Chabert Watch: Gypsy (1993)

Midler took center stage?  Whaaaaat....?

Watched:  06/13/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Emile Ardolino

Everything's coming up Chabert!

So, I'd never seen Gypsy before in any form.  A snip of the Natalie Wood version was on once and we agreed we'd watch the full thing at some point and... we did not.

This film, Gypsy (1993), was a TV movie that aired in December of my Freshman year of college, so I am not shocked I was unaware of it existing.  All I really knew about Gypsy was:

1. Jamie once played a small part in a community theatre version of the play 
2. Broadway queen Audra McDonald is currently receiving rave reviews for her portrayal of Momma Rose.  
3. It's sort of about the ultimate stage mom
4. It's the origin story of a real life stripper turned writer turned pop figure,  Gypsy Rose Lee, who was a fixture in American culture from the 30's to the 60's

This TV movie was an adaptation of a Stephen Sondheim musical of the same name, which was originally on Broadway starting in the late 1950's and ran for some time.  The musical, in turn, was based on Lee's own memoirs, which had been a popular book.

This is a big budget movie with a fairly big name director and name cast, headed by Bette Midler, who was sort of the the crescendo of her powers in Hollywood when this was made.  So I am assuming it was quite the event during broadcast.  (But, again, in December of 1993, I was in a dorm taking my first college exams, so I missed all of this).

First and foremost, this is a Bette Midler star vehicle.  While it is about who Gypsy Rose is and how she came to be, it's really about someone's showbiz mom (Midler) living through delusions of grandeur and forcing her two daughters to perform in vaudeville, even as vaudeville's days are closing.  

Momma Rose is controlling and will do anything to make her daughter, Baby June, a star, while her other daughter, Louise, is along for the ride - as the seemingly less talented of the two.  Eventually the girls grow up, and Baby June flees to marry one of the dancers in their show, leaving Louise to carry her mother's dreams.  

Through happenstance, Louise is booked into a Burlesque show as the wholesome act, but has to go on one night as a burlesque performer and is rocketed to stardom, which means she no longer needs Momma Rose pushing her.  

The juicy parts mostly belong to Midler as Momma Rose.  The adult Louise is played by Cynthia Gibb.  But the TV movie is littered with name talent in bit parts, just happy to be there.  Tony Shaloub.  Ed Asner (who would appear with Chabert in three All of My Heart movies).  Peter Reigert plays a major role.  Andrea Martin. Michael Jeter.  Christine Ebersole (who never gets to wear clothes).  

Chabert appears as the child version of Baby June in a blonde wig, reminding us that she started on Broadway.  Curiously, her sister, Louise, is played by a junior edition of Elisabeth Moss.  Who knew?

The film's director, Emile Ardolino had mostly done stage and other live adaptation performances for TV, but had spent the prior decade making Dirty Dancing, Sister Act, and Chances Are.  Sadly, he died between production and delivery of this film.

I...  am not sure I loved this film.  It's fine.  It's two hours and thirty minutes.  One artifact of the TV film is that it was shot for TV's in the 90's, which means smaller screens and a 4:3 ratio - which my version had trimmed for 16:9 instead of just putting black bands on the sides for Academy Ratio.  So the visuals took some getting used to.

The first thirty minutes were absolutely manic in a way that suggested they just wanted to get past this part, but it's also an exposition heavy bit driven by music.  And I just kind of wanted it to breathe for a minute so I could figure out who was who, what was important, etc...

Once they get to the part where the adult actors took over for the kids, it eventually started gelling and the pacing worked much better.  

But it never stops feeling like a stage show where people are acting to the back row, which is a choice for 90's TV when everything is shot in close-ups and mid-range shots.  

Broadway never quite shook off the Ziegfield mode of showing lots of women in very little clothing, and in a show about a burlesque performer, the back 1/3rd of the show certainly gets us there.  It was a thing Broadway could offer that movies and TV couldn't by the time the show hit the stage.  But it's also eye-popping to see that this was on broadcast TV and now has basically a TV-MA rating based solely on the costumes, I think.  The 1990's were a wild time.  But this was also not so far from your basic Coors ad of the era.

Is it stupid?  

No.  This is maybe one of the most beloved musicals of the past century.  But the TV film is a curious artifact of it's time from a technical perspective.  Midler is good, and that's mostly all you need.  But I'm not sure - because of the format - that this film is the definitive version or couldn't be done better tomorrow.  

I will be honest and say, Chabert had a whole scene before I realized that was her - because I was looking for the moppet from the dumb Kirk Cameron movie we watched.  Here, Chabert is in full theatre-kid mode, singing, dancing, doing cartwheels, etc...  She's great!  I knew she started as a Broadway actor (and doing commercials), appearing in Les Mis.  Now I kind of wonder what happened to her trying to sing and dance, knowing she did both as a kid.  But once she was on Party of Five, all of that went out the window.  

It was mind-blowing to see her alongside Elisabeth Moss, but it also makes sense from a generational perspective.  Moss should have recruited her for an exciting Christmas episode of The Handmaid's Tale.

But both are in the movie for maybe 20 - 25 minutes and then gone.