INTERVIEW: Musical theater historian peers behind curtain of ‘Gypsy,’ ‘Funny Girl’
The backstories of two iconic American musicals will be the subject of multimedia presentations this week at New York City’s York Theatre Company. Musical theater historian Charles Troy will let audience members peek behind the curtain and learn about the creation of Gypsy and Funny Girl.
The Creation of Gypsy will take place Monday, Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m., and The Creation of Funny Girl is scheduled for the following night, Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m. The events are part of the York’s celebration of composer Jule Styne, who worked on both shows. The company will also present staged readings of Styne’s Hallelujah, Baby!, Bar Mitzvah Boy and Subways are for Sleeping in the coming weeks.
“I have more than 50 of these presentations,” Troy said in a recent phone interview. “More than 20 of them are the backstories of particular shows as these two are. What I do when I go about creating one of my presentations is to do the research, figure out what the storyline is. I find that each one of these has a storyline. It’s not just this happened and then that happened. There’s a beginning, a middle and an end, and so I craft it as a dramatic narrative and then create visuals to go along with what I’m saying and, of course, audio tracks to convey some of the music and sometimes video clips. But I find the particular dramatic narrative that make sense to me to hang the story on.”
For Gypsy, the classic musical that tells the story of Gypsy Rose Lee, Troy looks at the many famous actresses who have played what is arguably the most popular and celebrated role in musical theater. From Ethel Merman to Angela Lansbury to Patti LuPone, the talented performers who have filled Rose’s shoes is unparalleled.
“My idea was that Gypsy is the role that musical theater actresses want to play, the ideal role,” he said. “There had been a number of Broadway revivals, video movies, etc. that have starred the more famous interpreters of Rose, so what I came up with was the idea of making Gypsy into an audition in essence for the audience, that each one of Rose’s songs would be played with a different actress in the part, from Ethel Merman to Rosalind Russell to etc. etc. down to Patti LuPone. And then at the end I have the audience vote for their choice. Who would they cast as Rose?”
Funny Girl, on the other hand, tells the story of Fanny Brice, the famous actress and singer. For this presentation, Troy focuses on the origins of the show and the influence of Frances Brice Stark, Fanny’s daughter.
“Fran Stark, Fanny Brice’s daughter, was married to a movie producer named Ray Stark,” Troy said. “She wanted her mother memorialized in some way. First, they thought of a movie, and when that didn’t work out, a musical. And at the time, the musical was coming to fruition by a bizarre cosmic coincidence. Here was this teenage actress who thought she was an actress but was really a singer who was trying to break into show business, and everybody thought as they saw her that she looked like Fanny Brice. Though Barbra Streisand reminded them of Fanny Brice, Barbra Streisand didn’t even originally know who Fanny Brice was. So the fact that Barbra Streisand made her mark after her first few albums, of course, in Funny Girl, and that really launched her great career, was not predestined or preplanned. It was basically just an amazing cosmic coincidence, and that’s the thrust of the story that I tell in the creation of Funny Girl.”
Although Gypsy is not Troy’s favorite musical (it’s high on his list), he admitted that the show, with music by Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Arthur Laurents, has become the “greatest musical of all time” by a consensus of audience members.
“That’s how I start my presentation, announcing that fact, not deciding whether that’s correct or not but telling why, basically because of the character of Rose,” he said. “My own personal taste is it’s not in my top five of shows that I’m really passionate about, but, of course, it’s wonderfully written, structured. The songs are brilliant, etc. etc. etc.”
Funny Girl has a slightly different legacy. For starters, the show was problematic before it opened. It had challenges and succeeded mostly as a vehicle for Streisand.
“Funny thing, the songs, the score turned out to be really terrific,” Troy said. “The show has had terrific legs and is revived with some frequency, even though obviously Barbra Streisand is long out of the park. She never revived it as Ethel Merman did with Annie Get Your Gun, etc. etc., but it certainly holds up very well.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Charles Troy will present his multimedia presentations on Gypsy (Jan. 29) and Funny Girl (Jan. 30) at the York Theatre Company in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
