learns that he is not married. She declares, "Oh Oscar... You're gonna be all right." After helping Oscar overcome his claustrophobia ("I'm the Bravest Individual"), the pair are plunged into new panic when the lights stop working.

Act II

After being trapped in a broken elevator, Oscar and Charity are finally rescued when it starts working again. Oscar invites Charity to go to church with him, to which she hesitantly agrees. As they walk under the Manhattan Bridge to the church, the faint cries of the next person to be stuck in the elevator are heard. The Rhythm of Life Church turns out to be a thin veneer on hippie culture ("The Rhythm of Life"). A police raid breaks up the meeting. Traveling home on the subway, Oscar proposes another date and tries to guess Charity's job, deciding that she works in a bank. Charity lies, saying she works for First National City, Williamsburg Branch. As they part, Oscar kisses her hand, and dubs her Sweet Charity ("Sweet Charity").

After two weeks, Oscar and Charity have continued dating, and she still has not confessed what she actually does for a living. At Coney Island Amusement Park they become trapped again when the Parachute Jump ride breaks. This time, Oscar is the calm one while Charity is scared — scared that she is starting to depend on him. Once again, Charity loses her nerve about telling him what her real job is. As the crowd look on, the couple kiss. On a slow night at the Fandango, Charity loses the opportunity to snare one of the few customers by a new co-worker, Rosie. Disgusted by the whole business, she quits. However, in Times Square, she wonders what the alternative is ("Where Am I Going?"). Sending a telegram to Oscar, she asks to meet him at Barney's Chile Hacienda. She admits that she is a dance hall hostess; he admits he already knows, having followed her one night and watched her dancing. He says he does not care and wants to marry her. Relieved and elated, Charity leaves ("I'm A Brass Band") and packs a suitcase on which is printed 'Almost Married'.
After a farewell party at the Ballroom ("I Love to Cry at Weddings"), Charity and Oscar walk in the park, whereupon Oscar announces that he cannot go through with the wedding, saying he is unable to stop thinking about the "other men". Eventually, he pushes her into the lake and runs off. Emerging from the lake, Charity, speaking directly to the audience, asks "Did you ever have one of those days?". Realizing that unlike Charlie, Oscar has not stolen her bag, she shrugs and reprises her opening dance.

The stage blacks out onto three neon signs, reading "And so she lived … hopefully … ever after".

Link to the review by the New York Times here

Theatre: The Glass Menagerie at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (March 2005)

The Glass Menagerie  is a five-character memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on Williams himself, his histrionic mother, and his mentally fragile sister Rose. In writing the play, Williams drew on an earlier short story, as well as a screenplay he had written under the title of The Gentleman Caller.

The play premiered in Chicago in 1944. After a shaky start, it was championed by Chicago critics,  whose enthusiasm helped build audiences so the producers could move the play to Broadway where it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1945. The Glass Menagerie was Williams's first successful play; he went on to become one of America's most highly regarded playwrights.

The play is introduced to the audience by Tom, the narrator and protagonist, as a memory play based on his recollection of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. Because the play is based on memory, Tom cautions the audience that what they see may not be precisely what happened.

Amanda Wingfield, a faded Southern belle of middle age, shares a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son Tom, in his early twenties, and his slightly older sister, Laura. Although she is a survivor and a pragmatist, Amanda yearns for the comforts and admiration she remembers from her days as a fêted debutante. She worries especially about the future of her daughter Laura, a young woman with a limp (an aftereffect of a bout of polio) and a tremulous insecurity about the outside world. Tom works in a shoe warehouse doing his best to support the family. He chafes under the banality and boredom of everyday life and struggles to write, while spending much of his spare time going to the movies — or so he says — at all hours of the night.

Amanda is obsessed with finding a suitor (or, as she puts it, a "gentleman caller") for Laura, whose crippling shyness has led her to drop out of both high school and a subsequent secretarial course, and who spends much of her time polishing and arranging her collection of little glass animals. Pressured by his mother to help find a caller for Laura, Tom invites an acquaintance from work named Jim home for dinner.

