It's their turn: Joe Calarco and Sherri L. Edelen talk about Gypsy at Signature

DC Theatre Scene: Stephen Sondheim is the Shakespeare of musical theatre, Joe Calarco told me. To extend the comparison, does that make the role of Mama Rose in Gypsy Sondheim’s Lear? Certainly the power and appeal of that part helps to explain why Gypsy has had more revivals on Broadway than any other musical from the later half of the 20th Century that I can think of. Is there another role that has won three actors a Tony award? I can’t think of one. (And Ethel Merman would likely have won in any year in which The Sound of Music hadn’t also opened.)