Irra Petina vs. Carmen Mathews

[magruder]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 10:26am

Whom do YOU prefer?

[wildcat]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 10:39am

Irra! CANDIDE and SONG OF NORWAY guaranteed her immortality.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 12:08pm

It all depends. Did Irra SIGN? and was she, like, NICE to the fans?

[wildcat]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 12:37pm

Irra crossed all generational boundaries. She signed "Idina Petina" and EVERYONE was happy!

[magruder]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 1:04pm

I'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]

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]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 1:28pm

Jeez! The gay clubs of the 30s and 40s were so much luckier! Now we get Jai Hernandez.

[onceadancer2]

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]

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]

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

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:30pm

Irra. There's no competition.

[magruder]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:56pm

Yeah, but could Irra Petina have done Hamlet, Morning's at Seven AND A Delicate Balance?

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:58pm

I highly doubt that she has that range.

[magruder]

Posted: 2/28/05 at 4:08pm

Not to mention I'm Solomon!

[wildcat]

Posted: 3/1/05 at 12:55am

If Carmen had done ANYA and Irra had done DEAR WORLD, would it have changed the world as we know it?

[magruder]

Posted: 3/1/05 at 1:21am

If Irra did Anya, I'd bet the Ziegfeld Theatre would still be standing.

[onceadancer2]

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]

Posted: 3/1/05 at 8:31am

Remember 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...