The delighted Amanda spruces up the apartment, prepares a special dinner, and converses coquettishly with Jim, almost reliving her youth when she had an abundance of suitors calling on her. Laura discovers that Jim is the boy she was attracted to in high school and has often thought of since — though the relationship between the shy Laura and the "most likely to succeed" Jim was never more than a distant, teasing acquaintanceship. Initially, Laura is so overcome by shyness that she is unable to join the others at dinner, and she claims to be ill. After dinner, however, Jim and Laura are left alone by candlelight in the living room, waiting for the electricity to be restored. (Tom has not paid the power bill, which hints to the audience that he is banking the bill money and preparing to leave the household.) As the evening progresses, Jim recognizes Laura's feelings of inferiority and encourages her to think better of herself. He and Laura share a quiet dance, in which he accidentally brushes against her glass menagerie, knocking a glass unicorn to the floor and breaking off its horn. Jim then compliments Laura and kisses her. After Jim reveals that he is already engaged to be married, Laura asks him to take the broken unicorn as a gift and he then leaves. When Amanda learns that Jim is to be married, she turns her anger upon Tom and cruelly lashes out at him — although Tom did not know that Jim was engaged, and Amanda knows this.

As Tom speaks at the end of the play, he says that he left home soon afterward and never returned. In Tom's final speech, he bids farewell to his mother and sister, and asks Laura to blow out the candles as the play ends.

March 22, 2005, to July 3, 2005, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre

• Jessica Lange as Amanda Wingfield
• Josh Lucas as Jim O'Connor
• Sarah Paulson as Laura Wingfield
• Christian Slater as Tom Wingfield

Theatre: Aida at the Palace Theatre (January 2004)

Aida (also known as Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida) is a musical based on the opera of the same name by Giuseppe Verdi. It has music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and was originally produced by Walt Disney Theatrical.

Aida premiered on Broadway on March 23, 2000, running for 1,852 performances until September 5, 2004. It was nominated for five Tony Awards and won four including Best Original Score and Best Performance by a Leading Actress, and was also named by Time Magazine as one of the top ten theatre productions of the year.

The Original Broadway Cast Recording won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. A song from the show, "Written in the Stars", recorded by Elton John and LeAnn Rimes, reached No.2 in the Billboard US adult contemporary music charts, and No.1 in the Canadian contemporary charts.

The show is based on Giuseppe Verdi's Italian-language opera of the same name. The musical originated from a children's storybook version of Verdi's opera.  In 1994 the book rights were acquired by the Walt Disney Company for a proposed animated feature film. However, Elton John chose not to pursue another animated project after The Lion King so Disney executives suggested a Broadway adaptation instead. Despite his opinion that "opera people can be very elitist"^, John, along with Tim Rice, immediately signed on.

Act1

In the Egyptian wing of a modern museum, a man and a woman touring the exhibit catch each other's eyes. A statue of Amneris, a female Pharaoh, comes to life ("Every Story Is a Love Story") and transports them to Ancient Egypt, where Radames, captain of the Egyptian army, and his men are returning from an expedition through the land of Egypt's long-time enemy, Nubia ("Fortune Favors the Brave"). When his soldiers capture a group of Nubian women, he is captivated by one of the women, Aida, who tries to free herself by out-dueling one of his soldiers. Radames forces her to wash his back, but she refuses, saying that although the Egyptians took everything from the Nubians, they will never take their spirit ("The Past Is Another Land"). Radames saves Aida's companions from the copper mines (and certain death) by sending them to the palace groundskeeper instead. He also ensures Aida serves as a handmaiden to his betrothed, Princess Amneris. Radames' father, Chief Minister Zoser, greets his son with news that the Pharaoh is dying, and Radames must prepare to become the next ruler of Egypt ("Another Pyramid"). Unbeknownst to Radames, his father is poisoning the Pharaoh in order to accelerate Radames' ascension to the throne.

