Angela Lansbury as Mamma Rose..

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

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

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Saw them all & Angela was the BEST for me!

Lansbury was indeed stunning.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

"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.

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.

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