Betty Buckley: Arthur Laurents put the kibbosh on my "Gypsy"

[chanel]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 10:58am

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2013/05/betty_buckley_o.php

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 11:04am

I am not sure if there was a point to that piece

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 11:09am

Laurents was right. She didn't know how to play Rose.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 11:20am

I love how the photo makes La Dolce Musto look like The Declaration of Independence. But with a more important signee.

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 11:21am

I saw her perform "Rose's Turn" in concert and she was amazing. I couldn't get over how well she interpreted the song. It was really beautifully done-and stopped the show. I'd have liked to see her play Mama Rose but didn't get to Papermill to see her.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 1:37pm

Wasn't Sondheim also not into Buckley's performance as Rose? I thought he also played a role in the show not transferring but maybe I'm thinking of something else.
I remember years ago there were a bunch of YouTube clips of Buckley as Rose in this production and she was terrible (as far as clips go anyway). I'll never forget she actually did a batting gesture when Rose sings "they take bows and you're batting zero," it just didn't seem like this was a role for her.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 1:46pm

I saw it! Thought Betty did a great job in the role. I enjoyed it and do not particularly thinking anything bad of her performance.

Maybe Laurents was annoyed because Betty didn't sing parts of the song in Spanish?

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 2:09pm

I saw the production and Betty's big dramatic moments were stunning, but she was humorless. She seemed to forget that the first act is pretty much a typical musical comedy and she just wasn't funny. At all. I think that's what killed her Rose.

I loved her "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Rose's Turn." She brought such intense desperation to them. It was kinda scary.

It seemed that she was more interested in doing a psychological study of Rose instead of just playing her the way she was written, which is a shame. It sucked all the fun out of the show.

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 2:16pm

I don't know. I like actors who dare to play a role in their own way rather than 'just as written'. Why reinterpret or revive anything if that's the only way the role should be played?

I didn't see her full performance, just Rose's Turn in concert. And it was riveting and complex-which I prefer.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 2:19pm

I love her but she played the role like she was doing a musical version of Medea.

In Ancient Greek.

[newintown]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 2:24pm

And she used to be so funny...

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 2:58pm

Her "Rose's Turn" at the Carnegie Hall concert was thrilling.

Her subsequent performance of the entire show at Paper Mill was deadly. She missed every joke in the show. It was the most humorless Rose I hope to ever see.

I just read a slightly different version of Musto's story somewhere (was it in one of those Ethan Mordden books maybe) that Sondheim berated Laurents on the limo ride home from Paper Mill for being so tactless to Betty. Not that he disagreed, mind you, but he thought that Laurents didn't need to be that overtly mean.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 3:30pm

Sondheim berated Laurents on the limo ride home from Paper Mill for being so tactless to Betty. Not that he disagreed, mind you, but he thought that Laurents didn't need to be that overtly mean.

It was a conversation Arthur and Steve had regularly.

[Claudia Draper]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 3:54pm

wait for BARBRA...just wait...and wait...and wait......and

[Musical Master]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 7:13pm

Claudia, I'm still waiting for Barbra to do Funny Grandma.

^^PJ, I'll bet they had conversations like that in Anyone Can Whistle when it was being made... Or is it everyday?

Updated On: 5/6/13 at 07:13 PM

[egghumor]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 7:00am

It seems Debbie Gibson took acting tips from her co-star Betty Buckley. Gibson went on to become what is widely regarded as the unfunniest of FUNNY GIRLs.