Arthur Laurents on Gypsy and Bernadette Peters as Rose:
"A Rose is a Rose unlike any other Rose in a production of Gypsy. Although the show is called Gypsy (contractually, it has to be), its center is not Gypsy Rose Lee but her mother, the now infamous Mme. Rose. What has made each of the four Broadway productions unlike the others stems from the interpretations of that larger-than-life, Lear-like central character. That's why each production has come to be known by the name of its first Rose: the Ethel Merman Gypsy in 1957, the Angela Lansbury in 1973, the Tyne Daly in 1989 and now, in 2003, the Bernadette Peters.
"The perception of Rose and the show itself have changed considerably with time. What are arguably the most exhilarating overture and surprising star entrance in musical theatre set the tone of razzle-dazzle that electrifies Gypsy, even in its most dramatic moments. In the Merman Gypsy, the dazzle was so emphasized that it half-blinded the audience to the ferocity of Rose and the serious purpose of the show. Even so, the audience back then often found the show too relentlessly tough for a musical. But the times changed and the audience changed: it was more than ready for a show whose tone was changing enormously. The razzle-dazzle that makes the show so enjoyable always remained; actually, it even intensified scenically, in Louise's strip and in "Rose's Turn.” But it was each new Rose who raised the show to a higher, more challenging emotional level. Each brought out new dimensions and contradictions in Rose: her dimness and her shrewdness, her ability to commit any crime short of murder to fulfill her ferocious ambition and her inability to realize anything Rose did could possibly be wrong: her desperation and her angry frustration; her inherited prudishness and her unabashed sexuality; and finally, with Bernadette Peters, her unexpected, aching vulnerability. The monster was also a touching human being.
"Bernadette Peters has a beautiful, wide-ranging voice but it is the effortless, nuanced singing of the actress that enables her to use each of her songs in Gypsy to bring out another element of Rose. In her furiously paced "Some People,” it's the driving determination; in "Small World." the sly humor; in "You’ll Never Get Away From Me." the flirtatious sexuality. But it's in her two great numbers--one that ends the first act, the other that comes just before the end of the second--that she uses all her tremendous power as both singer and actress to flesh out a surprisingly complex Rose. In "Everything's Coming Up Roses," the depth of her scary anger and the crazed blindness of her ambition are both frightening and thrilling. "Rose's Turn" is a revelation. The defiant Rose, the success-starved Rose, the vulgar, jazzy Rose --they're all there, only to crumble into a confused, bewildered, frightened Rose who doesn't understand why she was knocked out, but nevertheless is still the Rose who will not go quietly into anybody's night. It's a devastating performance."
Updated On: 1/1/05 at 03:28 AM
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