VIDEO: On This Day, March 27: Light the Lights! Patti LuPone Stars in GYPSY on Broadway!

On this day in 2008, Patti LuPone opened as the greatest stage mother in history, 'Mama' Rose Hovick, in Arthur Laurents' Broadway revival of Gypsy!

Producers Roger Berlind, The Routh Frankel Baruch Viertel Group, Roy Furman, Debra Black, Ted Hartley, Roger Horchow, David Ian, Scott Rudinand Jack Viertel presented this new Broadway production of the great American musical Gypsy, starring Tony Award winner Patti LuPone.

Gypsy reunited LuPone with co-stars Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti. Directed by multiple Tony Award winner and author of the musical Arthur Laurents, the production would go on to receive three Tony Awards for LuPone, Benanti, and Gaines.

Set during the vaudeville era, Gypsy is about a relentless stage mother, Rose, who travels the country with her two daughters, June and Louise, and their manager, Herbie. While June and Louise wish their mother would settle down and marry Herbie, Rose continues to pursue dreams of stardom for her girls. When June deserts the act, Rose turns her attention to the shy Louise, whom she hopes to fashion into a star. When the act is booked into a burlesque house by mistake, Louise is forced into the spotlight and Gypsy Rose Lee is born.