Imelda Staunton to play Mama Rose in ‘Gypsy’
By Ben Kelly
The programme for the annual Chichester Festival Theatre was unveiled yesterday (March 6), and its top billing is a new production of Gypsy – with Imelda Staunton leading as the original stage mother, Mama Rose.
The show will be produced by the same creative team behind the Chichester production of Sweeney Todd in 2011, which starred Staunton and Michael Ball. That production made a hugely successful transfer to London’s West End, and won Olivier Awards for Staunton and Ball – a success which many expect Gypsy to replicate.
Gypsy is often considered the greatest American book musical, and Mama Rose has been played by entertainment legends from Ethel Merman and Angela Lansbury on stage, to Bette Midler in a 1993 TV movie version.
But the camp doesn’t stop there. This year’s Chichester season also features a production of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband with Patricia Routledge, and a new production of Mozart biopic Amadeus, starring Rupert Everett.
Gypsy runs from October 14 to November 8, and tickets are available on the festival’s official website.
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