The difficulty for a modern star in Gypsy today is the competition with a ghost - Ethel Merman's, to be exact. It's no longer a case of making the role Mama Rose credible in all her volcano-force anomalies - of making her seem crazy yet funny, pitiful, and savage, sinner, and sinned against. She is downright interesting in her own right and in Arthur Laurent's writing, only a sub-par actress would fail to capitalise on that interest.