Alternate Universe: Patti LuPone in Sam Mendes' Gypsy (2003)

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 8/3/24 at 4:41pm

Patti claims that Sam Mendes offered her the role of Rose in his (eventual) 2003 revival of Gypsy - this was in the late 90's when Patti was starring in The Old Neighbourhood on Broadway. She states that Sam wanted her for the role, but Arthur Laurents halted this casting because he barred her from playing Rose in any production in New York (until he later cast her five years later in his own revival for which she won the Tony etc etc...). How do you all think Patti would have fared in Mendes' revival, and would she have won the Tony in 2003 over Marissa Janet Winokur? Would Patti have made a better fit with Mendes' vision (even though we know this was diluted due to Laurents' involvement with the production) than she did in the 2008 production? The 2008 revival seemed like kismet since Laurents and his late partner wanted them to revive the show, and also since Patti had just 'tried out' the role with Lonny Price in Chicago a few years earlier. Thoughts? 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 8/3/24 at 5:29pm

Think everything worked out for the best.

Hairspray was a steamroller.

Patti also greatly improved in each of her three productions as Rose. Her performance in a Mendes-directed revival may have more resembled her Encores performance.

The Patti production also had the benefit of coming on the heels of the not-lauded Bernadette production, and in the Patti production the rest of the cast (if not the physical production) was in tip-top form.

I think Arthur still would have hated the Mendes revival regardless of who was in it, it probably would have sold terribly with LuPone, and he still would have revived it in 2008. And with Patti being Patti he might not have had the warmth towards her in the years after, in the way that he did for Bernadette.

Updated On: 8/3/24 at 05:29 PM

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 8/4/24 at 12:01am

Several people have said (David Burtka being the most vocal) that what Mendes conceived/directed originally was not what ended up on Broadway because Laurents had screaming fight issues with some of the choices but a lot of those choices ended up in his Patti production.

[Ravenclaw]

Posted: 8/4/24 at 12:16am

From what I understand, Mendes had a strong vision for the show--some of which was toned down during previews--and Bernadette fit her performance to that vision. By many accounts, near the end of the run, Bernadette began to do "her own" Rose, which was noticeably different from the show that opened a year prior. Probably for the better. With Gypsy, much like King Lear or Hamlet, you build the production around the actor in the lead role, not the other way around. Laurents built a production around Patti. I don't know how thrilled Patti would have been to fit her performance into Mendes's production.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 8/4/24 at 12:00pm

3 big things seemed to influence those Tony results:

1) Hairspray was a juggernaut and by far the most beloved production of the season.

2) Gypsy was not ready by the start of previews and was heavily criticized in all the tabloids as such, creating lots and lots of negative publicity around the production. 

3) Bernadette missed a lot of performances. 

The only change with Patti presumably would have been the missing lots of performances. The other two things would have remained the same, so no, it seems unlikely that would have been enough to get her the Tony.