Regarding the idea of "lite" versions of this material, I recall that, when the 1989 revival of GYPSY opened (after JRB had already been running), that, at least, one critic took pains to mention that the ladies doing "You Gotta Get A Gimmick" in GYPSY were superior to those doing it in JRB. Even at the time, I recall wondering at the appropriateness of slamming the cast of another show in a review. But, I suppose the comparison was inevitable and makes me wonder why Robbins included that number in JRB knowing that a big revival of GYPSY was coming down the pike. Even if he somehow didn't know that GYPSY was coming, it would have been easy to simply cut the number in rehearsals once the news become apparent.
I would have hated being one of the women in that number in JRB and having three other women doing the exact same number in the exact same staging (but in the original context) open in another show. Can you imagine opening the paper to read that 3 others are doing your big number better than you are? |
