Angela Lansbury "Gypsy" Recording- Page 2

[magruder]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 8:38am

Love Lansbury, love her Rose (though there are a million key changes and transpositions in "Rose's Turn") but I find a lot of the rest of that recording a tough sit-through. There are plodding tempos and some very bad supporting performances.

[robbiej]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 9:59am

Agreed, magruder.

I was SHOCKED by the changes in key for most of the score. I mean...it's in MY key! And the rest of the supporting cast was lackluster to say the least.

She did, however, perform the hell out of the songs.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:57am

Have to say that Angela's is my favorite. Probably my top "performance I'd most like to have seen." I think she actually sang it best as well as her fierce determination is evident in the recording. I dont feel much in Merman's performance and I only liked Bernadette's performance about half the time, but thought she sang it beautifully when I saw it. Daly I thought was great acting it and had a real chemistry with Hadary as Herbie. I truly loved them together (but hated Christa Moore and Tyne's vocals.) Saw Buckley and would love a recording, but live she was left me cold...except when she sang the score. Reminded me of her in Carrie!

Favorite Gypsy...Cynthia Gibb in Merman's (of the one's that I've seen live.)

Posted: 5/19/05 at 12:09pm

Tyne is one of my faves. The spoken bit before she starts "here she is boys..." is heart breaking.


What I've been holding down inside of me...
Updated On: 5/19/05 at 12:09 PM

[Glebb]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 12:16pm

Only seen Tyne and BP live.
Wish I had seen Angela.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 12:53pm

I do enjoy the Lansbury recording, although it is not my favourite. Her acting of Rose is sensational. But her singing... well Angela's range is not unlimited and the songs were tailored to Merman's strengths, and while Ethel did not have a huge range she did have an unusual voice with seemingly no break between the upper and lower registers. I think this is why people who have followed Ethel in key roles have always been stronger in one over the other.

That said, Lansbury gives the role more depth, and Zan Charisse's strip montage is the best one of all the GYPSY recordings.

Two things trouble me about this version: The British accents, and the way the Newsboys/Farm boys numbers are re-arrange for the recording to put them together in one medley.

Merman brought the most anger to the role and for me remains the #1 choice. My #2 would be the Bernadette Peters because it is the most complete. I would choose Lansbury (#3) over Daly (a distant #4) any day. Daly was sensational in the theatre but sadly the recording was made after a week when she had missed a number of performances because of either a bad cold or laryngitis. On the CD you hear her voice cracking and giving out on her. She was never the greatest singer on Broadway but she did sound much better when I saw her live.

As for the two movie versions, I'd take Midler over Russell any day. But I find Midler acts a caricature and never really gets inside the role. Russell does and I don't mind the older movie but it lacks the punch GYPSY needs.

Funny thing - I just saw the Shaw Festival production of GYPSY yesterday and will post my comments on it shortly.

Posted: 5/19/05 at 1:08pm

I saw Tyne and Linda Lavin. I loved them both.

Frontrow it's funny because the thing I love about Tyne's recording is the cracking. Vocally the best Gypsy I've seen has to be Betty Buckley. I loved her singing but emotionally I didn't connect with her that evening. It was probably me because Betty is wonderful.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 1:55pm

No Chita it wasn't you. It was Betty. She was humorless and charmless as Rose, and leading up to the end of each act, Rose has a lot of comedy to do.

However, I'm a big fan of Betty's and I'll grant that she delivered the spoken lead-in to Rose's Turn better than Lansbury, Daly, Lavin, Midler and Peters (the Roses I've seen): "What I got inside of me, if I ever let it out, there wouldn't be signs big enough, there wouldn't be lights bright enough..."

Buckley delivered those lines like they were written by Euripedes.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 2:33pm

It was great seeing Angela in "Gypsy". I guess I expected her at the time to be more like the mother character in "Manchurian Candidate" yet was surprised at her softer take in the role compared to Merman's. Tyne Daly did surprise me in her acting choices. Her "Rose's Turn" was done in such a maniacal way that it was chilling. By the end of the number she looked truly deranged. I loved the way Bernadette used her sexuality in the role. You finally could understand why Herbie might have hung around all those years. But my fav, without a doubt, was Ann Sothern. She was perfection in the role. She barely got through "Rose's Turn" when the audience was on their feet cheering her. One of my fondest theater memories.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 3:21pm

Wow. Ann Sothern... You win!

The only thing that could top that is: Did anyone see the national tour with JoAnn Worley?

[Demitri2]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 3:46pm

Lol...I saw JoAnn Worley and left out mentioning her. She started out fine but never grabbed me in the role. After a while it was like she was just singing the songs. Maybe it was an off night. Let me put it this way, she came off best in "Mr. Goldstone".

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 5/19/05 at 3:53pm

Angela was an excellent Rose, because she (like Bernadette 30 years later) totally made the role her own. She didn't try to be Merman, which was a good thing. Zan Charisse is my favorite Louise ever, as well.