Recent GYPSY revival - Controversial?

[GreatWhiteWay]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:06pm

In the Playbill article about Sam Mendes direction THE VERTICAL HOUR, it says:

"The work, The Vertical Hour, will be directed by Sam Mendes, in his first Broadway foray since piloting the controversial Bernadette Peters revival of Gypsy."

What was so controversial about it?
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/98620.html

[rosekwbp]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:12pm

I have no idea. I saw it twice it was amazing.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:14pm

It wasn't controversial in an outrageous moral issue sort of way, I'm sure they're just referring to Peter's casting and how different her Rose was from all those before her.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:15pm

The production was stripped down - bare bones. Much like the current Sweeney with very few set pieces. One scene had Mamma Rose walking out of a fake door. It was just the door jam on stage.

Bernadette was controversial casting. Patti LuPone had dibs on the role, but Arthur Laurents didn't allow that. Peters had her detractors (Riedel), but once Brantley dubbed her "blissfully brilliant," everyone changed their minds.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:16pm

I don't know anyone who changed their mind about Bernadette after the reviews came out.

People who didn't like her, didn't like her - no matter what anyone (particularly Ben Brantley) said.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:19pm

It's too bad..I think she is an amazing actress. Maybe not the BEST choice for this role, but she was perfectly capable of doing it.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:20pm

Rose has traditionally been cast with actresses who played her as a big, loud, asexual battle-ax who steamrolls her way through life. Peters -- a small woman -- played her more coquettish and demure who gets her way through charm and sex appeal, as much as through bossiness and being domineering.

Also, many disagreed whether Peters was an ideal fit for the role. Some thought she was a revelation. Others found her not to be an ideal match for the role. She struggled to sing the legendarily difficult score at times and seemed overmatched by the role's demands. The controversy, in part, led to Peters losing the Tony for Best Actress to Marissa Jaret Winkur of Hairspray, who's role certainly wasn't as difficult, but it fit her like a glove.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:22pm

I know it's been said to death.

But, no matter how well the role fit Marissa, I think Bernadette still deserved that TONY.

[Horton]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:22pm

I hated her, and I mean HATED, but I think it was that she wast just off that night, because everybody I was with hated her as well. I hope she had better days.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:27pm

She was brilliant and the fact that she didn't win the Tony is a joke.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:29pm

I agree, but let's NOT get into this again...

[FoscasBohemianDream]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:36pm

I thoroughly enjoyed the revival but it lacked a certain spark in its staging. In my opinion the casting was superb though. Yes, Peters did have issues with singing the role, but I believe she was the first performer to take Rose in a completely different way. As Brantley mentioned in his review, the controversy about Peters playing the role started since the cast was announced, it went on during previews (Peters missed some previews, but if I'm not wrong she missed very few performances after opening night), and as Margo explained the major controversy came when Marissa Jaret Winokur won the Tony for Best Actress. I believe Peters deserved it, and it was a joke that Traci Turnblad trumped Mamma Rose, sad...
Updated On: 3/22/06 at 08:36 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 8:54pm

Peters missed 4 performances in previews due to throat problems and then after opening night later in the run missed one or two to be with her (now sadly late) husband after he had surgery. Really an exemplary attendance record for such a difficult role and one that Riedel should be ashamed for trying to mislead the public about.

And no, I won't rehash the controversy. I just know when I saw her, both times (many months apart), her acting was very good but she was in great vocal distress when she sang, literally gasping for air and having trouble sustaining notes and cutting phrases in half just to make it through the songs. She even cracked badly on a few notes. She marked time vocally through several of the lighter ballads, singing as minimally as possible, obviously saving all of her resources for the finale of each act. It was a very uncomfortable experience to watch her strain and struggle her way through the evening and at several points I wished she would simply retire and let her standby continue for her.

The role seemed a few sizes too big for her voice as if you had taken a light operetta soprano known for singing Die Fledermaus and stuck on the stage of the Met to sing Brunhilde or Isolde. She seemed overwhelmed. At least a half dozen friends of mine related similar stories about performances they attended over the course of the year, describing the experience of watching her as "painful" and "excruciating." Obviously she had her good nights as well -- as when Brantley was in the house and she apparently knocked it out of the ballpark -- but I didn't see that performance either time I went. I think the Tony voters must have gone on the nights that my friends and I did and that explains what happened with the voting.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 9:01pm

I saw the show during its final months on Broadway. May 9th actually. She was out but Maureen Moore was in and did a great job. But based on the cd, she has a great Rose.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 9:01pm

I saw the show during its final months on Broadway. May 9th actually. She was out but Maureen Moore was in and did a great job. But based on the cd, she has a great Rose.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 9:17pm

I've seen the show with five name actresses playing Rose. Seeing it with Bernadette was the first time I was able to believe why Herbie would have hung around for so long.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 9:31pm

Margo, I saw it a ways into the run and she "knocked it out of the park" that night as well. I was not expecting much, as I was sure she was miscast, and was thrilled to have her prove me wrong.

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 9:39pm

It is very obvious she had vocal problems throughout the run. Some fans get defensive when you mention, but it's very true.

My opinion is that Patti will be the most flawlessly sung Rose since Merman.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 9:42pm

I don't doubt a lot of people saw her hit it out of the park and I'm happy for them, but lament that I never saw that performance (and neither did thousands of others). I've been a big fan of Peters and seen every performance of hers on Broadway since the 80s and was hoping for her to succeed. She didn't when I saw her and thus is the ephemeral nature of theatre. Whether you loved her Rose or not or think she deserved the Tony or not, all depends on what condition she was in the night you saw her. Some nights she was apparently briliant. Other nights, she struggled just to get through it (and she's not the first Rose that this was case for). And thus, because of her inconsistency in the role -- though I know she always gave it her all -- this is a controversy that will never completely die.

[moljul]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 9:44pm

Just a minor quibble, Margo. Her problems during previews and shortly after opening were not "throat problems", she had a respiratory infection so technically she had lung problems.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 9:48pm

Originally it was bare bones, but didn't they beef it up a little priot to its opening?

[FoscasBohemianDream]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 10:00pm

I agree that the controversy surrounding Peters' turn as Rose will never die. I did see her struggle to some performances, but when she was at her best she was truly magnificent and brilliant in the role.
The problem with the production wasn't necessarily Peters, I believe she is actually what kept the show running. Mendes' staging didn't necessarily add anything to previous mountings of Gypsy, and I guess audiences expected more from the same director behind the Cabaret revival(although many would argue Rob Marshall had a lot to do with the success of that production). There were some good moments but I believe I'd have rather seen Mendes stage the show as a tribute to Jerome Robbins instead of trying to create a new concept that didn't quite work for me.

[moljul]

Posted: 3/22/06 at 10:15pm

Fosca, Good points. I believe Arthur Laurents, who was VERY critical of this last production, put all the blame on the production concept/Mendes. In fact he has specifically said he had no problem with Bernadette as Rose.

I rather liked the stripped down version because it drew all the focus onto the story and the characters. Mendes directed as a play with music instead of a musical which I thought was interesting. Maybe not the way I want to see it every time, but I enjoyed it for what it was.
Updated On: 3/22/06 at 10:15 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/23/06 at 12:44am

That's not controversy. Controversy would be if Charles Busch was playing the role.

[andyf]

Posted: 3/23/06 at 1:19am

Sorry to threadjack, but this brings up, for me, the question of who will win Best Actor in a Musical this year.

I would love to see John Lloyd Young walk away with it, but does anyone think he actually stands a chance against a) Michael Cerveris b) as Sweeney Todd?

Updated On: 3/23/06 at 01:19 AM