{"id":3859,"date":"2018-04-29T22:36:10","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T05:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=3859"},"modified":"2018-04-29T22:36:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T05:36:10","slug":"all-about-the-gypsy-robe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2018\/04\/29\/all-about-the-gypsy-robe\/","title":{"rendered":"All About the Gypsy Robe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people aren\u2019t as laissez-faire <\/em>as moi <\/em>(there I go, showing off my foreign tongue again).  Broadway <\/em>was buzzing with news that Actors\u2019 Equity <\/em>would be renaming the legendary \u201cgypsy robe\u201d in \u201cresponse to the cultural implications of the term\u201d \u2013 i.e. so as not to offend the Romany people.  Have I missed a huge outcry about this relatively private Broadway <\/em>tradition?  A Broadway <\/em>\u201cgypsy\u201d is someone in the chorus who goes from show to show, city to city.  The tradition of the \u201cgypsy robe\u201d dates back to the Broadway <\/em>production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes<\/em><\/strong> in 1950.  A male chorister put on a robe and let everyone touch it.  He then sent the robe to Call Me Madam<\/em><\/strong>, where the choristers did a similar thing, except they attached a feather from Ethel Merman<\/strong>\u2019s costume.  They passed it on to Guys and Dolls<\/em><\/strong>, etc.  The current tradition dictates that the robe goes to a Broadway <\/em>show on opening night.  The chorister with the most Broadway <\/em>credits wears it.  That chorister circles the stage three times while cast members touch it for good luck.  The robe wearer blesses each dressing room.  Finally, a memento from the show is affixed to the robe.  When a robe is filled with mementos, it is retired and exhibited in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts<\/em>, the Smithsonian<\/em>, or at Actors\u2019 Equity<\/em>.  That\u2019s the history.<\/p>\n

Somehow, this use of the term \u201cgypsy\u201d has been mixed up with the derogatory term for the Romany people \u2013 as if the chorister in the robe is shaking a tambourine and reading palms!  The \u201cgypsy robe\u201d has as much to do with the Romany people as the \u201cwandering Jew\u201d has to do with Israel!  But, you know \u2013 some people want to sanitize anything that could offend two people.  Petra Gelbart<\/strong>, a curator at RomArchive<\/em>, said, \u201cThe fact that the term \u2018gypsy\u2019 is so often used to denote free-spirited or traveling lifestyles has real-life repercussions for actual Romany people.\u201d  Yes, I\u2019m sure people often look down on free-spirited travelers!  I wondered where this would end.  Days later, Tom Viola <\/strong>from Broadway Cares\/Equity Fights AIDS <\/em>announced that they would not change the name of Gypsy of the Year<\/em><\/strong>, an annual fundraiser where choristers and dancers raise millions of dollars to help those in need.  \u201cWords have different meanings depending on the context in which they are used.  In our theatrical community, \u2018the gypsy\u2019 is beloved.\u201d  Bravo!  Personally, I refuse to get behind any \u201cgypsy\u201d ban that hasn\u2019t been officially sanctioned by Miss Mitzi Gaynor<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

For now, we still have the hugely successful Easter Bonnet Competition<\/em><\/strong> which also benefits Broadway Cares\/Equity Fights AIDS<\/em>.  I say \u201cfor now\u201d because I\u2019m sure some Wiccan or Zoroastrian will find the word \u201cEaster\u201d offensive.  Nonetheless, the racially insensitive fundraiser brought in a record 5.7 million dirty dollars.indeed.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most people aren\u2019t as laissez-faire as moi (there I go, showing off my foreign tongue again).  Broadway was buzzing with news that Actors\u2019 Equity would be renaming the legendary \u201cgypsy robe\u201d in \u201cresponse to the cultural implications of the term\u201d \u2013 i.e. so as not to offend the Romany people.  Have I missed a huge outcry about this relatively private Broadway tradition?  A Broadway \u201cgypsy\u201d is someone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3860,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859\/revisions\/3860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}