There is so many interesting things I find about the two most recent Broadway revivals^ both on and off-stage that I really appreciate the existence of both and like Bettyboy72 would describe it as different flavours of enjoyable food rather than something that necessarily outshines the other. ^ Sadly I never saw either ‘live’, although I have seen the Bernadette revival at the Lincoln Archive and have ‘seen’ videos of the LuPone production. Plus have listened to countless audio recordings, the cast albums etc.
In terms of the Sam Mendes/Bernadette revival - the whole way it was conceived and the drama surrounding the production is something that greatly adds to the experience/subtext listening to the cast album for me.
First, regardless of the actual outcomes there is something so prestigious about a hot young Sam Mendes riding the wave of Cabaret & American Beauty directing my favourite Broadway star ever in a revival of a ‘Sondheim’ (et al.) musical that is often described as the greatest musical of all time, or at the very least, the greatest female musical role of all time. And this production and role for Bernadette was not just another gig - it seems like she really, really wanted to play the role - since according to one of the Broadway backstage podcasts she cried with anxiety/self-doubt while she was rehearsing “Some People” for her Carnegie Hall concert, afraid that people would criticise her performance and stop her from doing the role that she wanted to play some day.
Having started her career as a teenager in one of the National tours of Gypsy - you can just imagine the nostalgia she might have felt for the show. And having established a deep working relationship with Stephen Sondheim - Sunday in the Park With George relaunching her Broadway career and helping her develop into one of the great Broadway female musical stars of all time, repeating the collaboration with ‘Into the Woods’, doing the ‘Anyone Can Whistle’ concert, recording ‘Evening Primrose’ with Mandy, and dedicating her Carnegie hall debut to Stephen Sondheim (with derivatives of this concert still performed today)- it seems only natural that she just had to continue this with Gypsy. Additionally, I find it doubly interesting that she wasn’t even the first choice for the Sam Mendes Gypsy. Who was? None other than Patti LuPone. H
However, Arthur Laurents was bitter at LuPone who turned down one of his plays and refused to let her perform the role in ‘New York’. Instead, it was Arthur Laurents himself who pitched Bernadette for the role. Indeed, Patti never saw Bernadette in Gypsy because ‘she was pissed off’ as ‘Sam Mendes offered me the role’ - ‘I have the letters in my scrapbook, and ‘he offered me the role’. However, ‘something happened where we didn’t hear for months and it was announced in the paper that Bernadette would be doing it’. Patti: ‘I picked up the phone and called Sam Mendes….who wasn’t available. Sam wrote to me and I got a very cold letter. Arthur wanted Bernadette to play the part and so I was out. But nobody told me’.
So Bernadette is in. But the drama of the production is starting to unfold - Michael Riedel is reporting from rehearsals that Bernadette may not have the voice to do the role and that Arthur Laurents (and potentially Sondheim, although I don’t recall Sondheim ever speaking publicly about this) are not happy with the direction of the production, or Bernadette’s performance. Arthur Laurents wrote extensively about this in his book Mainly on Directing, where he throws Sam Mendes under a bus and says he ‘didn’t have the musical in his bones’ and cites some specific grievances if I recall correctly, such as Sam Mendes breaking the Overture & first scene with an eerie stage hand sweeping the stage [part of Sam Mendes’ show within a show concept], losing the humour of the hotel room scene when there are ‘no walls’ and you can see everyone coming, and scenery chewing in ‘You Gotta Get a Gimmick’ as examples. Despite criticising the production deeply, he does acknowledge that Bernadette was good in the part, especially by the end (if you listen to her closing performance of Rose’s Turn on YouTube you can indeed see she grew into the role) and has always spoke highly of her ability to act while singing and breaking the mould of the role.
