Pam Myers hasn't exactly been out of the local theater headlines, but the last time we seriously checked in was four years ago when she'd returned to her University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music alma mater to try her hand at producing a summer series.

        Producing was interesting, performing is better, says Ms. Myers.

        I caught up with her by phone at St. Louis Rep, where she's holding the stage as Mama Rose inthe great American showbiz musical Gypsy, a show that will transfer to the Playhouse in the Park starting Oct. 16.

        Legendary stage mother Rose, one of the great roles in the Broadway lexicon, is the second half of a one-two theatrical punch Ms. Myers started in July when she starred as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! for Hot Summer Nights at CCM.

        Gypsy rehearsals (in St. Louis) and Dolly! performances (in Cincinnati) overlapped for a week in August, which, looking back, Ms. Myers describes as “brutal.”

        She's happy to be concentrating on just one show these days. Gypsy is a bio of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee starting with her days as a child performer in vaudeville, pushed along by an ambitious, relentless mother.

        “Everyone calls her a monster,” muses Ms. Myers. “She does some monstrous things, but I hope we've made the character a human being — one with problems.”

        A Tony Award-nominated Broadway vet for Stephen Sondheim's Company, now that her son is eyeing college, she's eyeing New York again. Ms. Myers has had a couple of near-miss Broadway auditions, for The Full Monty and the revival of The Music Man. That, she says, “was hard.”

        She's been more successful with her cabaret act, which she performed most recently at Arci's in lower Manhattan in June.

        These days she's in the planning stage for her first CD and keeping most of the contents a surprise. She does say she'd like to re-record “Poor Sweet Baby” from Snoopy. You can hear her first version on the original cast album.

        Ms. Myers is having a great time with Gypsy, except for the high heels and the ramps.

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