The original cast included Ethel Merman as Rose, Sandra Church as Louise, Jack Klugman as Herbie, Lane Bradbury as Dainty June, Paul Wallace as Tulsa, Maria Karnilova as Tessie Tura, Faith Dane as Mazeppa, and Chotzi Foley as Electra.

The production received 8 Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Ethel Merman), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Jack Klugman), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Sandra Church), Best Direction of a Musical (Jerome Robbins), Best Conductor and Musical Director (Milton Rosenstock), Best Scenic Design (Jo Mielziner), and Best Costume Design (Raoul Pène Du Bois).

Why Didn't Gypsy Win?: According to Peter Filichia's book, Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks, people at the time felt that the show opened too early in the 1959-60 Broadway season. When the Tony Awards took place on April 24th, 1960, Gypsy at that point had already been running for almost a year. While some shows still managed to win Best Musical nearly a year or so after opening on Broadway before and since then, they've usually been smash hits that were still selling out during awards season like South Pacific, The King & I, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, My Fair Lady, Hairspray, and Hamilton. With Gypsy, that musical only proved to be a moderate seller. Meanwhile, Fiorello! and The Sound of Music had both only been running on Broadway for 5 months at that point, and were each holding steady. At that point, Gypsy had set a whole new record as the biggest losing production in Tony history with 8 nominations and 0 wins (although that record now belongs to The Scottsboro Boys and Mean Girls as they both went 0 for 12 in their respective years). As for how Ethel Merman lost Best Lead Actress in a Musical, from accounts I’ve read of the time, she was very hit or miss in the role. Either totally on or phoning it in.