Mama Rose is loosely based on Mama Rose from the musical Gypsy, as are other characters throughout this webcomic. They aren’t direct copies, although Mama Rose is the closest to the original in how Rose’s regard for her own child(ren) were less important than her own needs. The musical version has Rose with serious (sometimes desperate) attachment issues, while my Rose callously disregards her child – my Rose does not deny her exploitation and doesn’t care what people think of her as long as her image doesn’t get in the way of business. In this, she is much more like Ebenezer Scrooge than Rose Hovick.
I seem to come back to the Rosalind Russell reference well all the time. Most references seem to come from either the movie Gypsy or from Auntie Mame (my favorite movie EVER). We could play “Spot The Reference” with almost every page of Gypsy…
Thanks for reading,
-gg
