The best mama rose

[Theatrefanboy1]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 9:13am

Curious people’s ranking.  Mine:

Patti Lupone
Angela Lansbury 
Ethel Merman

Bernadette Peters

Tyne Daly

Audra McDonald honestly I found her to be the worst by far)

 

I will say my assessment of Ethel Merman’s is based on archives, and I did not see her live. 
 

the others as well, for people interested are available at the NYPL if you did miss out on seeing them.  
 

I completely agree that Patti was born to play the roll

Updated On: 1/10/25 at 09:13 AM

[The8re phan]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 9:17am

1) LuPone

 

2) Merman

3) Lansbury

4) Lavin

5) Daly

6) Buckley

7) McDonald

[joevitus]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 10:10am

Curious how many people here have seen all the biggies (Merman, Lansbury, Daly, Peters, LuPone, and now McDonald).  

[DebraR]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 10:27am

Saw Patty LuPone and remember feeling like it was an out of body experience. Would have killed to see Angela Landsbury. Hoping I get the chance to see Audra!

[The8re phan]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 10:35am

joevitus said: "Curious how many people here have seen all the biggies (Merman, Lansbury, Daly, Peters, LuPone, and now McDonald)."

as far as live productions, i've seen the last 4 mentioned (as well as Linda Lavin and Betty Buckley at Papermill), and LuPone was by far the most thrilling for me

Updated On: 1/10/25 at 10:35 AM

[Robbie2]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 9:53pm

joevitus said: "Curious how many people here have seen all the biggies (Merman, Lansbury, Daly, Peters, LuPone, and now McDonald)."

Nobody is alive today to have seen Merman!

[Ludlow29]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 10:15pm

I saw Merman.  The most thrilling performance I've ever seen in a musical.  The fact that she didn't win the Tony proves how inadequate the award can be.

 

[joevitus]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 10:44pm

Ludlow29 said: "I saw Merman. The most thrilling performance I've ever seen in a musical. The fact that she didn't win the Tony proves how inadequate the award can be.

"

Did you see Martin in The Sound of Music, too? The Tony voters just seemed to have been enthralled with her. She won, what, three times throughout her career? Merman never won.

Updated On: 1/10/25 at 10:44 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 10:53pm

Ludlow29 said: "I saw Merman. The most thrilling performance I've ever seen in a musical. The fact that she didn't win the Tony proves how inadequate the award can be.

"

Isn't it only the ones directed by Laurents that won a Tony?  Don't see that streak changing.

Oh and Tyne Daly was the best of them all.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 11:01pm

joevitus said: "Ludlow29 said: "I saw Merman. The most thrilling performance I've ever seen in a musical. The fact that she didn't win the Tony proves how inadequate the award can be.

"

Did you see Martin in The Sound of Music, too? The Tony voters just seemed to have been enthralled with her. She won, what, three times throughout her career? Merman never won."

Merman won the Tony for Call Me Madam. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 11:15pm

For me, Tyne. Then Betty. 

[willep]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 11:36pm

Robbie2 said: "Nobody is alive today to have seen Merman!"

Considering I have a friend who was in it with Merman and is still alive, this is definitely just a wildly inaccurate claim.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 11:41pm

Robbie2 said: "Nobody is alive today to have seen Merman!"

It’s “Gypsy”, not the original production of “Hamlet”.

 

[joevitus]

Posted: 1/10/25 at 11:55pm

ljay889 said: "joevitus said: "Ludlow29 said: "I saw Merman. The most thrilling performance I've ever seen in a musical. The fact that she didn't win the Tony proves how inadequate the award can be.

"

Did you see Martin in The Sound of Music, too? The Tony voters just seemed to have been enthralled with her. She won, what, three times throughout her career? Merman never won."

Merman won the Tony for Call Me Madam."

Appreciate this. Still, Martin won four (just looked it up). Merman, one. I mean, a little lobsided in the doling out of those things, huh?

[Georgeanddot2]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 12:27am

Audra is the only Rose that's actually managed to bring tears to my eyes during Rose's Turn. She approaches the role with a whole new point of view that completely recontextualizes a lot of Rose's choices and her overall objective. She's delusional, sure, but with Audra, that delusion is tragic. She's our current Rose and I'd like to say, as someone who actually saw her performance and didn't just listen to a first preview bootleg, she's absolutely fantastic in this production.