My current take of the production is that the Sam Mendes staging was rather pedestrian - I don’t think the show within a show concept was fully realised/added much, although I think showing Bernadette mouthing along to the child performances offstage is an important reflection of her character. And despite it feeling a little ‘stripped down’ compared to previous productions in terms of set pieces, it was still in my opinion a full and tasteful staging of the production (cf. The LuPone revival, which was truly stripped down version done on the cheap though almost seemed more intimate and play-like to me). I think part of why it might have seemed so pedestrian is because actually Arthur Laurents stopped Sam Mendes from making radical interpretations or changes to the staging. Bernadette’s Tulsa, David Burtka, said in an interview the show as performed was not the show Sam Mendes wanted. He described Sam Mendes’ vision of the show as essentially a ‘Cabaret’ Gypsy - dark, gritty, raw. He described Sam Mendes wanting to have Rose’s Turn end with Bernadette completely fractured with makeup streaming down her face. Arthur wouldn’t have it. Details below:
>>>What was it like working with cranky-ass Laurents in Gypsy? It was......well, I have lots of stories but I probably can't really tell them. There was this time where he invited me over to his house and, ended up - it was crazy. It was kind of upsetting, Sam had this vision of what Gypsy was supposed to be in his mind - it being the new Cabaret. Being really dark and dirty. Had a cigarette and was feeling up the strippers. It was going to that Cabaret version of Gypsy - what that backstage gritty, dirty, not-so-nice vaudeville feel. And Arthur Laurents came in and said no you can't do that, you can't do that, you can't do that, you can't do that, you can't do that. And Sam was like, I hate you. I can't - what are you doing to my show?
>>>So you mean it changed before it opened? Oh yeah, big time. Like, at the end of the show - he wanted Bernadette - I don't know if I should be saying this, but he wanted Bernadette to be really just mascara running, and ugly, and mean, and raw. But it just wasn't allowed, so it was kind of unfortunate.
>>>Arthur Laurents had that kind of power? He said you can't have massacre running? Yes. But I mean, working with Sam was amazing and Arthur Laurents - he was a tricky guy. That's all I'll say about him. ——----
In terms of Bernadette’s performance itself, one of the challenges of describing it is that throughout the run she didn’t always give the same performance. During previews, she was fighting an infection, having missed several performances and experiencing some vocal issues - which is evident on the (only, sadly) widely shared bootleg of early previews where you can hear her struggling through the score, especially “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (which I think is the song out of the three big ones she always struggled with most). However, there is also something a bit heartbreaking and interesting that Bernadette’s Rose here and in other moments is really, really trying to give her absolute all to the role and this score. Bernadette would apparently barely speak backstage to save her voice throughout the run, and there is something tragic like the character of Rose herself that Bernadette really had to try very very hard and make sacrifices to be in that position and deliver this performance. She literally was sacrificing her personal life to dedicate herself for this role.
When Bernadette was in good vocal health and not sick appeared to really be on it. David Burka said “She was amazing every night - but when it had to count, it counted. When the NYtimes were in the audience it was the best performance you'd ever see in your entire life.” Indeed, the NYTimes rave from what I can see of all her performances was probably the single greatest notice she received from the NYTimes in her entire career. The cast recording in my opinion is quite close to the performance she delivered on opening night (based on an audio of that evening, where Michael Bloomberg even gave an opening speech). Her “Some People” is driven and desperate, powerful - though her voice not quite as powerful as when she performed it years earlier at Carnegie Hall. Her “Coming Up Roses” is desperate and scary, though vocally you can hear she really is trying to give every breath and energy she can. No one captures the sexiness and can make “Small World”, a bit of a throwaway song, into a fully fledged play-song like she can.
Her “Rose’s Turn” in my opinion is a master class of acting and among the best work she has ever done. The ‘welllllllllllllll…..someone tell me when is it my turn don’t I get a dream for myself’ moment onwards kills me every time. And again, thinking of the offstage drama, there is something so poignant about Bernadette as Rose giving her all to show she ‘got it’, and then like the character itself so tragically overlooked that she didn’t even get a Tony for it. Kind of like how Effie’s big moment “And I am telling you” suddenly gets taken away by the Dreams singing ‘Love love me baby’, Bernadette is left behind. I watch Bernadette’s reaction to losing the Tony and wonder what must have been going through her head.
