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Everything's Coming Up Sunshine and Santa Claus

Since we're looking at a new version of "Gypsy," down the road, I have to say I'm a bit obsessed with "Let Me Entertain You":

Let me entertain you
Let me make you smile
Let me do a few tricks
Some old and some new tricks
I'm very versatile

And if you're real good
I'll make you feel good
I want your spirits to climb
So let me entertain you
And we'll have a real good time, yes sir
We'll have a real good time

 This is a song that Rose presumably wrote (Sondheim is writing as Rose-the-writer), and it is reprised ad nauseam throughout the first act. We hear it over and over, and we sense that Rose can't be bothered to generate new material (and we also feel some of the exhaustion that Rose herself is surely feeling).

What I love:

-The song is a bit needy. "Let me entertain you": The writer is pleading with us. Wouldn't a more "effortless" performer simply launch into the entertainment? But Rose actually can't provide much in the way of a diversion. So she is just treading water.

-There's a sense of workmanlike faux-cleverness--which Sondheim, who is *actually* clever, inserts deliberately. The internal rhyme of "real good/feel good": No one is bothering to come up with a new adjective that is different from "good." The cutesy rhyme of "smile" and "versatile." The emphasis on telling, rather than showing: "I want your spirits to climb," but where's the evidence? When you hear this song in the show, you might not pay close attention, but the more carefully you look, the more perfectly Sondheim seems to have eased himself into Rose's mindset, to do this small bit of writing.

-The song becomes acidic and shocking in the Second Act; Louise uses it for her stripper routine. "Feel good" and "new tricks" now take on slightly greasy meanings. This seems like adolescent rebellion: Louise is giving her mother the finger subtextually through her slightly sordid stripper routine. Delightful!

-Imagine how the song would change if June (or Louise) simply said, "I'll entertain you." "I'll make you smile." That "let me" adds an extra helping of insecurity and desperation. Such an inspiration! Hats off to Steve, and Happy Weekend to you.
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