Angela Lansbury as Mamma Rose..

[binau]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 1:25am

On another forum it seems by consensus Lansbury is apparently the best Rose, but is this the case on this forum, or in general?

Someone even said: "the creators agree that Lansbury was the best." Of course no verification or even explanation of which 'creators' said this..but has anyone heard anything about this?

kthx.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 1:32am

I don't believe Sondheim has a favorite. He doesn't choose one, when he is asked this question. And in Laurent's new book, he praises all of the broadway Roses, never choosing favorite. He even praises many aspects of Bernadette's Rose.
Updated On: 4/19/09 at 01:32 AM

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 2:01am

Tyne Daly's performance was well liked here generally, just like Lansbury's performance, I believe. And as for LuPone/Peters, there's always people who love them or don't.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 10:58am

Angela's Rose was the most astonishing thing I'd seen until LuPone played the part. (I saw Angela 10 times, LuPone 12)

[notabb]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 11:38am

Having seen them all (except Merman) I liked Angela the best. It was chilling at times. Wish it had been filmed.

[Mosca]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 11:44am

Saw them all & Angela was the BEST for me!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 12:13pm

Angela was the first Rose to make people think someone other than Merman could play the role. Her performance was definitive for me until I saw LuPone's.

All the others acted the role well, in different ways, but only Angela and Patti inhabited Rose completely and sang the role brilliantly.

[noradesmond]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 1:39pm

Lansbury was indeed stunning.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 2:39pm

Except for missing Merman, I saw all the Roses that played Broadway except Linda Lavin. My favorite and least favorite were in stock productions. The best was movie actress Ann Sothern and my least favorite was JoAnne Worley.

[explorer]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 2:44pm

Saw Angela 6 times on B'way in Gypsy & she will always be my favorite Mama Rose. Sorry Patti!

[Sonia&Vernon]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 7:34pm

Demitri, I've heard numerous people say that Ann Sothern was the best Rose they ever saw. What do you think made her the best? I love Ann Sothern.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 8:24pm

Acting wise she played it as a tough bird who would steamroll over anybody and everybody to get her girls noticed. Only in her scenes with Herbie would she lower her barriers and was rather poignant. You could see her vulnerability only with him and of course at the end. As a comedienne she was also able to land her joke lines effortlessly. Voice wise she made interesting choices using both her head and chest voice in different songs. In her final triumphant turn at the end she used both voices. I've posted this before...her "Roses Turn" was the first time I ever saw an audience rise and cheer before the song was even over. It was during the passage where she sings "Momma's talkin' loud, momma's doin' fine, momma's gettin' hot, momma's going strong". Beforehand she used her chest voice but all of a sudden when she got to this part she raised her voice a whole octave and out of no where started singing the lyrics in this high pitched jazzy style. The audience went crazy and rose in response applauding wildly. It was a wonderful moment I've never forgotten. After the show I asked my mother if I could wait to get her autograph. We were the the only ones there and when she exited the stagedoor she was yelling at a man I believe might have been her manager telling him she was very upset over something and it should never happen again. Then she looked up and made eye contact with my mom who told her it was a beautiful performance. Ms. Sothern grabbed my mom's hand and warmly said, "Thank you dear" with the sweetest smile on her face. I remember thinking to myself "Wow"....she IS Rose! Years later on a college break I saw Lansbury and thought she'd play it like the bitch mother she played in "Manchurian Candidate". She chose to go in a totally opposite direction making the character much more sympathetic. I respected her opting to play it differently than Merman but much preferred Sothern's courser Rose, rough edges and all. The thing I liked best about Bernadette's performance was that she played it sexy and vixenish and for the first time I could rationalize why Herbie stayed around all those years. Tyne Daly had voice problems when I saw her, Patti is Patti but taking everything into account, Sothern was a revelation and remains my favorite.

[sparrman]

Posted: 4/19/09 at 9:56pm

Wow Demitri2, thanks for that great analysis. I don't even particularly like Gypsy (*dodges objects hurled at head*) but found that fascinating! It's postings like that one that make this board worthwhile.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 4/20/09 at 3:34am

Having done the show four times now, my favorite Rose of those productions was Donna McKechnie. She was not the steamroller that Merman was, but far more calculating in the role. And her "Rose's Turn" showed a woman with a broken dream and a completely unfulfilled life, never having seen any satisfaction. All in all, it was a much more subtle performance than many were used to seeing, but very effective in making the role her own.

