Lansbury Gypsy- Page 2

[Urban]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 7:21am

Seriously...

The funny thing I never was a huge fan of the Cast Recording. I thought she was brilliant singing RT but I found the rest of the album okay but not great (granted I properly am judging it against the Merms CR which was just brilliant).

But actually seeing bits of it visually - even if only for six minutes - it totally blew my mind. Angela is absolutely brilliant and seeing her ACT it, it is just... wow.

[robinycus]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 7:30am

I may be late to work today. I can't stop my self from watching this.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 10:31am

Thanks for posting...This has always been the one historic performance I'd most like to see, what a treat!

[sit&dither]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 10:49am

Just had to say thanks as well. She's stunning.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 10:54am

I saw Lansbury play Mama Rose twice ... first time eight rows from the stage at the Opera House at the Kennedy Center before the show went to Broadway. It was one of the most electric, amazing performances I had ever seen.

And the end of "Rose's Turn" -- first the audience leaps to its feet at the final "For Me!!!" and then she begins to bow --- none of us are sure what's happening, why is she acknowledging the audience's applause -- which quiets the audience, and then keeps on bowing to the applause IN HER HEAD before Louise comes back on stage. The audience was in shock.

Lansbury was funny, sexy, charming, manipulative, and sad. One of the greatest performances I have ever seen.

And she was just as terrific the second time ... which was at the Shady Grove Music Tent, a summer in-the-round tour. Same costumes, no sets, and just as brilliant a performance.

I feel very blessed to have seen that GYPSY.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 12:16pm

I was blessed too. And these clips capture how pitch-perfect she was. The "rushed" ending of Rose's Turn was unbelievably exciting. She and Arthur designed to it perform that trick on the audience that Phil describes, which unfortunately this clip cuts off.

We jumped to our feet and applauded the end of Rose's Turn, and she maniacally kept bowing, long after our applause diminshed. Slowly we all sat down--and she kept bowing.

And THAT'S how they showed how crazy Rose was--and how desperate. It was devastating.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 12:33pm

And the easiest way to download youtube is to download and install RealPlayer (the free version is fine--you don't need the upgrade). It has a function that places a little "Save This Video?" box over every youtube screen.

It then saves the files in the Downloads section of your Library, and you can organize and play them in playlists, just like on iTunes.

[sit&dither]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 3:41pm

So PJ, the 'deluded bows' originated with Lansbury? I had always assumed Arthur wrote it that way from the beginning. In any case, it seems canon to all subsequent Roses. And thanks for the RealPlayer info.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 3:55pm

No, Laurents added the deluded bows when he directed the Lansbury production. He also directed the Daly production so it's in her version too, as well as in all subsequent productions (including the Peters and Buckley versions and the Midler film).

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 4:00pm

Laurents also wrote for this revival the spoken dialogue to Gypsy Rose Lee's strip that wasn't in the original Broadway production. This spoken dialogue was incorporated into the libretto and used since. It also brings more authenticity to Gypsy's strip as the real Gypsy did indeed speak while she stripped.

[me2]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 9:38pm

Thank you so much for the link. That's fantastic. That was a keeper.
Broadway Blog: Rediscovering Jerry Herman’s Mrs. Santa Claus

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 12/3/07 at 11:25pm

What I love about Lansbury's bows is how real they seem. It feels like she's honestly acknowledging an audience. When I saw Peters, I remember that I bought it for about a second, but then it just seemed too campy.

Her conviction is just heartbreaking.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 12:32am

I can't stop watching these clips, over and over and over.

I'm remembering how excited I was after I saw it.

I was 18.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 8:36am

We saw it at the same age and the same time, Pal Joey. It is so burned in my memory.

[sparkleplenty]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 1:15pm

I was fortunate enough to see this production in N.Y. The performance and production of a lifetime. Sorry, everyone else - hers was the best Rose ever! (Ok I never saw Merman's)

[allofmylife]

Posted: 12/5/07 at 7:33pm

The sets for that production were wonderful as well.

The interesting thing is, there is a sub-culture that none of us, apparently, are a part of that has ALL the shows on film or video. I've seen tiny clips from about a dozen other 60's and 79's shows. I'm not talking about the tiny film from the 30s but full how-did-they-get-a-video-camera-that-big-into-the-theater recordings of whole shows.

Aficionados (most of whom, sadly died in the AIDS pandemic) used to quietly trade bootlegs for decades.

A whole world Gone With The Wnd...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 2:32pm

Watching this clip, there are two things that I think make Lansbury's Gypsy a great performance.

Lansbury seems to be having fun onstage. She doesn't seem to be pushing the performance, she seems to be letting it flow through her.

Since Lansbury really lets loose on the dancing, you get a better sense that she really could have been a performer but wasn't able to make it happen for herself. Rose's Turn works better when the audience believes that Rose actually "could have been a contender".

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 12/6/07 at 11:28pm

It's those final seconds of her face at the end of "Rose's Turn" that gets me.

There's an eagerness on her face that is heartbreaking.

It makes me think of an abused dog reacting to kindness...

[ohjohnny]

Posted: 12/7/07 at 8:37am

This is like an early Christmas present. THANK YOU.

[robinycus]

Posted: 12/7/07 at 9:01am

I agree. The chance to see Lansbury in Gypsy. Never thought it would happen. Priceless. Whoever posted this... Thank you!!!

[WestVillage]

Posted: 12/7/07 at 2:18pm

Brilliant!!!!! Now that's what Broadway is all about. I was fortunate as some others were here to have seen Lansbury in Gypsy (Winter Garden, wasn't it?), and adored it and her performance. So thrilled to have seen this clip ... she was amazing. Lansbury is a goddess.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 12/7/07 at 2:36pm

Amazing.

I'm still in the Tyne Daly camp when it comes to Roses, but there is no denying that Lansbury is the real deal when it comes to top-notch musical theatre performances.

Her achievement in the role is striking on so many levels. Consider at the time Merman was still alive and the memory of her legendary performance was still in the minds of many a theatre goer.

Lansbury steps in and makes a role that Merman owned her own AND showed us that there was soooo much more to Rose. It would be like someone stepping in and bumping over Yul Brynner in King or Robert Preston in Music Man.

Because of Lansury the bar was set higher for all the following Roses. And we have all benefited from it. It has kept Gypsy alive and exciting with each new production.

....

Funny thing I noticed about Lansbury.. she does this swaying side to side thing in time to the music. She did it in Mame too. Sorta like a white girl trying hard to keep in rhythm.

Anyone remember Laurents comenting on Lansbury's habit of tapping her foot to keep in time? I know I read it somewhere.

[tcoppola]

Posted: 12/7/07 at 4:08pm

Stunning.

Is is me, or was the music lowered (Some People sounds like its in a lower key....).

Angela still sings the sh!t out of it.

[Dolly_Levi]

Posted: 12/7/07 at 5:19pm

I'm pretty sure the keys are lower, but her readings are thrilling nonetheless. And she sounds powerful and full, not screechy or pushed at all.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 12/7/07 at 9:20pm

BigFatBlonde,

I read that comment of Laurent's, also. I guess it's just something about "Some People". He said that Merman used to snap her fingers whenever she sang it.