Radames' Nubian servant, Mereb, is a young man who has learned the tricks of survival in Egypt. While delivering Aida to the princess, Mereb recognizes her as the daughter of the Nubian king under whom he had served during his days in Nubia. She commands him to keep her identity a secret, lest the Egyptians kill her ("How I Know You"). Presented to Amneris, Aida is liked immediately, and she perceives that the Princess' love of fashion only serves as a mask of her insecurities ("My Strongest Suit"). At a banquet, Amneris and Radames learn from the Pharaoh that they are to marry in seven days, leaving the captain distraught that his days as an explorer have ended ("Fortune Favors the Brave (Reprise)"*). Together, he and Aida share their dreams and regrets ("Enchantment Passing Through").

Later that night, Amneris worries about her father's illness, and finds in Aida someone who understands and encourages her ("My Strongest Suit (Reprise)"). Bursting into his fiancée's chamber, Radames steals a moment with Aida to share his growing attraction to her. Aida is taken by Mereb to the Nubian camp, where she reluctantly submits to her people's pleas to lead them ("Dance of the Robe"). When she implores Radames to help the Nubians, he opens his heart by giving his possessions to them ("Not Me") and declaring his love for Aida ("Elaborate Lives"). Unable to fight her feelings any longer, she falls into his embrace. Their bliss is interrupted by news that Radames' armies have captured Amonasro, king of Nubia and also Aida's father. Unable to comfort her, Radames leaves Aida in distress. Rallying her people, Aida assures them that Nubia will never die ("The Gods Love Nubia").

Act 2

Amneris, Radames, and Aida are entangled in conflicted loyalties and emotions ("A Step Too Far"): Amneris is afraid that Radames's affection for her is waning, Radames worries his love for Aida could end his life as he knows it, and Aida fears she might be a traitor to her people as she loves Radames. Aida and Mereb bribe their way into Amonasro's prison cell, where she is reunited with her father. Mereb hatches a plan to escape with the king during the commotion of Amneris' wedding. To save her father and her nation, Aida must betray the man she loves ("Easy as Life"). Meanwhile, Zoser discovers Radames' affair and warns his son that it could cost him the throne, but Radames no longer shares his father's ambitions ("Like Father, Like Son"). After an emotional bout with his son, Zoser orders his men to find Aida and kill her.

At the Nubian camp, Aida receives a written apology from Radames for the thoughtless way he acted upon hearing of Amonasro's capture ("Radames' Letter") and for his lack of showing affection. When Egyptian soldiers arrive seeking Aida, another Nubian, Nehebka, sacrifices herself so that the princess can live. Now even more determined to leave Radames forever, Aida goes to say good-bye to him over Mereb's objections ("How I Know You (Reprise)"). Radames informs Aida that he is calling off the wedding. Aida knows that this would ruin her father's escape and tells him he must go through with it ("Written in the Stars"). Radames agrees, on condition that she escapes to freedom on a boat he will provide. The heartbroken lovers part, but Amneris has overheard their entire conversation and tries to face the fact that her upcoming marriage is a sham ("I Know the Truth").
News of Amonasro's escape disrupts Amneris' wedding. Radames learns the truth of Aida's identity when he arrives at the docks just as she is about to board his boat with her father. Although he is angry that Aida hid this from him, she says she never lied about loving him. In the ensuing chaos, Mereb is mortally wounded by Zoser, and Radames makes possible Amonasro's escape by cutting the rope tied to the dock, but Aida stays with Radames and a dying Mereb. Zoser flees, and Mereb dies in the arms of his kind master and beloved princess. Radames and Aida are then arrested for treason. At the ensuing trial, Pharaoh announces Zoser's apprehension and sentences both Aida and Radames to be buried alive. Amneris reprises her role as a future Pharaoh by convincing her father to let the lovers die in the same tomb, an act of mercy for two people she has come to love. Facing death, Aida looks to Radames for strength ("Elaborate Lives (Reprise)"). As they are slowly deprived of light and air ("Enchantment Passing Through (Reprise)"), Radames swears he will search through a hundred lifetimes to find her again if he has to.

