Madame Rose...and her daughter Gypsy!
#3
Posted: 7/11/16 at 1:14pm
This thread wouldn't be complete with LuPone/Benanti:
"Oh look at the time, three more intelligent plays just closed and THE ADDAMS FAMILY made another million dollars" -Jackie Hoffman, Broadway.com Audience Awards
#5
Posted: 7/11/16 at 1:22pm
THIS reply had me in stitches.
CATSNYrevival said: "
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#6
Posted: 7/11/16 at 1:23pm
Come on guys, there's gotta be a little love for Bernie in here somewhere... 
Updated On: 7/11/16 at 01:23 PM
#7
Posted: 7/11/16 at 1:49pm
That costume that Zan Charisse is wearing is absolutely hideous!
Did that revival of "Gypsy" take place in 1966? It looks like some weird, pop-art/mod creation - - - including that wig.
You Can Disagree Without Being Disagreeable
#8
Posted: 7/11/16 at 1:57pm
Gorgeous photos, I've never seen that shot of Lansbury and her Louise.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#9
Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:03pm
I didn't include LuPone or Peters or Staunton because face it they are recent and I wanted to highlight the earlier ones.
I've included Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood because say what you want to about the film but it is one of my favorites and Natalie Wood is the best damn "Louise/Gypsy" there ever was - - - and no one has been able to eclipse her in the role. But that's JMO.
I didn't include Bette Midler/Cynthis Gibb because, ewwww...just no.
#10
Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:07pm
CarlosAlberto said: "I didn't include LuPone or Peters or Staunton because face it they are recent and I wanted to highlight the earlier ones.
I've included Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood because say what you want to about the film but it is one of my favorites and Natalie Wood is the best damn "Louise/Gypsy" there ever was - - - and no one has been able to eclipse her in the role. But that's JMO.
I didn't include Bette Midler/Cynthis Gibb because, ewwww...just no."
Absolutely. On all counts.
#11
Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:10pm
Wood is quite good in the movie. But to me Lara Pulver is the perfect Louise, not only tender, heartbreaking, sexy as hell and hitting every mark in Louise's narrative, but she did something totally unexpected, something I have never seen any other Louise do before. She actually became not just a star, but in her timing, comic insouciance, inflections and physicality, one very specific one: Gypsy Rose Lee.
Updated On: 7/11/16 at 02:10 PM
#12
Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:27pm
I also love the film. I'm in the camp the believe that Merman does not translate very well to the medium of cinema. She's too brassy and she just a bulldozer with her acting technique. There is no nuance, or shading to her characterizations. Just take a look at her "acting" in "There's No Business Like Show Business".
Rosalind Russell, although not a singer is a wonderful actress and she balances out Rose's out and out ambition. It's just not all out chew the scenery and take no prisoners. Staunton (?) is unbearable for me in the role. Her take no prisoners approach was over bearing, over wrought - - - over EVERYTHING.
Lara Pulver made a fetching and quite effective Louise.
I have nothing at all redeemable to say in regards to the 1992 telefilm. Here was an instance with what may have looked good on paper just did not translate into film. Midler is second to Staunton in her portrayal of "Rose". She plays her with all the subtlety of Patty Duke as "Neely O'Hara" in "Valley of the Dolls". So incredibly wrongheaded on every conceivable level.
I double checked who designed the costumes for the Lansbury "Gypsy" and the original designer Raoul Pene DuBois is credited but unless he re-designed the costumes they don't look like anything I've ever seen from the original production's photos. It just doesn't look like his style to me.
I apologize. I truly went off topic and I am certain this particular topic has been discussed ad nauseam
You Can Disagree Without Being Disagreeable
Updated On: 7/11/16 at 02:27 PM
#14
Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:33pm
To me Staunton was perfection. Bold and overbearing yes, but never a caricature. She was completely convincing. A brittle powerhouse.
Of course, bww makes clear my take on her performance may not be in the majority, at least on this side of the pond. Also, I saw her on stage, an experience which might be quite different than video or streaming.
Updated On: 7/11/16 at 02:33 PM
#15
Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:39pm
henrikegerman said: "To me Staunton was perfection. Bold and overbearing yes, but never a caricature. She was completely convincing. A brittle powerhouse.
Of course, bww makes clear my take on her performance may not be in the majority, at least on this side of the pond. Also, I saw her on stage, an experience which might be quite different than video.
I'm from the school that just because something works on stage doesn't mean it will on film. I may have had a totally different opinion of Staunton's performance if I had seen it on stage.
You Can Disagree Without Being Disagreeable
#16
Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:46pm
I agree. I saw and loved Imelda three times at Savoy, it was an extraordinary performance but it translated awfully to film
Updated On: 7/11/16 at 02:46 PM
#17
Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:49pm
I agree, of course, that a performance for the stage may not work on film, and the converse. However, it shouldn't be forgotten - and I'm not suggesting that anyone here is forgetting - that Staunton's taped Rose was a performance given on stage and for a stage audience. Which arguably raises the question, do and should actors recalibrate performances given live before audiences on those occasions when they are being taped. I don't pretend to have an answer to this one; but it's worth discussing.
#18
Posted: 7/11/16 at 2:59pm
henrikegerman said: "I agree, of course, that a performance for the stage may not work on film, and the converse. However, it shouldn't be forgotten - and I'm not suggesting that anyone here is forgetting - that Staunton's taped Rose was a performance given on stage and for a stage audience. Which arguably raises the question, do and should actors recalibrate performances given live before audiences on those occasions when they are being taped. I don't pretend to have an answer to this one; but it's worth discussing."
That is a very interesting question and one those dynamics theater vs. film playing it to the back of the audience as opposed to a camera should all be taken into consideration when filming a live theater performance.
A friend of mine has always wanted a professionally filmed version of the Original Broadway production of "Evita" as he was not around to see it when it was around and I told him that unless Patti LuPone toned it down for a filmed/taped version it would truly be, at least to me, unwatchable. That performance as it was on the stage with all it's brilliance, determination and downright ferocity would not go over very well with the intimacy of the camera. She would have had to dial it down a couple of hundred notches.
EDIT: That's not to say that it cannot be done. Look at the wonderful filmed/taped performances that were done of "Sweeney Todd" and "Into the Woods" - to name just two.
You Can Disagree Without Being Disagreeable
Updated On: 7/11/16 at 02:59 PM
#19
Posted: 7/11/16 at 5:38pm
I do have to wonder if Imelda knew which nights she was being filmed. I liked her a good deal in the 2nd half (give or take a few things here and there), but her first act was without charm and humor. I find the opposite true for Midler who shined in the first half only to become ridiculous in the 2nd half. Her monologue before "Rose's Turn" should be studied as a way not to perform that piece. Just awful and completely unconvincing even had it been on stage.
#20
Posted: 7/11/16 at 9:18pm
Imelda in the film is NOT good. Not good at all.
#21
Posted: 7/11/16 at 9:38pm
I'm of the small minority that thought Staunton's filmed performance was perfectly fine. To be fair though I am also in the minority that doesn't have that strong an affinity for the material.
I totally agree re: Wood's take on Louise/Gypsy. She does that transition over the course so well.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#22
Posted: 7/12/16 at 10:17am
"I'm a pretty girl mama. Mama, I'm a pretty girl..."
She gets me. Every. damn. time.
#23
Posted: 7/12/16 at 2:52pm
I also think Natalie Woods best performance is in Gypsy. While a stunning woman, I was never a really great fan of her acting. Maybe because her life was somewhat similar to Gypsy Rose Lee, she felt the character more.
P.S. Is that a caricature of Ethel Merman in that pic?
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