I wish that I was around to have seen Ms. Lansbury take on the role. Based on the rare clips I've seen on Youtube it must have been an exciting production.

[jejr]

Posted: 4/20/09 at 12:05pm

Lansbury brought the tears during Rose's Turn. It5 was magnificent. Her scenes with Herbie were tender and loving. It was a performance to be savored for all time.

[noradesmond]

Posted: 4/20/09 at 1:46pm

Thank you for that wonderful info on Ann Sothern as Madame Rose. I've love her since I was a kid and never knew she played the role. Sounds like she was magnificent.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/20/09 at 2:25pm

In an interview with Toronto Star theatre critic Richard Ouzounian, Sondheim admitted that Merman proved to be a much better actress than he had expected, but tshe was better in the first act with the "low comedy" scenes (The Hotel room scene comes to mind) and less effective in the more dramatic second act. On the cast album she really nails Rose's anger in "Some People" and especially "Rose's Turn."

Sondheim said that Angie was just the reverse, stronger in the second half but not quite as good in the first.The cast album is mis-leading because, as with most British cast albums, it sounds tinny and there are a so many wrong notes in the Overture it hurts. To my ears I hear Angela the actress trying to sing a role that is really outside of her range but she is dynamite within it.

I saw Daly the day before the 1990 Tony awards and she was on fire. She was fierce and scary and if you have seen her TV work you know she knows how to play subtext. The cast album was taped after she had missed several performances due to illness, and her voice sounds ragged. Some insist she sounded that way in the theatre and it could be that her acting on stage more than compensated. She deserved her Tony!

There is no single "correct" interpretation of the role of Madame Rose (not Momma Rose!) Each actress can highlight different aspects and it still works. I have seen stars do it I have seen no-name actresses in community productions do it and it (almost) always works. The next one for me will be Louise Pitre in a concert version being done here next fall. Can't wait.

[nealb1]

Posted: 4/20/09 at 2:50pm

I still have very vivid memories of how awful Tyne Daly was in "Gyspy" from when it was here in LA back in 1989. She was awful. Yet, she won a Tony?

Who knew?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/21/09 at 12:37am

Yes, I remember reading terrible reviews and thinking that when it came to NY it would get creamed. But Laurents must have worked overtime whipping her into shape because the NY critics wrote love letters to the star while noting that as a singer she was no Merman. When I saw it in June 1990 it was a powerful, confident performance.

[noradesmond]

Posted: 4/21/09 at 11:47am

"I have seen stars do it I have seen no-name actresses in community productions do it and it (almost) always works."

I was fortunate to see a free summer in the park production of this in Houston 30+ years ago when TUTS was just getting started. I am sadly unable to remember the name of the amazing local actress who played Rose but she remains in my mind one of the best I've ever seen. The show ran for 2 weeks in Miller Theater at Hermann Park and I sat there mesmerized every night.

[nealb1]

Posted: 4/21/09 at 11:49am

FrontRow, maybe so. "Gypsy" played at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in June/July 1989. She was beyond awful. Embarrassing....

Sounds like by the time the show got to NYC, it improved greatly.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/21/09 at 12:10pm

Um, I am pretty sure that this thread title says Angela Lansbury as Mamma Rose, not Tyne Daly and yet Nealb has devoted two posts to her, including one that questions the integrity of the Antoinette Perry Award for achievement in the legitimate Broadway theatre. Talk about bitter and angry.

At any rate, it's your problem, not Tyne Daly's.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/21/09 at 12:35pm

It ALL makes sense now!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/21/09 at 12:39pm

I mean, "beyond awful" ? "Embarassing"? Sounds like nothing but jealousy to me.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/21/09 at 2:16pm

To be fair, I was the one who brought up Daly's performance in the first place.

One other note about Lansbury's run. I have seen poeple here claim that the show was a flop because it only ran 120 performances. What they faiil to realize it that it was intended as a limited engagement and it did pay off.