Best Madame Rose

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Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/29/13 at 9:22pm

After hearing so much about Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daily, Bernadette Peters, and Patti Lupone's portrayal of this theatre icon, who is, in your opinion, the best? Please explain.

PS I know that Bernadette's production had some bad reception. Why?

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/29/13 at 9:34pm

That's an EXCELLENT example of a troll post.

Particularly, the bonus trolling-for-an-argument question in your second paragraph.

Well done! Good trolling.

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/29/13 at 9:42pm

Sorry, didn't mean to be a "troll" ??
I only have been able to hear BP's rendition on her cast album and thought she sang the role excellently, but as I never saw her, I can't talk about her acting.
Once again, sorry if I looked like I was "trolling".

PS I try to only start threads for things that I genuinely don't know, and I don't usually argue with people about their answers, especially on such an opinion based topic like this one. I actually really do want to know what was flawed about the 2003 production. :)

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/29/13 at 9:49pm

I have fond memories of Giselle MacKenzie in the role in summer stock in the late 1960's. I'm older than I look.

Well-well-well-what-do-you-think-of-that-I-have-nothing-here-to-pay-my-train-fare-with-only-large-bills-fives-and-sevens....

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/29/13 at 10:10pm

They were all great...but in different ways. My personal ranking:
1) LuPone
2) Merman//Peters (really it's a tie)
3) Lansbury
4) Daily

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/29/13 at 11:35pm

Let's face it. It begins and ends with LuPone. Even Art Laurents said it.

CHECK PLEASE!

Updated On: 5/29/13 at 11:35 PM

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/29/13 at 11:40pm

The only one I've seen is Peters so I can't compare but I thought it was really good and she was very good in the role. I'm not sure I saw anything that made me feel it was flawed.

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 5:45am

I have not seen any gypsy live but from show clips I seen I would say Tyne who really got the american stage mother.

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 11:37am

Most ( though not all) on this board are at a disadvantage, having never seen Merman perform the role live. Of the 3 I've seen, I'd rank:

1. Angela Lansbury: Icy but brilliant and electric
2. Tyne Daly: Much warmer and more human, but only adequate as a singer.
3. Bernadette Peters: It just felt as though she didn't want to be there. Riddled with the same personal tics I've seen in so many other of her performances. (Also stuck in a static, dreadfully directed show.)

#10

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 11:39am

I've seen Daly, Lupone, Lavin and Buckley (at Paper Mill). Lupone was wonderful. I think I may have been disappointed by Daly, not because she wasn't good, but because of the hype. I wish I could say I liked Lavin, but I didn't.

Buckley was my favorite.

#11

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 11:39am

Oh and thanks for calling her Madame Rose, a name she is actually called in the script. (I'm in the minority here for disdaining the term Mama Rose, which is a made-up term that's accrued validity for being used so much, but it's still wrong.)

#12

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 11:42am

I'll cast my vote for Ethel Merman.

Sometimes it simply all comes down to that something extra special. She had it--- and then some.

#13

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 11:46am

The worst was Linda Lavin. She played it with an Irish brogue. LOL!

#14

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 11:55am

^Indeed she did and it was one of the strangest choices I've ever seen.

#15

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 12:10pm

I caught Jo Anne Worley, who stood by (uncredited) for Daly, and she was sensational. I thought Peters was just miscast, Buckley played it like Medea, Daly was terrific if not the best singer, I loved Lansbury's performance. I have a live recording of one of Merman's performances and it's absolutely incredible.

#16

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 12:23pm

Based on the various cast albums, my ranking would be:
1. Ethel Merman
2. Patti Lupone
3. Angela Lansbury
4. Bernadtte Peters
5. Bette Midler (TV film)
6. Tyne Daly
7. Rosalind Russell/Lisa Kirk (1962 movie)

I was not born in time to see Merman on stage, much to my regret but Ethel Merman in GYPSY was one of the first records I ever owned, and I remember one time listening to "Rose's Turn" and feeling a twinge of sympathy when complained "and if it wasn't for me then where you be Miss Gypsy Rose Lee." Merman brought such powerful anger to the role (at least on the record) that I doubted if any stage performer could live up to that. LAter I did see GYPSY on stage many time in local productions, but I was excited to see Tyne Daly in the show the Saturday before she won her Tony Awards. She was a frighteningly intense Rose, and yes the score was well beyond her range and capability, she acted it with such conviction that in the theatre you didn't notice how many notes she flubbed. (One critic complained that she swallowed so many notes she may have to go on a diet.) Arthur Laurents directed this production and according to Patti Lupone's memoir initially set out to carbon copy it for her revival. For me, Lupone came close to the intensity Merman brought to the role and had a terrific supporting cast. Still I wondered why Laurents thought in necessary to add silly horseplay to "You'll Never get Away From Me" or why he had his leading lady gesticulate madly during "Everything's Coming Up Roses."

The joy of GYPSY is that it is so well-written than any decent actress (working with a capable director) can triumph in the part. It's a show I never tire of watching.

Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!

I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com

#17

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 12:43pm

^ I agree that Daly's conviction got her through the score. She has a very powerful voice, which the score demands, and it was by no means painful to listen to her. At the end of the show when she said, "If I coulda, I woulda, and that's show business." I understood, in a different way, that Rose just wasn't good enough to make it as a performer. The fact that she was no great singer suddenly resonated.

And Someone in a Tree, it's "Momma" Rose, as in "If Momma Was Married." Her daughters call her "Momma," her employees call her "Madame."

Updated On: 5/30/13 at 12:43 PM

#18

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 9:42pm

Check any cast listing in a script of the show. If the character is ever listed as "Momma Rose", God will bless you exceedingly. Besides, Act 2 doesn't begin with "Momma Rose And Her Toreadorables".

Well-well-well-what-do-you-think-of-that-I-have-nothing-here-to-pay-my-train-fare-with-only-large-bills-fives-and-sevens....

Updated On: 5/30/13 at 09:42 PM

#19

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 9:51pm

ME @ 4:30 in the morning after finishing a 420 and polishing off a bottle of Pinot Grigio. My "Rose's Turn" is something to behold!

#20

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 9:59pm

I wouldn't question it.

Well-well-well-what-do-you-think-of-that-I-have-nothing-here-to-pay-my-train-fare-with-only-large-bills-fives-and-sevens....

#21

Best Madame Rose

Posted: 5/30/13 at 10:45pm

Having only seen Bernadette and Patti live I can't really answer this question. However, by anyone's measure who has extensive knowledge of the show and saw the original production, Ethel Merman is unquestionably the definitive Madame Rose.

Scratch and claw for every day you're worth! Make them drag you screaming from life, keep dreaming You'll live forever here on earth.

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