For a long time, Jenn Thompson’s directing career was focused on straight plays.

That changed after Goodspeed Musicals asked her to direct the musical “Bye Bye Birdie” in 2016 at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam.

“That ended up opening that world up for me,” she says.

Since then, she has directed quite a few musicals. The list now includes one that she says “has been on my radar as a director, like a huge bucket list (item).”

She is talking about “Gypsy,” which she is directing at The Goodspeed.

And while it was at the top of her list of shows she wanted to helm, she can’t imagine it not being at the top of everybody’s list, too.

“I think a lot of people consider this to be the greatest American musical ever written. I’d have to concur,” she says.

“Gypsy,” which premiered on Broadway in 1959, was created by a murderers row of musical theater geniuses: lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, music by Jule Styne, and book by Arthur Laurents. The story, set in the 1920s into the 1930s, is loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, who became famous for her striptease act. Her mother, Momma Rose, pushed her two daughters into show business; Rose Louise Hovick became Gypsy Rose Lee, and Ellen Hovick became June Havoc, a renowned actress in her own right. (Louise and June are played by child actors and then by adult actors in “Gypsy.”)

The show features some of the best-known songs in musical theater, including “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Together (Wherever We Go),” “Let Me Entertain You” and “Rose’s Turn.”

Thompson explains more about what drew her to “Gypsy”:

“There’s really nothing else like it. It has all the demands of a play. I mean, it’s an incredible book … Even in terms of my prep, it’s really like a play. It’s a lot of two-handers, a lot of three-handers. … The company is never all onstage together — during the bows will be the first time. It’s a very specifically, strategically and fascinating way to structure a play. There’s a whole group of people that are not in the second act and a whole group of people that are not in the first act. So for a director, it’s this incredibly full play — it’s all the demands of a play and all the demands of a big musical,” she says.

The ultimate stage mother

As for the iconic character of Momma Rose, she is the ultimate stage mother.

Having been a child actor, Thompson is well acquainted with stage mothers.

“Of course, growing up in the business (I was) surrounded by that. My mom was kind of the anti-stage mom. I mean, I was in ‘Annie’ for two years on Broadway, and my parents saw it three times. They saw opening night, closing night and one random show in the middle. There were parents who were there every night, didn’t miss a performance. Every night. Not my parents,” she says.

“But what I do have in common with the story (in ‘Gypsy’) is (show business) became my family’s entire identity and almost religion. So this kind of out-of-balance zeal for show business is something that I definitely relate to,” she says.

Thompson’s parents, Joan Shepard and Evan Thompson, were both actors. They were founding members of the River Rep Theatre Company, the New York-based troupe that presented summer stock theater at the Ivoryton Playhouse for nearly two decades. Jenn and brother Owen followed their parents into theater and were integral to River Rep, along with Jenn’s husband Stephen Kunken and the late actor Warren Kelley.

Just before she started working on “Gypsy,” Thompson directed a version of “Annie” and the world premiere musical of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and so, she says, “it’s really been the year of the child for me. I’ve done a lot of shows with kid actors, which I very much enjoy.”

Thompson says it was interesting to do “Gypsy” right after directing “Annie,” “which had a lot of stage mom action involved,” and also to do “Gypsy” less than a month after losing her own mother, who died in March at age 91. “So it feels like all roads have led to here,” Thompson says.

While “Gypsy” deals with a mother who wants her daughters to become showbiz stars, Thompson says, “I don’t think you have to have anything to do with show business to relate to that journey. It could be a soccer mom. There are a million versions of this kind of parenting, which was unusual or maybe slightly unusual in the 1920s, when this story was really happening. But I think it is very common now. Everybody wants to be famous, everybody wants their kid on television. … (It’s) America’s obsession with celebrity, whether you play chess or ice hockey or (compete in) the spelling bee or whatever.”

Being Baby June

As a child actor, Thompson actually performed in “Gypsy.” She played Baby June, the younger version of sister June, “like a kajillion years ago,” she says.

Here are some of the things she remembers from that experience: Since the youngsters playing Baby June and Baby Louise are only in the first 20 minutes or so of the show, the production sent them home right when they finished, so they didn’t get to take their curtain call at the end of each performance.

“I remember being so — it’s a funny word to use for an 8-year-old — but bitter about that. I was just like, what the hell? I just worked so hard. It just felt like a sundae without a cherry on top,” she says.

They also had real animals in the show — a lamb, monkey and kitten. “And they all pooped everywhere, all the time, including in our shoes,” she recalls. She adds, “Finally, they put the lamb in a diaper.”

What directing and parenting have in common

Thompson has her own child now. She and Kunken have a 13-year-old daughter, who is not interested in theater at all.

“On a daily basis, I see her doing exactly what she is supposed to do, which is living her life and setting sail. … Parenthood is very similar to directing because the whole point of it is for them to not need you. If you’re doing your job, every day you get a little closer to being superfluous. It’s meant to be,” Thompson says.

“Gypsy” is Thompson’s fifth show at Goodspeed — “I feel so incredibly blessed to say that,” she says. She and Kunken live in Brooklyn but had been looking for a second home in this area for years. About a year and a half ago, they saw that the house her parents used to own in Ivoryton was up for sale from the people they had sold it to. Thompson and Kunken bought it.

So when she was directing “Anne of Green Gables” at Goodspeed last year and “Gypsy” this year, she was able to go to her home in Ivoryton every night.

Rose’s turn

Asked about the character of Momma Rose, Thompson says she feels compassion for her. She makes a lot of bad choices, but there’s a great deal of humanity to her. Thompson notes that actress Judy McLane brings so much vulnerability to the role, which is something that Thompson wanted. (Among the show’s other stars: Talia Suskauer plays adult Louise, and Laura Sky Herman is adult June.)

Louise and June became hugely successful pioneers in the arts world; Thompson notes that June Havoc, for example, was the first woman nominated for a best director Tony award.

“That doesn’t excuse some of the stuff the real Rose did, but she saw something. She wasn’t wrong (about her daughters’ talent). Sometimes parents are pushing and there’s nothing to push,” Thompson says.

There are feminist themes in “Gypsy.” Rose has a line near the end of the show: “I was born too soon and started too late.” Thompson says, “How many people feel like that?”

During that era, women didn’t have a lot of options. Rose says she wants something better for her daughters and she wants them to have a marvelous time.

As the director, Thompson strove to ensure that the romance between Rose and manager Herbie (played by Philip Hernandez) is a potent love story.

“I really wanted a viable, sexual Herbie and Rose. I want to feel that loss (when he leaves). I want to feel like they kind of belong together and she just can’t get out of her way. She’s addicted to show business, and he’s addicted to her. I wanted them to have heat, because it also makes me understand why he stays so long. I didn’t envision him, as is often done, where he’s kind of a nebbish and she just steamrolls him,” she says.

Herbie says to Rose at one point that she looks like a pioneer without a frontier.

“He sees that drive, and he doesn’t love her despite it, he loves her because of it,” Thompson says.

Local Baby Louise

Playing Baby Louise — the child version of the character who turns into Gypsy Rose Lee — is Cameron Blake Miller of Pawcatuck.

Miller’s other credits include “A Christmas Carol” at Trinity Repertory Company, “Frozen Jr.” at Theatre By The Sea, and “Shrek” at Granite Theatre.

What: “Gypsy”

Where: The Goodspeed, 6 Main St., East Haddam

When: Through June 25; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wed., 7:30 p.m. Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 3 and 8 p.m. Sat., and 2 p.m. Sun.; also, select Thursdays at 2 p.m. and select Sundays at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets: $30-$82

Contact: (860) 873-8668, goodspeed.org