She entered the Broadway cast of 'Panama Hattie' during its run, continuing her sequence of major musical comedy roles.
On October 30, 1940, Gypsy Rose Lee joined the Broadway cast of Panama Hattie, another Cole Porter musical comedy that was among the biggest hits of the 1940 Broadway season, originally starring Ethel Merman. Her entry into this production during its run continued a pattern established earlier in the year with Du Barry Was a Lady, of Lee stepping into major book musicals as a bankable star attraction.
Panama Hattie was a lighthearted wartime-era musical comedy that capitalized on escapist entertainment themes popular as America edged closer to involvement in World War II. Lee's participation in the production demonstrated her continued desirability as a Broadway performer capable of drawing audiences through her name recognition and stage presence, independent of the burlesque striptease routines that had originally made her famous.
This appearance further solidified her standing within the mainstream New York theater establishment during a pivotal period in her career, as she increasingly diversified her professional activities beyond burlesque into legitimate musical theater, film, and eventually authorship. Her ability to move fluidly between these registers—burlesque stardom and Broadway musical comedy—was relatively unusual for entertainers of her era and contributed to her enduring, multifaceted celebrity status throughout the 1940s and beyond.