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I
started the Vinyl LP series because I have a collection of over 20,000 vinyl record albums; each blog entry is about an album from my collection. The 101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes series is an extension of that collection. .
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The musical
Gypsy which opened on Broadway on May 21, 1959, was a project of producer
David Merrick and actress
Ethel Merman. Merrick had read a chapter of Lee's memoirs in
Harper's Magazine and approached Lee to obtain the rights.
Jerome Robbins was interested and wanted
Leland Hayward as co-producer; Merman also wanted Hayward to produce her next show. Merrick and Hayward approached
Arthur Laurents
to write the book. As he relates, Laurents initially was not interested
until he saw that the story was one of parents living their children's
lives. Composers
Irving Berlin and
Cole Porter declined the project. Finally, Robbins asked
Stephen Sondheim, who agreed to do it. Sondheim had worked with Robbins and Laurents on the musical
West Side Story. However, Merman did not want an unknown composer and wanted
Jule Styne to write the music. Sondheim initially refused to write only the lyrics but was persuaded by
Oscar Hammerstein to accept the job.
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