[STEPHEN SONDHEIM, spoken]
Jule Styne and I realized with Gypsy that Ethel Merman, the star, really had no solo in the second act except for her big climactic number at the end of the show. So Jule and I wrote a song in Philadelphia called "Smile, Girls" which is Ethel, or Madame Rose, in the desert telling her ragtag group of performers how to perform. It was in for exactly one performance because we realized it hеld up the story.