Barstow, CA – The Barstow Community College’s Theatre Arts Department is pleased to present the classic musical, GYPSY, directed by Dale Jensen and starring Amy Ross. GYPSY is a story about an aggressive stage mother, and her daughters performing across the United States during the 1920’s, when vaudeville was dying and burlesque was born. The story starts in Seattle with stage mother, Rose, pushing her two daughters, June and Louise, into Uncle Jocko’s Kiddie Show. A new act called ‘Baby June and her Newsboys’ is conceived by Rose, and the family is off to the ‘big time’ in Los Angeles. Later, June elopes with Tulsa, one of the boys in the act, and Rose sets out to make Louise the star.
One of the most popular songs of the play is sung by Rose (Amy Ross) as she bursts into new enthusiasm with the rousing number Everything’s Coming Up Roses. The family troupe finally reaches bottom at a burlesque house in Wichita. Three strippers dressed respectively in a ballet costume, a trumpet and well placed electric light bulbs are used in a most exaggerated, but very funny number, You Gotta Get a Gimmick, to indicate the difference between the usual brassy stripper and the very elegant Louise. The play features music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, including: Let Me Entertain You, Some People, You’ll Never Get Away from Me, If Momma Was Married, All I Need Is the Girl, and Together Wherever We Go.
Produced by Special Arrangement with Tams-Witmark of New York, the play is based on the Book by Arthur Laurents (Suggested by memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee). The Original Production was by David Merrick & Leland Hayward, which was originally directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. GYPSY originally played for 702 performances on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre starring Ethel Merman as Rose. It also played for 300 performances in London at the Piccadilly Theatre with Angela Lansbury as Rose. This extremely successful show has been revived on Broadway no less than four times: In 1974 with Angela Lansbury, in 1989 with Tyne Daly, in 2003 with Bernadette Peters, and in 2008 with Patti LuPone as Rose.
Barstow’s GYPSY runs April 10 through 19 in the brand new Performing Arts Center. Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $14 general, $12 students/seniors. No need to reserve. Tickets will be sold at the door. Cash Only. No children under 5. For more information call: 760-252-6702 or email:aross@barstow.edu
The Performing Arts Center seats up to 700 patrons in the new auditorium, and has an outdoor amphitheater, a “black box” theater, scene shop, dance studio, rehearsal spaces, dressing rooms, and various classrooms, all to enhance the student experience at BCC and to present the performing arts to the Barstow community and high desert residents.
Barstow Community College (BCC) is an accredited, open access institution of higher learning committed to providing our students, community, and military population with the educational tools needed to achieve personal goals and professional growth. To learn more about the college and the services provided to the community of Barstow, please visit our website: www.barstow.edu