Bernadette’s Uncle Jocko Michael McCormick, who also came ‘full circle’ as the Judge to her Hello, Dolly, said that Bernadette was sadly having vocal issues throughout the Tony voting attendance period but deserved to win. By the end of the run, Bernadette “Rose’s Turn” as reflected on YouTube at least was even more intense and heartbreaking, and listening to her absolutely shred her voice through ‘for meeeeeeeeeee’ again I just find it so moving and thrilling.
In any case, Bernadette in my opinion was generally MUCH MUCH MUCH stronger vocally than any record I see of Tyne Daly playing the role, who was a non-singer - and Imelda Staunton. So I always find it bizarre that she is singled out as not having the voice in the role whereas people don’t seem to have an issue with Tyne Daly or Staunton. I think the Staunton hypocrisy is something that bothers me especially as it continued with ‘Follies’. Bernadette sings the full score in the proper keys with an amazing, rich, beautiful and distinctive timbre (even if she was challenged by the score). Staunton’s weak head voice was serviceable at best and in the case of the lower-key Too Many Mornings, butchered at worst (though I enjoyed her Losing My Mind). Yet no one seems to care, and as one scathing review on cast albums put it Staunton sang it ‘(and frankly more pleasantly than Bernadette Peters managed on the cast recording of the most recent Broadway revival, although that isn’t a high bar to clear)’. Maybe I’m just a rapid fan, but my instinct is that some people really do not understand the artistry in Bernadette’s voice and performances because over the years musical theatre voices have become more homogenous and more grounded in homogenous ‘training’ that seem not to encourage individual expression and artistry. I don’t know how you can dismiss her so quickly. Bernadette’s artistry may be unusual but at least it doesn’t have “No Life”.
Overall, the role made a mark on Bernadette who recently (201
described it as as therapy and the most interesting role she’d ever played. “Rose in Gypsy was like going through therapy for me. Playing Rose helped me put a lot of emotions to bed. There was so much lacking in Rose and that's why she had to prove herself through her children. [interviewer]In ways that reminded you of your mom?[/interviewer]. Let's just say the role was very interesting for me. That one was the most interesting [I've ever played]”
I also am mindful that this would be the last Broadway performance that her husband would ever see of hers before he died. Tragic.
——
Now, onto the Patti revival. First, one of the major differences in personal motivation between Bernadette and Patti is it seems that unlike Bernadette, Patti was not actually desperate to play the role. “My association with Gypsy - everybody thinks I was determined to play Madam Rose. I wasn’t, Gypsy was not one of those shows I felt I had to play this or I’ll die. I didn’t understand Madam Rose”.
My understanding is that the Patti production, which had a couple previous incarnations - never had Broadway as an end-goal in sight. It all started as a Lonny Price concert that she didn’t need Arthur Laurents’ permission to do because it wasn’t in New York. Arthur Laurents was sent a recording of her singing Some People/Coming Up Roses/Rose’s Turn and liked what he heard. So bizarrely, he ended up lifting the grudge and not only allowing Patti to do the role in New York, but leading her in New York at Encores! as this kind of weird passion project as a dying wish to his partner to correct the ‘wrongs’ of the Sam Mendes production (lol), which then went to Broadway. (This production and history is well documented in Arthur Laurents’ Mainly on Directing and Patti LuPone’s own memoir).
Unlike the Sam Mendes production, this production was genuinely very very scaled back and done on a minimal budget - from what I can see, there was almost nothing to it in terms of physical production at all and even the Lamb wasn’t real. The stage itself was much smaller than I realised because the orchestra was sitting on stage behind a curtain. However, one of the positive aspects of this is it does feel a little more intimate and play-like to me. The real strength appears to be solely focussed on the performances, with Laura Benanti in particular giving a much stronger performance in my opinion than was done in the previous revival.
