Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
magruder
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#0Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 10:26amWhom do YOU prefer?
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#1re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 10:39amIrra! CANDIDE and SONG OF NORWAY guaranteed her immortality.
MasterLcZ
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/12/03
#2re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 12:08pmIt all depends. Did Irra SIGN? and was she, like, NICE to the fans?
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#3re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 12:37pmIrra crossed all generational boundaries. She signed "Idina Petina" and EVERYONE was happy!
magruder
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#4re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 1:04pmI've always felt bad for Irra for that performance where she broke her coccyx when a trap door opened early during the Infant Casmira section of Candide.
onceadancer2
Leading Actor Joined: 5/22/03
#5re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 1:13pm
I met Irra Petina when I was a child in the childrens chorus at the Met. She was a howl!!! But she could deliver a performance and she was adored by all. She also had a huge gay following and was quite the cutup in some famous gay clubs of the thirties and forties.
Miram
magruder
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#6re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 1:28pmJeez! The gay clubs of the 30s and 40s were so much luckier! Now we get Jai Hernandez.
onceadancer2
Leading Actor Joined: 5/22/03
#7re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 1:33pm
Who? Obviously you were never in the clubs where Shirley Booth and Vivienne Segal presided. Oh, to be young again!
Miriam
magruder
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#8re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 1:43pm
Ah, if only I had been born in 1915. I could have been there. I SHOULD have been there.
Master, Wildcat, I'll meet you at the Astor Bar. You KNOW which side.
onceadancer2
Leading Actor Joined: 5/22/03
#9re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 2:04pm
There was nothing quite like Vivienne Segal leading the boys--and a few of the girls--in a sing a long.
Miriam
magruder
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#11re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:56pm
Yeah, but could Irra Petina have done Hamlet, Morning's at Seven AND A Delicate Balance?
#12re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:58pmI highly doubt that she has that range.
magruder
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#13re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 2/28/05 at 4:08pmNot to mention I'm Solomon!
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#14re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 3/1/05 at 12:55amIf Carmen had done ANYA and Irra had done DEAR WORLD, would it have changed the world as we know it?
magruder
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#15re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 3/1/05 at 1:21amIf Irra did Anya, I'd bet the Ziegfeld Theatre would still be standing.
onceadancer2
Leading Actor Joined: 5/22/03
#16re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 3/1/05 at 8:16am
Why not have someone write a musical about the fabled duo. Perhaps Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley could star. ANd we could get Wright and Forrest to write a score based on the music of Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
Miriam
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#17re: Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews
Posted: 3/1/05 at 8:31amRemember when Wright and Forrest wrote a musical version of CYRANO for Jose Ferrer in the '70s that only ever played summer stock? Well, we could use that score...only instead of Cyrano and Roxanne the girls would be playing Carmen and Irra! Although Irra's nose was a tad snub as I recall...
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