DVD/150: GYPSY (Jonathan Kent / Lonny Price, 2016, tv)

Over Easter I voted GYPSY one of my four joint-favourite stage musicals so that was a good reason to watch this television film of the most recent London revival, directed originally by Jonathan Kent and filmed for television by Lonny Price.

Of course, a musical filmed onstage will always suffer when a camera is pulling into a performance who is pushing out to the balcony but it makes up for that in capturing a production that would otherwise just live in memory and immortalising performances that need to be treasured.

One such was Imelda Staunton's explosive Rose, the unrelenting stage mother of future stars June Havoc and Gypsy Rose Lee.  Rose is called a "pioneer woman without a frontier" and as she travels around America's theatres - one step ahead of the decline of vaudeville - her manic drive is seen in Imelda's performance as driven by a deep psychological hurt.

Shelf or charity shop?  One for the shelf, Imelda's galvanising Rose is perfectly balanced by Lara Pulver as the insecure Louise who blossoms into the self-assured Gypsy Rose Lee and Peter Davison as Herbie, the man who could save Rose if she only realised it.  A great tribute to Arthur Laurents' excellent book and the glorious score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim.