Laurents on Merman

This has been debated before and frankly, I think what Laurents is saying isn't especially disrespectful to Merman.

He doesn't question the power of her performance in 1959. He's saying that she was primarily a singer - that her singing was unparalleled, but as an actress, he's not sure her acting performance would be especially convincing to modern audiences, and he backs this up by saying that musical theatre performers in the 1930s and 40s weren't generally asked to portray emotionally challenging roles and so Merman was coming at the role of Rose with little in her experience to prepare her for the complexity of the character.

Merman was notorious for 'freezing' her performances - she took pride in the fact that every performance was virtually identical. That, as Laurents says, is sort of contrary to the approach of modern method acting that equates craft with an actor's ability to think and respond directly in the moment.

People debate film performances from the 1930s and 40s with this same scrutiny

Updated On: 5/6/11 at 02:38 PM

Was Mr, Laurents an equally tall giant among his musical theater contemporaries, Sondheim and Bernstein? ABSOLUTELY!

With that said, I cannot say that I am exactly mourning this loss as Mr. Laurents made many a performer cry in his lifetime, but I am sincerely grateful to the posters here who have already provided memories/tributes here. Thank you!

Happy Hunting wasn't a flop, though, so Laurents is (at the very least) wrong about that. I also find it hard to believe that Gypsy had no advance before opening. I've never ready anything in my numerous readings about Merman and Gypsy that suggested anything of the sort.

Guess we all choose to remember the past differently, even with written proof to dispute our memory.

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