Favorite performance of Rose's Turn- Page 2

[dshnookie]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 12:59pm

QUESTION: I know Patti has said that she was able to deconstruct 'Rose's Turn' for this production and was curious about the moment right before "I dreamed it for you June."

Patti sings "I had a dream" and picks up the smock and bundles it up and cradles it like a baby right before throwing it off to the side when she hits "JUNE". Is this a Patti thing? or is it part of the role and others have done it as well?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 1:04pm

To LuPone's credit - she's an organic performer who isn't prone to freezing certain bits. She may have deconstructed the song line by line, but both times I saw her performance she did very different things during "Rose's Turn" - and never cradled the smock as you describe.

Of course, no other Rose has been asked to perform this number wearing a paint smock, so I think its safe to say, whatever she was doing was her own invention.


Updated On: 10/24/08 at 01:04 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 1:07pm

She has cradled the smock ever since previews. Not at City Center. You can see her do it on video on that site. It is perfect, because she cradles/holds it during the "I had a dream" section, and the smock covered in paint represents her dream.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 1:15pm

I always thought it was more representative of her maternity (word?) that she was throwing away, finally cutting Louise loose.

[dshnookie]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 1:20pm

Yes I've seen it 7 times .. yea I know ... and she only cradled it once and it was on the 7th time - last Friday when Jessica Rush was on as Louise. I read about it in an EW review, so it is something she must've at least done from the very start:

Sample grace note: In the scorching, sung-soliloquy finale 'Rose's Turn,' LuPone picks up a coat and mimes turning it into an infant bound in swaddling clothes. She then hurls it away in a rage — a brilliantly physical enactment of Rose's anger at ultimately being rejected by her grown-up 'girls.'

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20190589,00.html

ljay889 does she really do it on THAT site? because I have seen it and never got that impression from it. I saw it [site] after I saw the show the other night just to see if she had done it previously and she just seemed to pick it up, roll it up and toss it. At the very least, it wasnt as literal as what I had seen.
Updated On: 10/24/08 at 01:20 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 2:09pm

No, i agree. I feel she cradled it more when I saw it right before it opened. But she still holds it on that site.

[insertclevernamehere]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 2:33pm

Patti's is my favorite, but she was also the only Rose I ever saw live and seeing her Rose's Turn was an electrifying experience

[BroadwayBound115]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 3:41pm

Patti's Rose was definitely different from Bette and Roz (the only others I have seen, YTBE doesn't count) I really enjoyed her Rose's Turn Live. she was on fire though and I really thought she put every ounce of emotion and physicality into it. Bette was fantastic but she doesn't have the vocal chops the others have had. And Roz is wonderful as well. But Patti is my favorite.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 4:25pm

The best I ever saw was Angela Lansbury.

This is my favorite, vocally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le6AjpEpRSU

[Bwayidiot]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 4:41pm

Rose's Turn in the film. Lisa Kirk dubbed part of it and Russell did the lower register parts and talking. It was a collaboration.

[BroadwayBelle2]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 4:42pm

Favorite is Patti LuPone
Least favorite is Rosalind Russell.

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 5:09pm

Patti singing it on broadway. I saw her do it at ravinia and while she was wonderful on broadway I have never been so moved and speechless at the end of a song. The show stopped for 5 minutes for applause. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen I can barely describe it I was so overwhelmed.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 6:13pm

1. Ethel Merman
2. Ethel Merman
3. Ethel Merman
4. Ethel Merman
5. Ethel Merman
6. Ethel Merman
7. Ethel Merman
8. Ethel Merman
9. Ethel Merman
10. Ethel Merman
11. Mitzi Green

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 6:57pm

After Bernadette, my 2nd favorite is Michael Burbach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V3E2722SPM

[dayao]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 9:38pm

There is no doubt that Merman's is possibly the ultimate performance of "Rose's Turn". It was written for her voice and was fresh and new when she recorded it for the OBC album but my favorite "Rose's Turn" will always be Lisa Kirk on the "Gypsy" soundtrack album, where unlike in the finished film which is a composite of Rosalind Russell & Kirk, Kirk sings and acts the entire song in a performance that is simply electrifying and heartbreaking and she is backed by the largest (65 players) and greatest orchestra to ever play this score, the Warner Bros. Studio Orchestra with its fantastic brass section and Frank Perkins, the greatest conductor ever on the podium for any performance of "Gypsy". I had high hopes for Lupone, but her performance is my least favorite, both live and even more so on the new cast album.

Updated On: 10/24/08 at 09:38 PM

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 10/25/08 at 3:00am

My favorite has always been Bernadette Peters version of rose's turn

[Junior]

Posted: 10/25/08 at 9:47am

In my opinion, all of the ladies have brought a certain SOMETHING to the number, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Bernadette (although I haven't seen Patti's yet, unless you count youtube videos of Ravinia). I know her performance was less than well received by many, but to me, she touched on things with Rose that none of the others seemed to get.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 10/25/08 at 11:06am

I'm with Johnboy, Lansbury's is extraordinary. I saw it London, at the Kennedy Center, and even in the round at the old Shady Grove Music Fair (MD). Always wonderful.

2nd: Bernadette's.

Leasat favorite on CD: LuPone. I liked her a lot at City Center, but the recording feels very self-indulgent, taking the anger way beyond what Buckley did at Papermill, screaming for Exorcist-like effect "...ready or not, here's comes MOMMA!" as if she's going to wring a chicken neck. The performance as a whole was so persuasive on the stage, I wish she'd tried less hard for something "definitive" on the recording. Though she's vocally the strongest of all of them, even Merman, the rage-fueled flourishes added in the studio that day make the performance less nuanced, not more. Of course, that's just my opinion.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/25/08 at 11:09am

Lisa Kirk on the "Gypsy" soundtrack album, where unlike in the finished film which is a composite of Rosalind Russell & Kirk, Kirk sings and acts the entire song in a performance that is simply electrifying and heartbreaking

Thank you, dayao! I never knew that.

[Mealz1042]

Posted: 10/25/08 at 11:16am

well i was blown away by the only one that have seen live, which would belong to ms. patti lupone.

[iluvcioffiiluvtea23]

Posted: 10/25/08 at 11:54am

Bette Midler's was my favorite.

[explorer]

Posted: 10/25/08 at 12:20pm

For me...Angela Lansbury.

[mywonderwa11]

Posted: 10/25/08 at 4:25pm

My favorite "Rose's Turn" is definitely Bernadette! Such depth, she really made Rose a human being. Not a characature like Miss LuPone. I think Patti plays it like someone who should be committed to a hospital. Bernadette told such truth. The woman is brilliant.

And needless to say...Ethel Merman and Angela Lansbury are both just phenomenal.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/25/08 at 4:34pm

mywodera11, Bernadette's Rose's Turn is my favorite, too, but I think that Patti is SUPPOSED to be playing someone who should be committed to a hospital. She's supposed to be having a nervous breakdown during the song, after all!