Imelda Staunton to Play 'Rose' in Chichester Festival's GYPSY, Fall 2013

According to the Daily Mail, Imelda Staunton will play Mama Rose in the Chichester Festival production of Gypsy, directed by Jonathan Kent, next fall in 2013. The show has not been seen on the West End for more than 30 years.

Read the original report here.

Gypsy, featuring book by Arthur Laurents, Music by Jule Styne and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, is based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee. The original production by David Merrick and Leland Hayward features direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins. The original Broadway show starred Ethel Merman as Rose and played for 702 performances at the Broadway Theatre. Gypsy then played 300 performances in LonDon Starring Angela Lansbury. Gypsy has been revived on Broadway four times, starring in turn Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone.

The musical tells the story of the ultimate stage mother, Rose, and her daughters June and Louise. The family takes their vaudeville act—a dying art—on the road in the 1920s and runs straight into the burgeoning art of burlesque. The music features the songs "Let Me Entertain You", "Some People", "If Momma Was Married", "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and more.

Staunton most recently appeared this year on the West End as Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd. Her other West End credits include Guys and Dolls (in both 1982 and 1996), Into the Woods and more, as well as The Beggar's Opera for the London Fringe.

Winner of two Olivier Awards—one for A Chorus of Disapproval and The Corn Is Green and another for Into the Woods, Staunton has appeared onstage in productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she starred as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and The National Theatre . Credits include A Man for All Seasons, Mack & Mabel, Side by Side, Elektra, Entertaining Mr. Sloane and more.

She is well known for her role as Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge in the Harry Potter film series, as well as appearing on the British TV series Up the Garden Path. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the film Vera Drake. Other film credits include Much Ado About Nothing, Deadly Advice, Sense and Sensibility, Twelfth Night, Bright Young Things, Freedom Writers, Shakespeare in Love and more.