Rank Louise's from Gypsy

[esparza 333]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 10:03am

Rank all the broadway Louise's from one to five

Your Louise's are
Sandra Church
Zan Charisse
Crista Moore
Tammy Blanchard
Laura Benanti


I am not a very good judge of this since i Haven't seen any of these productions. But from what I have heard on these boards Laura Benanti would number one. Your Rankings?

Updated On: 7/19/08 at 10:03 AM

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 10:05am

What about the Louise from the Bette Midler tv-movie? I loved her!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 10:06am

Crista

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 10:21am

Zan Charisse.

[Friendofethelm]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 10:22am

Except for Church, I've seen them all. Charisse, in the Lansbury revival, I don't remember, so that tells you something. Moore, opposite Tyne Daly, was fine in Act One, but the strip in Act Two didn't quite come off. Tammy Blanchard (with Bernadette Peters), in my opinion, was miscast completely. Benanti is, by far, the best in what will always be a difficult, almost thankless role. I can imagine most Louise's standing backstage after "Rose's Turn", thinking, "She takes bows, and I'm batting zero!" Lupone, IMO, is brilliant, but I think Benanti winning a Tony for playing Louise is the true "Miracle on 44th Street"!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 10:58am

Natalie Wood
Laura Benanti
Tammy Blanchard
Cynthia Gibb
Crista Moore
Zan Charisse
Sandra Church (even Merman disliked her)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 11:00am

Zan Charisse's performance was the most magical of all the Louise's I've seen.

A gifted singer and actress but especially a dancer, she was able to act both the tomboy and the beauty equally believably. Her dance training allowed her to physicalize the tomboy with so much ease that it was genuinely shocking when she emerged into the pretty girl.

When she joined into "All I Need Is the Girl," she completely took over that number, in a way that no other Louise has ever done. All eyes left Tulsa and were peeled on her. I'm sure it's the way Jerome Robbins originally intended the number, because in the storytelling arc of the show, that is when we, as the audience, are supposed to fall in love with the idea of Louise and Tulsa as a couple, so that we will feel her disappointment in the next scene when the boys tell them that Tulsa and June have eloped.

And the stripper scenes have never been done as sexily. Again, the breathtaking dancer beauty she inherited from her mother (and father), enabled her to walk like the sexiest stripper ever.

Hands down: Zan Charisse.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 11:03am

The apostrophe police would have a field day with this thread.

Of the Louises I've seen, which would be Blanchard, Gibb, Moore, Wood, and Benanti, I'm going with Moore. I agree she wasn't perfect, but she is superior to the others.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 11:20am

Oh ****.

Rath's back.

[D2]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 11:48am

I've seen 'em all, except for Sandra Church.

Zan Charisse/stage - Natalie Wood/film

I liked ALL of the other performers in the role - each of them brought something magical to it. But there was something about Zan Charisse that makes me always go back to her performance as the standard. Maybe because it was the first time I saw GYPSY on stage.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 11:56am

Though many thought the obvious, Zan Charisse's mother was not MGM gem Cyd Charisse. Cyd is her aunt (by marriage).

Zan's father was dancer-choreographer Robert Tucker, and her sister is former CHICAGO revival alumni, Nana Visitor.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 12:47pm

So Zan's mother was Nanette Charisse, not Cyd Charisse?

Wasn't Nanette also a ballet dancer?

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 1:49pm

I have seen all of the Louises on Broadway, in addition to the Louise in the Bette Midler production. There was nothing the matter with Sandra Church's performance. The transformation from Tomboy to stripper was quite moving, and Church handled the "strip" scenes sexily, IMO. Merman's dislike of Church was, I believe, based on her displeasure of Church's attentions to Jule Styne, not her performance.

I certainly do not feel that the part of Louise is a "thankless
one" as one poster remarked. She gets to transform from a somewhat bitter Tomboy to a glamorous "pretty girl", has the poignant "Little Lamb" to sing among other songs, and gets to have a dramatic confrontation with her mother near the end. It is a meaty role.

I have especially enjoyed Sandra Church and Crista Moore but feel that the current Laura Benanti tops them all, with a more dominant feeling of the annoyance and anger Louise has toward her mother throughout the musical and her expert handling of the part of Gypsy Rose Lee. She surely deserved her Tony.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 2:07pm

Church handled the "strip" scenes sexily, IMO.