Back in the contemporary museum, the spirit of Amneris reveals that as she became Pharaoh, "the lovers' deaths gave birth to a reign of peace" between Egypt and Nubia. She watches as the modern man and woman are strangely drawn to each other. They are the reincarnations of Aida and Radames, finding each other in a new beginning ("Every Story is a Love Story (Reprise)").

The musical, now titled Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, premiered on Broadway at the Palace Theatre on March 23, 2000 and closed on September 5, 2004 after 30 previews and 1,852 performances. The run ranks it as 36th in the longest runs in Broadway history. Directed by Robert Falls, choreographed by Wayne Cilento, scenery and costumes were designed by Bob Crowley, lighting design by Natasha Katz, and sound design by Steve C. Kennedy. Considered by its producers to be a financial success, Aida on Broadway recovered its investment in 99 weeks, and generated a profit of $12 million.

Heather Headley originated the title role of Aida. Headley won both the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2000 for her performance in this role. Headley also received broad critical acclaim for her performance. Adam Pascal played the role of Radames in both the OBC and closing productions of Aida on Broadway. Sherie René Scott, who was with the project since its first workshop, originated the role of Amneris, and was named the Most Promising Actress in 2000 for her performance (Clarence Derwent Award). The cast also included Tyrees Allen (Amonasro), John Hickok (Zoser), Daniel Oreskes (Pharaoh), Damian Perkins (Mereb), and Schele Williams (Nehebka).

Pop stars, including Deborah Cox, Toni Braxton, and Michelle Williams played the title role of Aida during its run on Broadway, as well as Maya Days, Saycon Sengbloh, Simone, and Merle Dandridge. Notable replacements for Radames included Will Chase, Patrick Cassidy, Richard H. Blake, William Robert Gaynor, and Matt Bogart. Notable replacements for Amneris included Idina Menzel, Jessica Hendy, Mandy Gonzalez, Felicia Finley, Taylor Dayne, and Lisa Brescia. Notable replacements for Zoser were Micky Dolenz and Donnie Kehr.Notable Replacements for Mereb were J Marshall Evans and Julian Bass.

Theatre: 42nd Street at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Hilton Theatre (November 2003)

42nd Street won the Tony Award for Best Musical and became a long-running hit. The show was produced in London in 1984 (winning the Olivier Award for Best Musical), and its 2001 Broadway revival won the Tony for Best Revival. Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes and the subsequent 1933 Hollywood film adaptation, the show focuses on the efforts of famed dictatorial Great White Way director Julian Marsh to mount a successful stage production of a musical extravaganza at the height of the Great Depression.

The show is a jukebox musical because in addition to songs from the 1933 film 42nd Street, it includes songs from many other films of that time. It also includes "There's a Sunny Side to Every Situation", from the movie Hard to Get and the song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" from Moulin Rouge. The opening act includes forty pairs of tap-dancing feet, followed by a series of tap-infused extravaganzas.

Act I

Auditions for 1933's newest show, Pretty Lady, are nearly over when Peggy Sawyer, fresh off the bus from Allentown, Pennsylvania, arrives in New York City with valise in hand. Billy Lawlor, already cast as one of the juvenile leads, notices her and hopes to charm her into accepting a date with him. He informs her she has missed the audition but he can help her bypass that process, but choreographer Andy Lee has no time for Billy's latest conquest and tells her, "Amscray, toots." Embarrassed and flustered, she rushes off, only to run into director Julian Marsh.

One-time star Dorothy Brock, indignant at being asked to audition for a role, is reassured by Bert that he merely wants to make sure the songs are in her key. Despite his feeling she is a prima donna past her prime, he agrees to cast her in order to get financial backing from her wealthy beau, Abner Dillon. Outside the theatre, writer Maggie and chorus girls Anytime Annie, Phyllis, and Lorraine take pity on Peggy and invite her to join them for lunch and some advice. They encourage her to show them a dance routine that is witnessed by Julian, who decides there might be room for one more chorus girl after all.

