All-time Best Mama Rose poll!!!!!

With all the current talk about GYPSY and Bernadette's performance (pro and con), I thought it would fun to have a vote for favorite Mama Rose of all. PM your vote to me and I'll post the results later. Based on your knowledge of the performances and/or recordings, or just because you feel like it, vote for your all-time-favorite Broadway or movie performance. And the nominees are....

Ethel Merman (1959 Broadway)
Rosalind Russell (1962 movie)
Angela Lansbury (1973 London, 1974 Broadway)
Tyne Daly (1989 Broadway)
Bette Midler (1993 TV movie)
Bernadette Peters (2003 Broadway)

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I'm gonna have to go with the Divine Miss M...

I agree she embodied everything Mama Rose is about. Not only did she act the hell out of it, she can sing the hell out of it as well. I would love to see her in a live production of it.

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That's so weird. It was the first showing of Gypsy I have ever seen (the movie) and I thought Miss M. was AMAZING! I don't know, I fell in love with her. Now, I want all Rose's to be like her.

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i dunno albin, i think that's the "King Stevos is Hot" message, THAT seems to never die... lol

wow, looks like cbs struck gold when they cast Bette as Mama!

I've heard Betty Buckley's Rose's Turn, it's quite good, I bet she's a good Rose too!

Oh this a great poll....(sarcasm) Since most people weren't even born when Ethel or even Angela played it for that matter. By far the best are Angela Lansbury and Tyne Daly. Bernadette was also wonderful. Just as Arthur Laurents and Sondheim both said, the TV movie with Bette Midler was altogether awful. And once again all of you believe that Mama Rose has to look a certain way, and that's simply not the case.

Updated On: 6/11/03 at 08:37 PM

Arthur Laurents (the librettist) and Steven Sondheim (the lyricist) both hated Bette Midler's take on the role. Arthur Laurents has said on many occasions that his favorites were Angela and Tyne.

Updated On: 6/11/03 at 08:40 PM

I couldn't agree with you more! Bette was just...Rose. I'm surprised she hasn't changed her name...

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No offense at all for anyone, PLEASE dont take offense

but my guess is that the older more sophisticated of our bdwayworld.comers will prolly pick Angela, or Tyne while us younger more pollers will pick Bette. Mainly becuase we've only had an opporutunity to see Bette, Rosalind, Bernie, Betty and maybe Tyne.

Do you guys understand? :)

Hate the OBC recording, there is no depth to Merman's Rose, at least not on the CD (which is all I have to go by). Her Rose's Turn is SO boring in my opinion. She says the "momma's" like they are nothing, and throws away the "for me's" at the end. Angela Lansbury's recording is FAR superior and incredibly powerful. I don't think anyone hear can say Merman was a good or a bad Rose... can't say that unless you've seen her.

Updated On: 6/11/03 at 08:55 PM

Merman, hands down!

again, no offense, but I think it's hard for the creators of a show to be really objective about how their work is interpreted. I'm not saying their take is not without value, it's just that when writers direct their own work it often suffers. I also don't want to say that Laurents doesn't know his stuff, but it makes sense that he would list two he directed himself. Any record of Jerome Robbins' choice? Willing to bet it would not be Merman (which is not to say she didn't bring her own brand to the role, and god forbid is not to offend those who saw her or love the recording of her). And if you've read Laurents autobigoraphy, you know despite his genius, one word that could describe him is "fickle." Wasn't it spun and spun and spun that Bernadette's revival was his inspiration and she was his modern choice for it? does the Tyne and Angela choice come before or after that? for those interested read that book and you might begin to doubt his objectivity on the real world (despite amazing talent and a very good read). It's just a litte TOO convenient how all these people were just dying to get into his bed, and how successfully he seduced them all. And then NONE of them stood by him. All I'm saying is "grain of salt"....

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