Show Synopsis:
Rose desperately wants both of her daughters, June and Louise, to be star vaudeville performers, but clearly favors the more talented and extroverted June. She coerces a man named Herbie into being their agent, and the girls grow up performing the same kiddie act over and over. The girls begin to realize how much control their mother has on their life, and after June elopes with a dancer named Tulsa, Rose focuses on making Louise the star of the family. The new act struggles to find venues, and Rose despairs when the only performance they get is at a burlesque club. She agrees to marry Herbie and break up the act so that they can lead more normal lives, but when she pushes Louise into burlesque striptease, Herbie leaves her. Through this stroke of luck, Louise becomes a major burlesque stripstease star and tells Rose she does not need her anymore. Without anyone else to push around in her dreams, Rose realizes that she wanted stardom for herself all along.

Character:
Rose, a loud and brassy woman in her 40s who has a secret longing to be a huge star; pushes her daughters to succeed on the stage at all costs; sacrifices love, a real home, and a unified family for the sake of stardom for June, and later Louise; finds it difficult to confront her own feelings; tenacious.

Song Context:
Rose?s father will not give her the money she needs to further her daughters? stage career, and she is incredibly frustrated because she wants to be active.

Fun Facts:
1. Ethel Merman originated this role on Broadway, and Sondheim described the qualities that made her a good fit for Rose, despite her lack of experience as a dramatic actress, as "obnoxious indomitability, an unstoppable confidence, [and] a total absence of self-censorship.? 2. The original version of this song started with a verse in a higher key that commences after Rose tells her father to go to hell. Merman asked for it to be cut because she did not want people to hear her cursing her father, even in character. 3. Sondheim described the character of Rose as a ?dramatist?s dream, the self-deluded protagonist who comes to a tragic/triumphant end.? This song sets up Rose?s dreams and fallacies, so that the audience sees how she will fall later in the play.