Creator Cameo: On the original Broadway cast album, Rose's father has a single line when she asks him for "eighty-eight bucks" to help get her latest act on the road: "You ain't gettin' eighty-eight cents from me, Rose." But on the day of the recording, the actor didn't show up, so Stephen Sondheim himself read the line. Humorously, Sondheim was so angry at the guy for his absence that he sounded genuinely furious while saying it, prompting Ethel Merman to respond with equal rage.
Cut Song: "Tomorrow's Mother's Day," "Momma's Talkin' Soft," "Nice She Ain't," "Smile Girls," "Who Needs Him?" and "Three Wishes for Christmas." All gloriously restored on the 2008 revival cast recording.
Dawson Casting: During the timespan the show approximately covers, the real Rose Hovick was in her early thirties to early forties. Almost all the major actresses who have played her – 51-year-old Ethel Merman, 55-year-old Rosalind Russell, 49-year-old Angela Lansbury, 53-year-old Linda Lavin, 48-year-old Bette Midler, 55-year-old Bernadette Peters, and 59-year-old Patti LuPone – have been much older, with only 43-year-old Tyne Daly in the 1989 revival downplaying this tradition. Ditto for the actresses in their twenties who usually play the teenage Louise and June, although averted with 12-year-old Ann Jillian playing June in the 1962 film.
In Airplane!, Ethel Merman has a cameo as a shell-shocked veteran who thinks he's Ethel Merman, and "he's" singing "Everything's Coming Up Roses".
Mama Rose of the 1993 TV adaptation is Winifred Sanderson, who now says, "Hello, Salem, my name is Winifred! What's yours?"
Throw It In!: As mentioned above, Stephen Sondheim himself had to fill in for the actor playing Rose's father in "Some People" on the day the cast recorded the original Broadway album. Sondheim was furious at the lack of professionalism and spat his single line with absolute venom, and a surprised Merman fired back with equal anger—and the producers loved it so much that they kept it in the final cut.
Stephen Sondheim was originally supposed to write both music and lyrics for the show, but Ethel Merman vetoed this, as her previous musical Happy Hunting had suffered from a weak score by Broadway newcomers, and it had made her wary of working with a composer whose work had never been produced before. Director Jerome Robbins asked his frequent collaborator Jule Styne to take over as composer. A disappointed Sondheim considered dropping out of the project entirely but was persuaded by his mentor Oscar Hammerstein that he would benefit from learning how to write for an established star.
"Mama's Talkin' Soft," one of the Cut Songs from the score, made it as far as rehearsals. It was originally going to be sung by June and Louise on a high platform as they watched their mother sweet-talking Herbie—but the actress who played Young Louise was terrified of heights and couldn't get through the number without crying, prompting the producers to remove it.
The second act was originally supposed to have Rose's breakdown take the form of a Dream Ballet (as one might expect for a show whose director-choreographer was ostentatiously credited for the "entire production" of both this musical and West Side Story, hit of the previous season). Fortunately, the ballet was never choreographed, and "Rose's Turn" was written instead.
Legal threats from June Havoc almost resulted in June being renamed Clare in the show.
One of June Havoc's demands was that she be portrayed as only thirteen years old when she elopes with Tulsa. note In real life she was sixteen, but she believed she was thirteen due to Rose altering her daughters' birth certificates. Arthur Laurents refused to do this, however, because it would make Rose too unsympathetic when she decides not to go after June but instead make Louise the act's new star. The final script never mentions Dainty June's age apart from the Blatant Lie that she's only nine, and the part is usually cast with young adult actresses (although the 1962 film does portray her as thirteen).
The famous Medley Overture originally included the "Cow Song" and "Together We Go" after "You'll Never Get Away From Me"; Jule Styne, who complained that the overture ran too long, suggested they be replaced with a timpani roll.
Ethel Merman's demo recording of "Some People" has different dialogue between Rose and her father, where she negotiates with him and he finally agrees to give her fifty dollars with two percent interest. This was later replaced by his flat-out refusal to give her any money and her stealing from him.
"Little Lamb" was originally to have been sung by Louise as an interlude within "Mr. Goldstone"; this version can be heard on Ethel Merman's demo recording. It was barely rescued from being cut altogether.
The 2003 revival directed by Sam Mendes was going to be very different to the minimalist set seen in the final production. On Show People David Burtka who played Tulsa remembered the planned staging was going to be smokey with the burlesque house and that Bernadette Peters to sing Rose's Turn with make up running off her face, however Arthur Laurents' threaten to withdraw the production.
Originally, Styne and Sondheim didn't want to end "Rose's Turn" with a proper coda, instead thinking that the number abruptly stopping better reflected Rose's Sanity Slippage throughout the song. But the producers, knowing that the crowd wouldn't be able to keep from applauding Ethel Merman, insisted on adding a proper conclusion to signal that it was time for an ovation. The pair reluctantly agreed, although they were later able to Take a Third Option when Angela Lansbury took over the role: they had her repeatedly bow and thank the audience during the applause, then keep doing so after everyone had stopped clapping, suggesting that the ovation was all in her head.
The final dialogue between Rose and Louise didn’t originally have Rose admit that everything she did was really for herself. But tryout audiences complained that she never admitted it, so a few new lines of dialogue were added. Ethel Merman refused to say them at first, because in her view, Rose would never admit that she did it all for herself. But Jerome Robbins finally convinced her otherwise.
What Could Have Been: Rosalind Russell and Frederic Bisson were hoping to do a straight dramatic adaptation of Gypsy Rose Lee's memoirs, but the rights of the book were tied up in the rights of the stage version. As a result, the film is an adaptation of the musical.