Julian learns that Dorothy is seeing her old boyfriend, Pat Denning, behind Abner's back. Knowing this could destroy the show's future, he decides to put an end to the affair. A phone call to an unsavory acquaintance brings Pat a visit from a couple of thugs who convince him to break it off with her. The show's cast then departs to Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, for the out-of-town tryout.

On opening night, someone bumps Peggy, who trips and crashes into Dorothy, knocking her to the stage. Julian fires Peggy on the spot.

Act II

Dorothy's ankle is broken, and the show may close. The chorus kids, certain Peggy could fill the lead role, find Julian and tell him that she's a fresh young face who can sing and dance circles around Dorothy. He decides it is worth a shot and rushes off to the train station to catch her before she departs.

At Philadelphia's Broad Street Station, Julian apologizes to Peggy and asks her to stay and star in the show, but she responds that she has had enough of show business and wants to go home to Allentown. Dumbfounded, he tries to coax her with the words "Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway..." After the cast joins him in the serenade, she decides to accept his offer.

Forced to learn the part in two days, Peggy is on the verge of a nervous breakdown when she has an unexpected visit from Dorothy, who has been watching the rehearsals and realizes that beneath her nervous exterior, Peggy is good, "maybe even better than I would have been." She even offers a little friendly advice on how to perform the last song, "About a Quarter to Nine."

The opening night curtain is about to rise when Julian, who is completely in love with Peggy at this point, stops by for a last minute lip-lock and pep talk in which he utters the now iconic line, "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" The show is a huge success sure to catapult her into stardom. In addition, even though she is invited to and expected to attend the official opening night party, she decides to go to the chorus one instead. Julian is left alone onstage with only a single ghost light casting his huge shadow on the back wall. He quietly begins to sing, "Come and meet those dancing feet on the avenue I'm taking you to...42nd Street."

Theatre: Gypsy (July 2003)

Gypsy is a 1959 musical with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist; it focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business mother." It follows the dreams and efforts of Rose to raise two daughters to perform onstage and casts an affectionate eye on the hardships of show business life. The character of Louise is based on Lee, and the character of June is based on Lee's sister, the actress June Havoc.

The musical contains many songs that became popular standards, including "Everything's Coming up Roses", "Together (Wherever We Go)", "Small World", "You Gotta Get a Gimmick", "Let Me Entertain You", "All I Need Is the Girl", and "Rose's Turn". It is frequently considered one of the crowning achievements of the mid-20th century's conventional musical theatre art form, often called the "book musical".

Act I

Rose and her two daughters, Baby June and Louise, play the vaudeville circuit around the United States in the early 1920s. Rose, the archetype of a stage mother, is aggressive and domineering, pushing her children to perform. While June is an extroverted, talented child star, the older girl, Louise, is shy. The kiddie act has one song, "May We Entertain You", that they sing over and over again, with June always as the centerpiece and Louise often as one of the "boys" ("Baby June and Her Newsboys"). Rose has big dreams for the girls but encounters setbacks, such as attempting to borrow money from her father ("Some People"). When Rose meets a former agent, Herbie, she persuades him to become their manager using her seductive and feminine wiles ("Small World"). The girls grow up, and June, now billed as Dainty June, and her act have a chance to perform for Mr. Goldstone of the Orpheum Circuit ("Mr. Goldstone, I Love You"). Meanwhile, Louise celebrates her birthday alone and asks her birthday present, a lamb, just how old she is this year ("Little Lamb"). After Rose rejects Herbie's marriage proposal, he considers leaving, but she asserts that he could never get away from her ("You'll Never Get Away From Me").

