Quotes by Karen Abbott

Karen Abbott

A half-century before Madonna, Gypsy [Rose Lee] understood how to make performance out of desire, how to exploit the very human and eternal instinct to always want most what we’ll never have.

Desire

Half

Rose

An amusing city, Chicago, any way you look at it. I’m afraid we are in for the time of our lives.

Chicago

Cities

Looks

Burlesque thrived during the Great Depression, and by extension, so, too, did Gypsy [Rose Lee]. Men could no longer afford to pay $5.50 to see a show on Broadway, but they could scrape together $1.00 for a matinee at a burlesque house.

House

Men

Rose

Classic burlesque in the style of Gypsy which many modern burlesque troupes practice is, at its core, so playful and teasing and innocent. It’s not hardcore stripping so much as letting your body tell a story; the women are playing characters and unfolding a complete narrative onstage, with beginning, middle, and end.

Character

Practice

Style

Female spies typically represented one of two extremes: the seductress who employed her wiles to manipulate men, and the cross-dresser who blended in by impersonating them.

Men

Spy

Two

Gypsy [Rose Lee ] was a masterful storyteller, and her memoir and by extension, the musical weren’t only Gypsy’s monument; they were also her chance for monumental revisionism.

Chance

Musical

Rose

Gypsy [Rose Lee] is as unique as she is timeless. Her story is classic Americana, and the strangest rags-to-riches saga you’ll ever read; I like to call it Horatio Alger meets Tim Burton.

Riches

Rose

Unique

Gypsy [Rose Lee] wasn’t a linear person, and she didn’t live life in a linear fashion. She was relentlessly self-inventing, and moved backward as often as she moved forward.

Fashion

Live Life

Self

Gypsy [Rose Lee], who was called Louise as a kid, gave her first performances here with her sister [June Hovac], playing for the local Masonic lodge halls. It was a tight-knit community, and the support and success the act enjoyed here enabled them to hit the road and make it in big-time vaudeville.

June

Kids

Rose

Her sister [June Havoc] said the musical portrayed who Gypsy [Rose Lee] wanted to be before the burlesque thing happened she wanted to be this beautiful, romantic person with dreams. So Gypsy told the story of her life as she wished she’d lived it: embellishing, softening the edges, eliminating certain things altogether.

Beautiful

Dream

June

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Able

Beautiful

Book

Casts

Challenges

Chance

Character

Chicago

Children

Cities

Country

Cousin

Creation

Desire

Dream

Essentials

Fashion

Fireworks

Gypsy

Half

House

Ideas

Intelligent

June

Keys

Kids

Laughing

Live Life

Looks

Men

Mother

Musical

Narrative

New York

Night

Orchids

Practice

Real

Riches

Roots

Rose

Self

Sex

Shining

Simple

Son

Sorry

Sparks

Spy

Style

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

Tool

The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by Karen Abbott

Karen Abbott

A half-century before Madonna, Gypsy [Rose Lee] understood how to make performance out of desire, how to exploit the very human and eternal instinct to always want most what we’ll never have.

An amusing city, Chicago, any way you look at it. I’m afraid we are in for the time of our lives.

Burlesque thrived during the Great Depression, and by extension, so, too, did Gypsy [Rose Lee]. Men could no longer afford to pay $5.50 to see a show on Broadway, but they could scrape together $1.00 for a matinee at a burlesque house.

Female spies typically represented one of two extremes: the seductress who employed her wiles to manipulate men, and the cross-dresser who blended in by impersonating them.

Gypsy [Rose Lee ] was a masterful storyteller, and her memoir and by extension, the musical weren’t only Gypsy’s monument; they were also her chance for monumental revisionism.

Gypsy [Rose Lee] is as unique as she is timeless. Her story is classic Americana, and the strangest rags-to-riches saga you’ll ever read; I like to call it Horatio Alger meets Tim Burton.

Gypsy [Rose Lee] wasn’t a linear person, and she didn’t live life in a linear fashion. She was relentlessly self-inventing, and moved backward as often as she moved forward.

Gypsy [Rose Lee], who was called Louise as a kid, gave her first performances here with her sister [June Hovac], playing for the local Masonic lodge halls. It was a tight-knit community, and the support and success the act enjoyed here enabled them to hit the road and make it in big-time vaudeville.

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Topics by Karen Abbott

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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