They are SO different, I don't see how you can compare them.
On one hand I think there wouldn't be a "Lot's Wife" without "Rose's Turn." What Sondheim did with that number (and from what I've read it was his idea to combine different motifs and lyrics from the show into one big break-down) was simply an act of genius. Getting to a point where Rose is really doing her own striptease of emotions is just thrilling to watch and listening to Rose use lyrics that belonged to her daughters and giving it a completely different spin is chilling.
However, what Kushner and Tesori have done with "Lot's Wife" is write one of the most politically charged musical numbers while letting the unspoken voice sing out for once. Much like Rose, Caroline has sacrificed her own dreams and life for her children. Unlike Rose, Caroline basically had no choice. It's such a heart-breaking number and it has such a bare, awful revelatory comment on American society, history, and womanhood that I just think it transcends the nervous break-down of Rose.
I pick "Lot's Wife."
And I'm sorry Patti's performance has nothing to do with "Rose's Turn" or "Lot's Wife" in terms of this thread. I feel "Lot's Wife" is not a song that leaves you thinking (wow, Tonya Pinkins really blew the roof off the Eugene O'Neill), it's a song that makes you ponder about much bigger issues.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
