With regard to "Rose's Turn", and having seen them all, I thought Patti LuPone's was brilliant, but no better than Ethel Merman's rousing rendition which is reflected in the OBC recording of GYPSY, which I consider the definitive version (although I miss the farmboys' singing "Broadway, Broadway"). As for Angela Lansbury's version of "Rose's Turn", I had the chance to see her in the London production in 1973 as well as the Broadway version one year later. Lansbury seemed to have changed her approach for NYC. She sang it much more angrily and bitterly at the Winter Garden than she had in London, really slamming it home, as if the NY audience wouldn't get it as a nervous breakdown unless she performed it that way. I also found her bowing to the audience in NY almost wooden. I think LuPone's reaction to the audience's applause was terrific, milking it and enjoying it, being finally accepted and even revered for once in her life, even if it is in her imagination. As I said in my long review several days ago, I don't even remember the way Bernadette Peters handled "Rose's Turn", feeling that she simply was miscast, although I acknowledge that she has many admirerers on this Board. Tyne Daly, who had tremendous stage presence as Rose, performed the final number sort of half way between Lansbury's and LuPone's approach. Although she didn't have the same vocal greatness as the other Roses, she made for an excellent lead. Incidentally, I also saw Linda Lavin as Rose, while Daly was on an extended vacation. Talk about miscasting! I saw her in it on New Year's Eve and was pleasantly distracted by the pre-midnight revelers through the exit doors of the St. James.
"Madam Rose...and her daughter...Gypsy!"
