Tony Awards

There is a Tony Awards Comittee that votes.

As far as Bernadette not winning, there were a couple of problems that just counted against her.

1) Her sickness before and particularly after the opening and the negative coverage she received for missing those shows.

2) Her Tony win for Annie Get Your Gun (1999), which was not a particularly popular win in the community. She's much much better in Gypsy than she was in Annie, but had she not won for Annie, she might have had a better chance to win for Gypsy.

3) Consensus on her performance is all over the board. Some people do not feel she escapes the Merman strong woman mold. Others feel she brings her own considerable assets to her performance, creating something new, which was the production's intention. (As she said on CBS Sunday Morning, there was no point in her trying to copy someone else's style. She can only bring the qualities she brings to the role).

4) Very few Tony voters were able to see a healthy Bernadette. Now that she's in good health, singing well, and the Tonys are over, the tension surrounding the production has relaxed, and her performance is stronger, more confident and assured. Audiences at Gypsy in June are getting a much better show than audiences at Gypsy in April and May.

Going on...

Personally, I feel that it's hard from some people to see Rose as more vulnerable, more real, less of a monster. Gypsy, in previous incarnations, had a somewhat misogynistic streak. Rose is a battle-axe, the Wichita strippers are grotesqueries, Rose's daughters are damaged, the Hollywood Blondes are talentless. The principal men by contrast, are virtuous, noble, long-suffering, chivalrous, henpecked by women (Herbie) or beautiful and dreamy (Tulsa).

So, for this production, at least, Rose is less like every gay man's nightmare vision of his own mother, and more like a real woman making terrible decisions that destroy her life and ruin her kids, until Louise ultimately reverses the power struggle. It reveals different colors of the work, and I appreciated a less vulgar, more nuanced Rose. Some feel that makes Bernadette Peters miscast, but I think that's true only if you feel the loud Merman/Daly approach is the only way to go. On the contrary, I think it shows there are many different ways to
play this great role.

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'Rose is less like every gay man's nightmare vision of his own mother'

Now now...not every gay man actually has a nighmare vision of his mother. I will say that many gay men of a certain age (perhaps even the creators...certainly Mr. Sondheim) have had experiences like you suggest. I find it interesting that two shows that opened this year, originally directed by gay men and deemed, by some, misogynistic, have not had that word thrown at them (NINE and GYPSY). I also find it interesting that both were directed by straight men (at least I think David Leveaux is straight). Thoughts?

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I enjoyed your post very much. I appreciated Bernadette's comedic style and her vulnerability. Her voice seemed fragile and I prayed it wouldn't crack...it didn't. It's such a demanding role. I never saw Gypsy with Merman but I remember Rosalind Russell in the movie (she was wonderful.)