The real OFFICIAL thread about who was your favorite Louise in "Gypsy"

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 7:58pm

There, that's done now. You can all rest easy again.



Mine was Natalie Wood!

But "live" it was Crista Moore.

[Kringas]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 8:02pm

I'd like to see Anika Noni Rose do it.

[ahmelie]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 8:31pm

Wow, at first I was like "what?" But now that I think about it... damn, she would be fantastic as Louise!

[jewishboy]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 9:05pm

Well, I love Natalie Wood in the gimmick scene (her eyes are brilliant) and in the confrontation scene with Rose. But, overall I would say Cynthia Gibb. She was the first Louise I ever experienced and I love her strip scene most of all.

Live: out of Tammy Blanchard and Deborah Gibson, none of them really did anything for me.

I'm really looking foward to Laura Benanti's interpretation...

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 9:07pm

But Kringas, were black women allowed to strip in front of gentlemen back in the 30s?
The real Gypsy Rose Lee wasn't black so how could anyone with a name like Anika Noni Rose be cast?
If Momma Rose isn't black too I'd be too distracted to buy Anika Noni Rose as Louise/Gypsy. It just wouldn't be believable.
Isn't her voice too "black" for this show? Her skin too dark for the costumes?


Now we got all those out of the way people don't need to ask them. Anika Noni Rose would probably rock the stage as Louise/Gypsy. As I've said before I'd also love to see Anne Hathaway.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 9:14pm

Does anyone else like the sound of Erin Davie?

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 10:26pm

i actually just saw her in GG last night....she's definatley got the gorgeous part down.:)

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 10:29pm

If Flip Wilson dressed up as Geraldine could play Mama Rose, then I'd like to see Margaret Cho play Louise.

Let's shake things up a little.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 10:56pm

I've never really been blown away by a Louise...

I liked Joyce DeWitt as Rose though.

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 11:14pm

Anika and Tonya would be wonderful Rose and Gypsy! Reunited and in perfect roles for them!

[jewishboy]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 11:33pm

I'm sure Tonya would be great as Rose, but I need my Rose to be larger than life. How about Lillias White or Mary Bond Davis to pair with Anika's Louise (which is great casting by the way).

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 11:38pm

"Gorgeous"???
Have you ever seen pics of the real GYPSY ROSE LEE?
She had a face that could stop a clock.
That said,
I enjoyed Zan Charisse, Cyd's daughter in the role.

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 6/30/07 at 12:08am

yes i have seen pics of the real gypsy rose lee....and i still think that erin davie is gorgeous.

[BwayLeadman]

Posted: 6/30/07 at 12:57am

Lillias White would be a GREAT Rose.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 6/30/07 at 8:05am

You wanna shake up a great ol' warhorse like GYPSY? Let's really do it right!

What's Reichen Lehmkul doing these days? Nothin'! His book was a washout and his jewelry is ugly, so let's put that boy to work doing what he does best: showing off that bod. REICHEN AS LOUISE! There! I said it!

Okay, now that the part is out of the way, let's move on to the really tough role: Mama Rose. For my money, it comes down to two people, eiher of whom would bring some real excitement to the part: NATHAN LANE or WHOOPI GOLDBERG. Now sure, Lane would have to dress up in drag, but that's nothing new. And Whoopi... well, okay, the accent may be a problem, but who cares? It's GYPSY, fer cryin' out loud! Dont tell me you cant hear her belting "Rose's Turn", because I sure can!

Now it starts to get problematic, because you have all these other roles to deal with. Still, imagine "Ya Gotta Have a Gimmick" sung by a Cabaret-style trio of one man, one woman, and one... well, one "difficult-to-say-for-sure-either-way". Heck, that's already a gimmick on Broadway, so marrying that to the greatest paean to theatre gimmickry seems a natural!

What else, what else... well, of course we have to have onstage seating. C'mon, tell me that the tourists wouldnt shell out a few hundred bucks for the privilege of being that close to Reichen's near-naked bod during the big strip number. And they could all particpate during "Rose's Turn" as the symbolic metaphor of the audience Rose never got! We're talking positively Freudian, folks!

I'm tellin' ya: it has hit written all over it in great big lipstick-red letters!

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 6/30/07 at 3:28pm

Having seen all of the Broadway Louises, I would choose the very first: Sandra Church. Church made a good tom-boyish younger Louise who was vulnerable. She was beautiful and very sexy as the grown up Louise, and she sang well, from the wistful "Little Lamb" to the strip number "Let Me Entertain You". Incidentally, she dated Jule Styne for awhile. She did not stay with GYPSY for its entire NY run. I don't think she got along with Ethel Merman.

Crista Moore in the Tyne Daly GYPSY was very good also. I don't remember the Louise in the Angela Lansbury production or the Bernadette Peters production. They didn't stand out, to me. Incidentally, Mary Louise Wilson played the stripper Tessie Tura in the Lansbury production in the mid 1970's! She was very funny in that role.

EDIT: I just now discovered that there are three threads on this subject, one going back over 2 years! One of the things that was talked about was "Little Lamb", many feeling that it is an ineffective song. I don't agree. I think that it is a tender, heartfelt song if done right, showing Louise's vulnerability. Jerome Robbins wanted the song cut, supposedly because it was too slow of a song. Jule Styne retaliated by announcing that if Robbins cut the song, he would instruct his lawyers to remove his entire score from the show. Robbins lost that argument.

Updated On: 6/30/07 at 03:28 PM

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 6/30/07 at 5:30pm

Tammy Blanchard.

[Dark_Angel]

Posted: 6/30/07 at 6:42pm

Natalya Nikolaevna Zakharenko

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/1/07 at 9:47am

yeah i totally think "Little Lamb" is absolutely necessary in the show....it's the one chance that we get a moment alone with Louise - and it's very revealing.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/1/07 at 10:06am

Natalie Wood! No doubt about it. And I'd agree that my second would be Crista but, for me, the role belongs to the late and very talented, Natalie.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/1/07 at 10:56am

My mom worked with Sandra Church and Robert Preston on a live television gig right after Sandra had left "Gypsy."

She did NOT have a good time doing that show. Whenever the creatives would consider adding numbers, scenes, songs, even just lines that threw the focus to Louise, Ethel would step in, and the new material would quickly disappear. Sometimes, it got "ugly" (according to Mom who heard it from Sandra...)

Mom doesn't remember if it was Laurents, Robbins or Styne, but one of them shouted angrily during a rehearsal after something of Sandra's was cut, "This show is called GYPSY, God damnit, not ROSE!"

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 7/1/07 at 12:26pm

In Farley Granger's new wonderful book. INCLUDE ME OUT, he says he was the one who introduced Sandra Church to Jule Styne, who was quite smitten with her and then she got the part, Hmmm.
When he ran into Merman (who he was friends with, he also lived with Arthur Laurents for a while)) at a party, she yelled across the room to him:
"Get over here Farl, I wanna talk to you about that c*nt."
Gotta love the Merm.
Updated On: 7/1/07 at 12:26 PM

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 7/1/07 at 2:08pm

Thanks for the juicy tidbits about Sandra Church, Jule Styne, and Ethel Merman, Best12bars and Curtainpulldowner. I hadn't known about those items. Merman sure had power in "her" productions!

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/1/07 at 2:14pm

Wow. So Louise could have been a much bigger part if Merman didn't get in the way?

And it is slightly amusing how the show is called GYPSY but is absolutely all about ROSE.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 7/1/07 at 2:38pm

Louise is my favorite character in the show, though.

And b12, I officially love everything you post.