Having launched her film career by channeling her vibrant musical spirit into the Joplin-esque rock-blues of The Rose, then bolstering it by covering a decade or three of disparate pop hits on the USO-themed “For the Boys,” Bette Midler sidestepped gracefully into two different milieus via this 1993 television adaptation of the hit 1959 Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical bio of famed stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her domineering mother Momma Rose. The latter role garnered Midler a Golden Globe for her performance in the HBO production, a project that also tends to undercut her reputation as domineering diva — she appears on only seven songs on the Arif Marden-produced soundtrack, one that finds its strengths in a fine ensemble cast that also features Peter Riegert, Jennifer Beck and Cynthia Gibbs.

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