I don't see the point in ranking these performances. Very few of us were alive to see them all and one of the things that makes Gypsy so great is watching each great actress bring something new to the role. I suspect Patti will be the popular answer and she was magnificent and it really helped that she was surrounded by a supporting cast who matched her talent. Benanti is without a doubt the greatest Louise.

[RUkiddingme]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 12:49am

Tyne.

 

[Robbie2]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 12:52am

Ludlow29 said: "I saw Merman. The most thrilling performance I've ever seen in a musical. The fact that she didn't win the Tony proves how inadequate the award can be.

"

Ooooook wow so it opened in '59 which is 66 years ago so you must be in your late 80's or so damn! How old were you? 

[Robbie2]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 12:56am

willep said: "Robbie2 said: "Nobody is alive today to have seen Merman!"

Considering I have a friend who was in it with Merman and is still alive, this is definitely just a wildly inaccurate claim."

Ooooook wow so it opened in '59 which is 66 years ago so your friend must be in his late 80's + or so damn! How old is he? I was thinking GYPSY opened early 50's but just checked my wildy inaccurate claim! 

[Penna2]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 2:25am

Jordan Catalano said: "For me, Tyne. Then Betty."

Have to agree. Also liked Staunton who actually looks a lot like the real Rose. 

[Demitri2]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 9:50am

I was fortunate enough to see Lansbury, Daly, Peters, and LuPone. But for me, my favorite was Ann Sothern who I saw at Westbury Music Fair. It's the only time the entire audience stood DURING "Rose's Turn."

[Jarethan]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 6:22pm

Didn’t see Merman, Lupone or MacDonald (yet).  Of the ones I did see,

1.  Lansbury (the greatest performance I have seen on the stage)

2.  Peters (way underrated; her Rose’s turn was ferocious)

3.  Buckley (I have never liked her that much, but she was solid)

4.  Julia Murney (lacked charisma, but a solid performance.

5.  Daly (too shrill)

6.  Linda Lavin (just mediocre)

 

As an aside, I saw the original casts of Hello Dolly and She Loves Me when I was 14, Funny Girl and Fiddler when I was 15, Mame, Sweet Charity and Man of La Mancha and Cabaret when I was 16.  If someone saw Gypsy in 1960, and saw their first show at 14, they would be 78 today…very much alive.

[Mike66]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 8:33pm

Ludlow29 said: "I saw Merman. The most thrilling performance I've ever seen in a musical. The fact that she didn't win the Tony proves how inadequate the award can be.

And here I thought I was the only one old enough to have seen Merman.    

My vote is also for Merman -- after all it was written for her and it's almost impossible to conjure up now-a-days how it felt to sit in the last row in the balcony and have her voice filling the space.  She was one of the very few who not only starred in a show -- she dominated it.  

In fairness, though, Audra is the best ACTOR of the role -- even though I dont care for Wolfe's interpretation.

 

[Owen22]

Posted: 1/11/25 at 9:28pm

Tyne.

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

Posted: 1/16/25 at 10:11pm

I only watched the film, "GYPSY", because my mom mentioned that it was one of her favorite films, and being a Roz Russell fan, thought that she was great, but that dubbed singing of Lisa Kirk really wrecked the film.  I was lucky enough to have seen Tyne Daly on Broadway and she scared the holy hell out of me!  Her "Everything's Coming Up Roses" was way beyond amazing, as well as her "Rose's Turn"!  I also was very fortunate to have seen Ms, Lupone at Ravinia, during the whole "She's gonna do this show over my dead body" rant from Mr. Laurents, and she was beyond amazing!  I told my friends that the producers of the revival with her would be idiots to not put her on Broadway.  It is still to this day, my all-time favorite musical forever!...

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 1/16/25 at 11:12pm

joevitus said: "Appreciate this. Still, Martin won four (just looked it up). Merman, one. I mean, a little lobsided in the doling out of those things, huh?"

Martin's first Tony was an honorary one, she won three competitive awards. It’s also worth noting that for as much as we think of Merman as the definition of the Broadway diva, a large majority of her Broadway credits predate the Tony Awards. She originated three roles in shows after the Tonys started, was a replacement in Hello Dolly, and her final Broadway credit was a revival of Annie Get Your Gun in 1966 (famously mocked as Granny Get Your Gun since she was a couple years shy of her 60th birthday at the time). So winning one out of the four she was eligible for (or even three, since I don’t know for sure if she was eligible for the Annie Get Your Gun revival) is not that bad of a track record.