Well, in the original Broadway run of GYPSY... there was no dialogue patter in Gypsy's strip -- it was performed just like it was in the 1962 film-version. Gypsy's now heard strip patter was added to the 1973-74 revival by Arthur Laurents and used since. It also added a level of authenticity to the strip as that was the real reason Gypsy Rose Lee stood out from all the other strippers during her day, who just took their clothes off (with a gimmick) and that was it. The witty patter was Gypsy Rose Lee's 'gimmick'.

[Friendofethelm]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 3:22pm

I agree with Gypsy9. The role of Louise is a meaty one. I never said it wasn't. But I still think it's relatively "thankless." It's a lovely, big, difficult role, requiring great acting, singing and dancing skills and the ability to "transform" from a shy girl to a vivacious stripper. But the star playing Rose will always get the lion's share of the pre-opening press, the reviews and the bravas. And, until Benanti, the awards.


Updated On: 7/19/08 at 03:22 PM

[Patash]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 4:47pm

Is this the time to mention that when I saw Gypsy last month, I knew Laura Benanti was playing older Louise, and I thought I knew what she looks like and what she sounds like? But when they did the switch from young to older Louise, I literally thought to myself -- "oh, they're actually using three Louise's, with this one being an intermediate one" -- an idea I actually saw in another production once. I can't tell you how long it took be to realize that this totally believable 15 year old was indeed Laura Benanti. And then when she did that transformation standing in front of the mirror in the strip dress, I got chills. It was almost as if I were watching some digital film morphing from one character to another. How did she do that?
Laura Benanti is in a class by herself as far as the Louises go.

[H.Higgins]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 4:56pm

Not a comparison here, but I'll just say that I feel lucky to have seen Ms. Benanti's take on the role. She is mesmerizing in Gypsy.

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 4:57pm

it doesn't surprise me that zan charisse was good in the role. i never saw it (i was still in diapers) but she obviously had it in her genes. her dad was actually the choreographer for the 1962 film version (re-creating Jerome Robbins).

i think moore was good as gypsy and i think she was mighty sexy in the strip sequence. benanti deserved her tony, of all the stage louise's i've seen she's the best. blanchard was hopelessly miscast.

on film wood trumps gibb. louise is one of wood's signature film roles. she'll always be remembered for her maria in 'west side story', her judy in 'rebel', her susie walker in 'miracle on 34th street', her deenie in 'splendor in the grass' and her louise/gypsy in 'gypsy'.

[FranzRelax]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 5:34pm

I don't think Louise is a thankless role at all. But I do believe Merman prevented the role from being much bigger.

[monestere]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 8:31pm

On the stage Zan Charisse is definitely number 1. She is the best dancer to tackle the role of Louise and her acting was fully believable.

A close second among the three I have seen is Tammy Blanchard, who was spectacular vocally, probably the best actress and singer ever in this role on stage, but despite her excellence in retrospect I tend to agree that Louise was not a good fit for her talents.

I have not seen Sandra Church or Crista Moore but one I did see and my least favorite, despite all the raves and the Tony, is Laura Benanti, who after the transformation to Gypsy Rose Lee, was not believable for a second and I don't particularly like her singing. The real Gypsy Rose Lee was beautiful but also clever, witty and never crude as Benati came across to me in the role. I realize this is a minority opinion but it is my own based on the performance I attended.

The greatest actress to have played Louise is by a gigantic margin, the late Natalie Wood, in the 1962 film version. Not one of the three actresses I saw in this role on stage can even come close to the charm, vulnerability and sheer sexiness she displayed as Louise. Simply put, Natalie Wood WAS Gypsy.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 9:16pm

Merman made sure that Sandra Church wasn't in the production very long. Church was replaced by Merle Louise.

[kissmeimirish]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 9:36pm

Lane Bradbury as Dainty June was replaced by Merle Louise. Church eventually left and was replaced by Julianne Marie but, according to an interview with Church, she was in Merm's good graces again by the time she left. Although Merman said in her autobiography that she found Julianne Marie to be more 'professionally compatible.' Which I guess means she wasn't screwing Jule Styne.
Updated On: 7/19/08 at 09:36 PM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 12:30am

Egg-xactly... Merle Louise NEVER played Louise/Gypsy Rose Lee. She was a replacement Dainty June.

[BroadwayBelle2]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 8:23am

Laura Benanti is my favorite! I was a little bored w/ Tammy Blanchard's Louise.

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 7/21/08 at 3:22am

I wasn't a big fan of Tammy Blanchard's wig.