Bernadette in GYPSY — Page 3

The very same Laurents also personally called Bonnie Walker, who recreated the Robbins choreography for both the Daly production and the Midler MOW, and informed her that the show this time around was being taken in a completely different direction because of Mendes, and so she wouldn't be hired. Absolutely does not match up with him insisting on Robbins's original choreography for GYPSY, because Walker knows and produces it better than anyone. But then again, Laurents isn't known as the most reasonable man, is he?

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Updated On: 12/31/04 at 07:13 PM

I love Bernadette Peters, but I'm not too keen on her take on Rose. I welcome different intepretations of the character, but I felt that Bernadette didn't really do the best job in her version of Rose. A lot of her line delivery, IMO, was off or just plain bad, and her renditions of songs make it sound like she's overly constipated.

That said, she did blow me away at the Tony Awards performance.

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PJ, he probably has a stipulation in his will preventing any new productions of his shows after he dies. Either that, or he has spelled out precisely how they are to be produced/directed/choreographed/acted/designed.

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Updated On: 12/31/04 at 07:41 PM

Doubt it. See above.

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Very true, Magruder. There is a reason GYPSY is known to many as "the perfect show."

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God could have descended from heaven to direct Gypsy, and Laurents still would have had a problem.

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Dame, are you saying that Peters is lying? Broadway.com used to have the Gypsy opening night video and she clearly said that it was Laurent's idea to have her play Rose. Whether or not he regretted it later is another subject.

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I definitely thought one of the reasons she didn't get the Tony and all of the acclaim she deserved was because of her ailments. She missed a lot of performances, which was probably considered in to whom to give the Tony.

From The Stephen Sondheim Society newsletter:

"...For this revival, the tiny, forever sexy Peters, who's 55, supposedly was the favorite choice of librettist Laurents, who told an interviewer that "finding the killer” beneath Peters' soft exterior "would make Rose seem even more dramatic.” Laurents had seen Peters as the witch in Sondheim's "Into the Woods” in 1988 and later heard her sing "Some People,” one of Rose's numbers, in a 1996 solo concert at Carnegie Hall.

"She's incredibly different” from the other Roses, Laurents has said -- more like the real Rose Hovick, also a smallish woman whom he described as "very charming” in pursuing her single-minded goal."
http://www.sondheim.org/php/news.php?id=1004

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This GYPSY had been in the works for many years. It was originally supposed to happen on Broadway, then for some reason it was going to happen in London, then it finally landed in New York again. It was ALWAYS Laurents's plan for Peters to play the role. I know the original producer - I was working with him on a different project at the time - who Laurents fired from the show because he was having trouble getting backing for another script of Laurents's - a play that no one wanted to invest in, because it wasn't very good. This is as far back as, I believe, '97. Yes, I realize the dates and how close they are to the Daly production. I'm just telling you what happened.

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Well, Veuve, you secured my adoration of you with your fabulous and brilliant STEEL PIER synopsis. :) And no, I have not had a run-in with Laurents personally - he's just shafted a number of my friends.

I actually loved Bernadette in GOODBYE GIRL - I blame the material for any problems. I think she did a great job with what she was given to work with there.

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I'm glad you enjoyed Bernadette in GOODBYE GIRL, Raith, but I didn't.

I do think she's an amazing performer. (And a wonderful humanitarian, for the record.)

While I don't find her mannerisms as annoying as some other people do, I think there are roles that her kewpie-doll shtick is particularly well suited for (Mabel, Dot, Ruby), and there are times when she lessens the shtick and trusts the character she's playing (SONG AND DANCE, in particular, and INTO THE WOODS to a large extent). It seems like the problem with GOODBYE GIRL was that the character wasn't well written, and she fell back on her usual mannerisms as a safety net due to the bad writing. So I'm not really blaming her for that show, but I would put it in the category of "miscast." She just seems to fall back on her particular bag of tricks when a role isn't well written. With good writing, she's sensational. I think a different actress may have been able to make lemonade out of the lemon that was THE GOODBYE GIRL.

I wouldn't say she was miscast as Rose. It seems like she really grew into the role though, judging from the posts from people who saw her early in the run compared to people who saw her later.

Updated On: 12/31/04 at 11:17 PM