Featured Actor Joined: 3/8/06
Okay I would love to see Patti do this play! I just want to start a buzz to get producers to do this! Plus I would like to see Mandy Patinkin as Herbie. This would be an event!
I direct you to this link: http://www.ravinia.org/generalpages/genericpage.aspx?ID=51
also, arthur lurents (sp?) wouldn't let her near it (on broadway) if his life depended on it.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/18/04
also, arthur lurents (sp?) wouldn't let her near it (on broadway) if his life depended on it.
Oooooh, I have to know why!
Broadway Star Joined: 1/20/06
I'll give you the condensed version, others might be more elaborate: Patti LuPone played a role in an Arthur Laurents' play out of town, then she decided not to do it on Broadway (apparently the play was far too mediocre). The play never made it to Broadway and Laurents blames LuPone for it, although the play probably would have never gotten to Broadway anyways. Since then, he has a big battle against her playing Mamma Rose on Broadway, and they're just not on good terms. You'd think Sondheim could have changed that but apparently Laurents is a big bitter homosexual.
I recall Patti also being very determined to play Momma Rose in the recent revival even though Bernadette was attached to it from the start. She was trying and trying to get something going and Arthur Laurents was avidly fighting to keep her away from it.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
Foscas' basically got the story. The play was JOLSON SINGS AGAIN and as the result of the fallout from it, Lupone cannot play Rose in a major revival of GYPSY on Broadway as long as Laurents is alive (he's 87).
The Ravinia concert promises to be quite an event -- I already have my tickets (and I hear they're already going pretty fast).
Broadway Star Joined: 1/20/06
I loved how Margo specified Laurents' age as if to give us all a little hope, it makes me feel a bit evil I was kind of relieved he was 87 already...
I'm sorry but it's not only the LuPone issue but I've also heard rumors he didn't allow the Gypsy revival to be recorded for commercial release which is absurd. So yes, I'm not a happy poster when it comes to Mr.Laurents.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
Actually LuPone was the first choice for the recent revival of GYPSY. However, Laurents started getting all huffy about her playing the role and they went with Bernadette Peters. Patti was very, very upset when she lost the role.
I've already got my tickets for the Ravinia production--for all three performances!!!!!!
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
Broadway Star Joined: 1/20/06
It was recorded but it did not have a commercial release, and from what I've heard it's Laurents fault, only rumors though.
I thought Bernadette Peters had been hand-picked by Laurents to play Mamma Rose after seeing her perform "Some People" in her concert. I am quite content with his choice though, Ms.Peters was mesmerizing in the role, many people would disagree but to me she gave an inspiring and haunting performance.
Back to LuPone, I believe she's going to give another magnificent performance as she has in the past 30 years or so. I imagine she'll accentuate the sexiness of Rose even more than Peters did; after seeing her in Sweeney Todd she really proved she can take a role, deconstruct it, and put it back together to suit her, she's a real actress.
Broadway Star Joined: 10/6/05
Broadway Star Joined: 12/31/69
thats a shame that laurents got huffy because luPone will be AMAAAAAAAAAAZING in that role! wow...nothing against Bernadette but that was one of the worlds biggest miscasts. IMO.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
I also heard that Peters was handpicked by Laurents. I remember the Tony Awards a few years back where she came out and did a snippet of "Some People" and got a huge ovation. Laurents announced shortly thereafter that Peters had secured the role for the GYPSY revival. I don't believe Lupone was ever actually in the running. While Lupone and Sondheim are close, he's notoriously non-confrontational and the second Laurents said no to Lupone, that was the end of it (he's not the type to fight for her or anyone).
I'm pretty sure it's been said many times before that Bernadette Peters "found" the recent revival, the recent revival didn't "find" her.
In other words, there were no plans for another Broadway revival of Gypsy until Bernadette Peters expressed interest and enthusiasm in playing Mama Rose (when asked what shows she wanted to do). Her own interest (and her Broadway star power) generated the plans in producing yet another revival.
Dollypop is thinking about ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. LuPone did a concert version of it at Lincoln Center when the revival was in the planning stages, and very much wanted to do the production on Broadway. The Weisslers held out though for Bernadette Peters.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
NO question that she put her all into that role.
it just never really suited her and it just sounded like she was really hurting herself vocally. she is an amazing presence on stage but not enough of a larger than life presence for THAT role. again ...MY OPINION! it means NOTHING!
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
What do you mean, it wasn't commercially released?
Broadway Star Joined: 1/20/06
Eh...meaning I can't go to Best Buy and get the DVD of Gypsy with Bernadette Peters.
I'm still pretty sure Laurents knew the next Broadway Mamma Rose would be Peters, she had been very open about her dreams of playing the role, but I don't think the show happened just because she was interested. Then again, I don't know Peters herself or Laurents to give a solid argument.
Ugh. I don't think I'm going to get a chance to see Patti at the Ravinia festival this summer and I HATE that because basically since the moment I knew what Gypsy was and who Patti LuPone was (I mean, let's say I was five), I needed them to mate. Yeah, I said it, mate. And I needed to see it. And I probably WON'T.
Arthur Laurents can go... well, I won't say what he can go do, there's kids around.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
It was Laurents' idea to have her do it and he approached her with the idea. I just found this interview on the net:
"GM: But Gypsy seems to have been done quite a number of times in the past few years - why do you think its all of a sudden become so hot? Angela Lansbury did it and Tyne Daly and Bette Midier did it, and now you're doing it, all in the space of about twenty years.
BP: That's a pretty long time, and it's a great show. The last time on Broadway was over ten years ago, when Tyne did it, maybe twelve years - I'm not sure. It was Arthur's idea to have me do it. Arthur said, "You know, they want to do Gypsy again, and I keep saying no, no, no, no, but I would do it again with you, because you would be a different kind of Rose than the way it's usually cast," except for Angela, who was very different I think than Ethel Merman's. But the reason was that the real Rose was 5'2" and blonde, she wasn't the way it had been played."
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4129/is_200301/ai_n9310696
Also there's also this:
"Laurents is the show's librettist and Sondheim wrote the lyrics to the late Jule Styne's high-adrenalin music. It was Laurents who got Peters to participate in a benefit concert for the Gay Men's Health Crisis at Carnegie Hall in 1996 singing "Some People" from "Gypsy." She belted it out like the pro she is, and the idea to revive the show with her as Mama Rose was born. "
http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20030606-023237-7469r
Whether Bernadette was hand-picked or not, Laurents was not at all pleased with the recent revival. He didn't allow it to be filmed for PBS and was terribly stubborn about it.
Just to clarify, I am a hueg Bernadette fan and though she was beyond amazing in Gypsy. These are just things I've heard.
Broadway Star Joined: 1/20/06
Thank you, Margo. I knew I had read/heard Peters' Carnegie Hall concert had been the reason for Laurents' selection.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
And it was his idea for her to do the Carnegie Hall concert in the first place, as a kind of public tryout in the role. She was SO not the type that people generally associated with Rose that they both wanted to see how a room full of theatre queens would react to her doing Rose's music. They gave her a standing ovation, so that settled it.
Broadway Star Joined: 1/20/06
Hey! I was one of those theater queens so more respect, please :)
The Carnegie Hall concert in 1996? The story I heard was that she was having dinner or lunch with Arthur Laurents and he said that she reminded him of the real Rose (short in stature, light hair) and that she would be great as Rose. I can't imagine Laurents picturing all of this in 1996 and practically waiting 6 years to put it on Broadway.
Videos