Now billed as "Dainty June and Her Farmboys", the act finally performs on the Orpheum Circuit ("Dainty June and Her Farmboys"). June is soon offered a place at a Performing Arts school after an audition. However, Rose turns this down, refusing to break up the act. Louise and June fantasize what life would be like if Rose were married and finished with show business ("If Momma Was Married"). A few months later, still on the road from show to show, Tulsa, one of the boys from the act, confides in Louise that he has been working on his own act ("All I Need Is The Girl"), and Louise fantasizes that she and he could do the act together. Shortly after, June is missing, and in a note, she explains that she has grown sick of her mother and the endless tour and has eloped with Tulsa, and they will do a new act. Rose is hurt, but then optimistically vows that she will make Louise a star, proclaiming that "Everything's Coming up Roses".

Act II

Louise is now a young woman, and Rose has built a pale imitation of the Dainty June act for her. Using all girls, Rose and Herbie try valiantly to sell "Madame Rose's Toreadorables" to a fading vaudeville industry. However, they are still together ("Together, Wherever We Go"). With no vaudeville venues left, Louise and her second-rate act wind up accidentally booked at a burlesque house in Wichita, Kansas, as a means to deter police raids. Rose is anguished, as she sees what a booking in burlesque means to her dreams of success, but Louise persuades her that two weeks' pay for the new act is better than unemployment. As they are introduced to Louise, three of the strippers on the bill advise her on what it takes to be a successful stripper, a "gimmick," something that "makes your strip special" ("You Gotta Get a Gimmick"). Backstage, Rose proposes marriage to Herbie. He asks her to break up the act and let Louise have a normal life, and she reluctantly accepts, agreeing to marry the day after their show closes. On the last day of the booking, the star stripper in the burlesque show is arrested for solicitation. Desperate, Rose cannot resist the urge to give Louise another nudge toward stardom, and she volunteers Louise to do the strip tease as a last-minute replacement. Disgusted at Rose's blind ambition for her daughter, Herbie walks out on Rose forever ("Small World (Reprise)"). Although reluctant, Louise wants to please her mother and she goes on, assured by Rose that she need not actually strip, but simply walk elegantly and tease by dropping a single shoulder strap. Shy and hesitant, she sings a titillating version of the old kiddie act song, "May We Entertain You?". She removes only her glove, but she speaks directly to her 'audience', which becomes her "gimmick" ("Let Me Entertain You (Gypsy Strip Tease)").

In the months that follow Louise becomes secure, always following her mother's advice to "Make 'em beg for more, and then don't give it to them!" The song becomes brasher and brassier, and more and more articles of clothing come off. Ultimately, Louise becomes a major burlesque star and does not need her mother any longer. After a bitter argument between Rose and Louise, who has become the sophisticated "Gypsy Rose Lee," Rose realizes Herbie and June are both gone, and now Louise is lost to her as well. Rose, feeling sad, useless and bitter, asks "Why did I do it? What did it get me?" ("Rose's Turn"). All of Rose's unrequited dreams of her own stardom and her personal demons surface. She fantasizes about her own lit-up runway and cheering audience, but finally admits "I did it for me." After her admission to Louise, mother and daughter tentatively step toward reconciliation in the end.

In the 1974 and 2008 Broadway revivals, although the final dialogue scene remains, there is not a happy ending, but rather a bleak, sad one as all hopes of reconciliation for Rose and Louise fall flat when Louise walks away, laughing sarcastically at Rose's new "dream." The audience is then left with a Rose whose dream of her own lit up marquee slowly fades away to her craziness within taking over.

In the 2003 revival starring Bernadette Peters, the final dialogue scene remains, but leaves the ending open to more interpretation from the audience. Louise walks through the stage door, with Rose following behind. Rose then turns to face the audience, a look of sadness and longing on her face as she takes one last look at the empty stage. She pauses and slowly closes the door.

In the 2015 West End revival starring Imelda Staunton, Louise begins to walk out, and Rose catches up after waking up to reality. Louise puts her arm around Rose as they exit together, giving off the appearance that Louise is taking care of Rose instead.