And then it comes to Patti. One thing I find interesting about her is that she appears to have a fragile ego. When I have listened to podcasts describing what it is like to be her friend, she apparently really enjoys being told of her amazing talents. She also has publicly expressed self doubt before, describing the criticism she gets from Sondheim. I would not actually say Patti had a very close relationship with Sondheim like Bernadette did perhaps strengthened only later in her career - especially when she began performing in Sweeney Todd productions. Now between Sweeney Todd, Gypsy, and Company I think she could be considered to have some Sondheim connection but I don’t think it was ever like this before - having never made it to any of the original Sondheim productions she was going to be involved in at some stage (Sunday in the Park, Into the Woods, Passion) - and Sondheim never really spoke publicly with the same affection about her talents as he did for Bernadette. In fact even now her relationship with Sondheim seems so bizarre (from a recent NYTimes article).
>>>Do you still have doubts about Sondheim’s estimation of you? Always.
>>>Do you still care? Of course. He’s the master. Some actors don’t care. I do. I wanted validation. I think Stephen thinks I’m a strong person and — I don’t know. I’m speculating on what he thinks. I don’t know what he thinks. Maybe he took a dislike to me early on in my career. Maybe I’m making this whole thing up. Maybe he likes me. I don’t know. But I know that he’s happy with this production of “Company” and was happy with my performance. I think.
Anyway, this fragility expressed itself during the development of her Gypsy through stories she described such as her fear of the NYTimes review and whether they could change that when they went to Broadway, and crazy stories such as if I recall at one point her asking if they could not have an opening night or something like that?? My point is that she did not appear to go into this project necessarily expecting to have the success she did.
I think without thinking about any historical context the role clearly fit her voice and persona better than Bernadette’s did - her “Some People” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” in particular are so, so, so effortless and vocally strong they couldn’t feel more different in tone than Bernadette’s performance. Objectively of course Patti sang it better, especially Coming Up Roses. There is no question or controversy about this to me, it is what it is. There is something about her bowling through this performance in a way that feels so effortless (even though of course it probably involved a lot of hard work) and then winning the Tony so soon after Bernadette lost that just adds to the heartbreak of Bernadette’s performance though. I imagine a film adaption of this backstage story with Bernadette singing “this time for meeeee” fading into Patti’s crazy “meeeee” and then taking the Tony while Bernadette is left on the sidelines. It’s as if Patti finally got her moment to outshine Bernadette. Patti who said she would have been disappointed if she didn’t win a Tony for the role, which almost seemed like a subtle jab at Bernadette. Patti who when asked about if there is a freud with her and Bernadette says ‘she hardly knows the woman’ - not exactly helping dismiss it. Patti who was rejected from replacing Bernadette in Sunday, who wanted to play Cinderella in Into the Woods but was offered to play the Witch before ‘negotiations broke down’ and she had no role in the show while Bernadette showed up in her place [And then losing her Tony for Anything Goes to Baker’s Wife role in Into the Woods, which she still expresses disappointment in]. Patti who finally might have had the chance to originate a Sondheim role in “Passion” but instead went to do Sunset Boulevard and get completely burned and humiliated instead. Patti who wanted to do Annie Get Your Gun but then saw Bernadette do it - and win a Tony no less. Patti who was offered to play Rose by Sam Mendes and then watched Bernadette take the role from her. Finally, truly, Patti it was “this time, for [her] meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEE”.
The one area I think Bernadette might genuinely have still one-upped Patti for me is “Rose’s Turn”. I definitely don’t feel the heartbreak or devastation for Patti at all compared to what Bernadette did here. And the way Patti’s performance seems to vary from cast recording, to different audios/clips it’s really hard for me to understand exactly what Patti was doing here. But despite loving listening to Patti tear through those songs and me recognising objectively she sang it very well, perhaps the best ever on record to me (including Merman), there will always be a special place in my heart for Bernadette’s heartbreaking, tragic, off & on stage drama-filled, Tony-losing performance that can never be nor needs to be ’filled’ by another performance.
As a side note, the one other comparison point that is not often spoken about here although it doesn’t really mean much is that Bernadette’s revival was seen by more people, grossed more revenue and ran longer.
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
Updated On: 3/7/21 at 05:16 PM
