Erik Preminger wonders aloud whether it’s strange for a man in his 70s to devote so much time talking about his mother. In the home in Orinda he shares with his wife, Linda, there are nods to his mom in many places, most notably gallery of photos hung in a study. The glamorous black-and-white portraits show burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee posed seductively. In a few pictures,  her skirts are lifted as part of the routine that made her famous. 

“Her striptease never really changed,” says Preminger.

But, he’s quick to point out, what made Gypsy Rose Lee a star in the early 20th century burlesque world and the subject of the 1959 musical “Gypsy” wasn’t her undressing, it was the intellectual musings and witty asides she recited while she stripped. Preminger effortlessly recalls Lee’s most famous monologue, “The Psychology of the Stripteaser,” which showed off her comedic timing — and a hint of G-string. 

“It was a very extraordinary childhood, but in a very ordinary way,” he says about touring the world with his mother. For a woman who was never far from the headlines in her lifetime, Preminger says Lee was surprisingly down-to-earth, even practical. That included enlisting her son as the official photographer on her tours when he was about 9. “My mother sort of trained me to keep her alive.”

Preminger has done just that with an autobiography and a one-man stage show, and by talking about his mother for new productions of “Gypsy,” which Bay Area Musicals is staging at San Francisco’s Alcazar Theatre through Dec. 8.

“In a way, this musical is a gift my mother gave me,” he says.

For many, “Gypsy” is one of the most significant shows in 20th century American musical theater. Adapted from Lee’s memoir by “West Side Story” scribe Arthur Laurents, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, it tells the story of her early years as a child performer on the traveling vaudeville circuit, where she supported her sister, “Dainty June” Havoc, who was the star of the family’s musical act. Both Lee (born Louise Hovick) and her sister were pushed into the spotlight by their mother, “Mama Rose” Hovick, a role considered one of the great showcases for women.

The role of Mama Rose was created on Broadway by Ethel Merman, and has since been played by Rosalind Russell and Bette Midler in film versions and Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone and Imelda Staunton onstage. Song titles like “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” have even entered the vernacular because of the musical’s popularity.

Preminger also proudly points out that the musical is commonly produced at high schools and smaller theaters across the world, with Barbra Streisand even expressing interest in making a third film version. Those plans have since been called off, but a new film is reportedly under development with “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino. 

Although Lee is the title character of the musical, which explains the origin of her career, Mama Rose is the show’s lead, with the character of Gypsy Rose Lee coming into focus only in Act 2.

“If you read my mother’s book, everything in the musical is in there,” says Preminger. “I remember Arthur (Laurents) coming by the house to talk to her about the script. She said, ‘Darling, I don’t care what you do so long as you call it ‘Gypsy.’ “

Laurents was drawn to the stories about Lee’s mother, including one about a hotel manager being thrown out a window (possibly by Mama Rose herself), which shifted the weight of some of the musical’s emphasis.

“It actually makes a lot of sense to me that Louise/Gypsy is more of a supporting player in the musical in some ways,” says actress Jade Shojaee, who plays Gypsy Rose Lee in the Bay Area Musicals production. “In the show, and from what Erik has told us, she never got her own say in the years the show covers. It makes perfect sense the show would be driven by Rose.”

Lee was a fan of the musical, says Preminger, noting that she benefited financially from the show’s huge success. 

While most theater lovers know the story of the musical, the show’s book actually covers Lee’s life only up to her early 20s. She went on to a long and varied career until her death in 1970 at age 59 (Lee’s exact age was uncertain, says Preminger, because Mama Rose lied about her daughters’ birth dates to make them seem younger for audiences but old enough to get around child labor laws). That career included work in films, appearances on the Broadway stage, and sold-out arena shows at major venues and events like the World’s Fair. In the 1960s, Lee even hosted a television talk show in San Francisco, flying up weekly from Beverly Hills to tape it.  

Lee was also a voracious reader who had friendships with many of the leading artists and writers of her time. In the 1940s, she rented a room in a house in Brooklyn that was home to famed artists, including poet W.H. Auden, writer Carson McCullers, composer Benjamin Britten and literary editor George Davis, while she wrote her first mystery novel, “The G-String Murders.”

Preminger’s own origin story is equally theatrical. As a teenager, he learned that the man whose name was on his birth certificate was not his father. His dad was film director Otto Preminger, who had an affair with Lee.  As an adult, he worked for his birth father and remembers him as a “warm, loving man.”

He met his grandmother Mama Rose only three times, he says, the first when she came to the door of Lee’s New York home when Preminger was just 5 years old.

“My mother didn’t want to see her,” Preminger recalls. “Then she asked if I let her in the house. She was waiting in the foyer. My mother said, ‘Make sure she doesn’t clip the Picasso.’ ” 

Preminger’s book about growing up with his mother has been optioned for the screen several times, and he has “no doubt that it will be done and that there will be another movie of ‘Gypsy.’ “

Shojaee would also like to see a project that takes a second look at the real Gypsy Rose Lee. 

“Erik’s stories really showed me how ahead of her time she was,” says Shojaee. “It would be nice to delve deeper into her life, beyond what’s in the musical.”

Upon reflection, Preminger says that being the keeper of his mother’s memory hasn’t been a burden.

“I don’t mind talking about my mother,” he says. “She was extraordinary.”

“Gypsy”: 7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Through Dec. 8. $40-$85. Alcazar Theatre, 650 Geary, S.F. 415-441-6655. www.bamsf.org