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List Price: $9.99 | | Label: RCA Victor Broadway
Salesrank: 80752
Released: August 21, 1990 |
| Our Price: $7.97 |
| Used Price: $6.99 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Gypsy (1973 Original London Cast) Track Listing:
1. Overture
2. Some People
3. Small World
4. Let Me Entertain You [Montage]
5. Mr. Goldstone
6. Little Lamb
7. You'll Never Get Away from Me
8. If Momma Was Married
9. All I Need Is the Girl
10. Everything's Coming Up Roses
11. Together
12. You Gotta Get a Gimmick
13. Let Me Entertain You
14. Rose's Turn
Gypsy (1973 Original London Cast) Reviews:
The Very Best Recording of "Gypsy" By Far 
2007-10-17 - Is this the same musical as the Ethel Merman Original Broadway Cast Recording? Angela Lansbury and company take Gypsy to a whole 'nother level... Everything about this London Cast Recording is 1000 times better than the original. The orchestration, the singing, the acting and the sound quality. All of the performances are confident. Angela Lansbury has the ability to navigate through material that requires both subtlety and volume. Barrie Ingham can actually sing where Jack Klugman clearly cannot. The orchestra is bold and brassy and wonderfully loud and energetic. The tempo of every song, including the overture, is faster. The Orignal Broadway orchestra sounds timid and restrained in comparison, perhaps not wanting to over-shadow Ethel Merman and her ego. Perhaps if the London version of this musical were the original Broadway cast, Gypsy would have run much longer on Broadway than it did. The London Cast recording drives like a Lotus in 5th gear, where as the Original Broadway cast feels more like VW Bus climbing a very steep hill.
Jule Styne and Stephen Sondeim's score deserved the London Cast Recording. This is the only version that does their work the full justice it deserves. Lansbury is great in every single thing she does. But she is especially great when performing Sondheim. This is the Gypsy that stands head and shoulders above every other.
Lansbury and Odd Company 
2007-05-13 - Angela Lansbury does act this part with a great deal of subtlety compared to Ethel Merman's laser beam of a woman. She's a middle class desperate Rose instead of the single minded lower class shark Merman was. Tyne Daly was both at once - superior to either in the acting, but she did not know how (then) to translate that in a recording studio and the CD of that production suffers, though it has more of the complete score than any other. Bernadette Peters was just miscast later. Bette Midler was so harsh she made Merman seem like Jeannette MacDonald in the role. Patti Lupone is up next this summer.
There are odd omissions on this recording - no opening kid's song for instance, which sets up Gypsy's strip song later. The London cast's kids apparently couldn't learn American accents so you have a Midwest chorus lineup that sounds like it was borrowed from "Oliver". The Herbie doesn't stack up against Klugman and Hadary (who was amazing with Daly). And the whole recording sounds rushed in many places, carelessly conducted. Lansbury lived in visible fear of Merman's shadow that was somewhat mitigated when she won the Tony. Lansbury on "Everything's Coming Up Roses" can't provide the vocal zap Merman did in part because it had to be in a lower key. But then you reach "Rose's Turn" and everything she's worked into the role pays off and she matches or tops Merman on sheer acting guts. That's the reason to have this recording. Period.
Lansbury, Simply The Best
2006-07-30 - Angela Lansbury was the best Mamma Rose. Period. Her singing and acting are perfect. She brought every nuance and emotion there are to the part. Her Everythings Coming Up Roses is frightening in it's blind ambition. And Rose's Turn is amazing. With Merman, it was a bulldozer rendition, like it or not. Lansbury's is a woman who has gone over the edge and it is stupendous. She has become a broken woman and knows it. Her look across the stage as she makes her final exit spoke volumns about the character, with one look! It was an astonishing moment in the theater.
Other actresses have done admirable jobs, Bernadette Peters was wonderful in her own right. And Bette Midler was terrific, but different, on television. How nice to have a competent version on film. The movie version is dismal thanks to Russels obnoxious portrayal. Only Natalie Wood saves the film as Louise, she is beautiful and totally winning.
I won't even go into Tyne Daly's terrible portrayal.
But this version with Lansbury can't be beat. She was the ultimate Rose!!
The Brits don't understand brassy! 
2005-06-05 - From it's bland reading of the utimate Broadway overture to Angela Landbury's croaking version of "Rose's Turn", this recording is a insult to Sondheim/Styne's masterpiece. If the disappointing overture isn't enough to send you back to the original, then "Let Me Entertain You" weakly sung with British accents should surely do the trick. And what about that insipid version of "All I Need Is The Girl? Yes, Lansbury is fine in Sweeny Todd and tolerable in Mame, but's she's just out of her league here. The less said about the execrable supporting cast the better.
Angela Proves That She Can Belt Like A Pro
2004-06-26 - WOW! Agela Lansbury is one of the greatest actresses of our time. Her vocals shine here, like they did with "Mame" and "Anyone Can Whistle". Arthur Laurents, who directed, suggested her, and we should be thankful he did. Now we have three great stars as Madam Rose, Bernadette Peters, Ethel Merman, and Angela Lansbury. This recording is great. The sound is terrific. The majority of the cast does excellent, with the exception of Herbie. He really is not portrayed well. The original Broadway cast is the best to buy, but for an easier listen, look no further.
