For anyone not familiar with “Rose’s Turn” (the song Kurt sang), the lyrics and the mood might not make sense. It’s the final number of Gypsy and it’s been sung by pretty much every Broadway musical diva over 30 at some point. For those who haven’t seen Gypsy, Rose- the mother of two daughters- is an absolutely shameless stage mother who drags and propels daughters kicking and screaming into show business stardom, sometimes headlining and more often hustling for a buck in increasingly dive venues and running from the bill collectors. Her younger daughter, June, the pretty and talented one in Rose’s opinion, elopes at 14 to get away from her, then near the end of the show her ugly duckling older daughter Louise becomes Gypsy Rose Lee, one of the most famous and highest paid acts in the nation and pretty much tells her mother to take a hike (even trying to buy her off).
Mama Rose feels abandoned and unappreciated and this song is her angry catharsis as she confronts her bitterness and her own dreams and her abandonment by her own mother and her own need for attention- the whole works. It’s a very powerful number when you’ve had the full buildup.
My favorite version is probably Patti Lupone’s though there are a thousand on YouTube (Ethel Merman, Rosalind Russell, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Bernadette Peters, and many many others). (Here’s an alternate recording of Luponefrom the night she broke character during Rose’s Turn to yell at an audience member taking flash photos.)
While Mama Rose is an over-the-top shocking and sometimes horrible drama queen, by all accounts among those who knew her the fictional character was a suburban country club matron and soccer mom compared to the real one.
