In the first act, Blanchard is presented with a young lamb as a birthday present from Momma Rose (Bernadette Peters) and then sings the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim charmer “Little Lamb.” At the 2003 Tony nominees press reception, Blanchard spoke about sharing the stage with the scene-stealing creature: “They try to keep the lamb for two to three weeks — it depends on how it’s growing. But after two weeks, they’re jumping out of my hands in the middle of the song! They don’t want to sit there anymore. Last night it was terrible — the lamb was jumping out, I was going flat. It was just a mess,” Blanchard laughed, “but I try to keep acting.” The ebullient Blanchard, who is making her Broadway debut in the Arthur Laurents-Styne-Sondheim musical, also said, “I’m having so much fun [in Gypsy. It’s my first time on the theatre stage. I did plays in grammar and high school, but this is different. . . . It’s wonderful. At first I felt like I was in high school again — like, ‘Oh my God, this is what acting is’ — after doing movies and TV. It’s just a breath of fresh air to be doing theatre now. And this means maybe I have a shot in the theatre world!”

Tammy Blanchard received a 2003 Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. The young actress won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries/Movie for her work as Judy Garland in "Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows." She also garnered Golden Globe, AFI TV and Golden Satellite award nominations for that performance. A New Jersey native, Blanchard's other credits include "Stealing Harvard," "We Were the Mulvaneys" and three years on the CBS daytime serial "Guiding Light."

Gypsy plays the Shubert Theatre, 225 West 44th Street.