Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?- Page 2
Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/08
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#25
Posted: 6/21/08 at 3:15pm
"how many of you out there actually saw all five Broadway productions?"
me.
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#26
Posted: 6/21/08 at 3:47pm
Smaxie, I did not know that such a CD existed. I will try to find it. I loved Medford in the OBC of BYE BYE BIRDIE--she was hilarious as Albert's mother Mae.
My choice for the best Mama Rose: Ethel Merman, followed in order by Patti LuPone, Angela Lansbury in London*, Tyne Daly, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, and lastly Linda Lavin.
I would love to have seen Dolores Gray in the part; she played Mama Rose in London after Lansbury left. I would also have enjoyed seeing Kaye Ballard in the role. Ballard never had the Broadway career that she should have had.
*(I swear that Lansbury played "Rose's Turn" differently in London than she did in NYC. I thought that on Broadway she over-did the breakdown, seemingly hitting the audience over the head with a frying pan, else we, the audience, not "get it". Boy am I going to get blasted for that remark.)
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#27
Posted: 6/21/08 at 3:51pm
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#28
Posted: 6/21/08 at 3:58pmOh gosh, Gypsy9, please don't seek it out. She's incredibly awful. It's just hilarious to listen to. And what she does with "Mama's gotta let go" just cannot be described. It's like a musical comedy paroxysm.
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#29
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:13pm
It really is an awful recording, but worth listening to for a laugh.
Her "Momma's gotta let go..." is by far my favorite line I have ever heard on a cast recording. It's so painful, but it always gives me a good laugh.
Her last "For me!" takes the cake.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#30
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:15pmYou mean the way she kinda wobbles, shrieks and growls it, all at the same time, before she just gives up?
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#31
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:19pm
Joyce Dewitt played Mama Rose?
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#32
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:20pm
Exactly.
And during all of her "For Me!"'s, she seems to try to savor each one, by using many different pronunciations. To me, her pronunciation sounds somewhat like "For Meee-ah! For Meeee! Fah Me!!!, Faor ME! For Meeeeee...ee.eee...!".
She just brightens up my day. 
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#33
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:20pmOh, I forgot to mention mine is Patti. :)
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#34
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:21pmsondheimgeek who are you guys talking about?
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#35
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:23pm
We're talking about Kay Medford haha.
It's like a classic Jewish Schtick comedy routine set to the score of Gypsy.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#36
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:24pmOOH! Got it. Thanks......I might have to listen to that for a giggle!
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#37
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:27pmShe has an 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' that can only be rivaled by Merman.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#38
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:29pmI can't tell if you are being serious or not? LOL!
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#40
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:48pmActually Smaxie, there is something worse than Kay Medford on the recording. The girl who plays Dainty June is a wreck.
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#41
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:49pm
Merman
Lansbury
LuPone
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re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#42
Posted: 6/21/08 at 5:30pm
Linda Balgord.
(Unfacetiously though, LuPone.)
Updated On: 6/21/08 at 05:30 PM
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#43
Posted: 6/21/08 at 6:13pmPatti LuPone
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#44
Posted: 6/21/08 at 7:02pmI'm gonna say Patti Lupone.
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#45
Posted: 6/22/08 at 4:51amAt the risk of being controversial (and I do not mean to be), my favorite Mama Rose is and always will be Rosalind Russell in the 1962 film. I realize that the songs were partially dubbed by Lisa Kirk in the film but the combination is so seamless and Russell's acting performance is so on the mark and superb that it is my favorite anyway. Also the film uses greatly expanded orchestrations played by the incomparable Warner Bros Studio Orchestra with its virtuoso brass section. The score has never been played better on any other recording, in my opinion. In fact the 1962 film makes the orchestra used in the more recent Bette Midler TV film sound anemic by comparison. I have seen Angela Lansbury in the role on stage and she was also excellent, not as powerful as Russell's portrayal, but Lansbury sang the role superbly.
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#46
Posted: 6/22/08 at 5:14amMandy Patinkin.
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#47
Posted: 6/22/08 at 7:11am
Betty Buckley
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#48
Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:27am
I love Betty Buckley but her Gypsy was excruciating. There was not ONE SINGLE LAUGH in the entire evening. It was like watching a musical version of Euripedes' MEDEA.
In fact, if I remember correctly, the second act climaxed with Miss Buckley as Rose devouring her children.
re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?#49
Posted: 6/22/08 at 1:34pmWell of course it would have to be Ethel Merman.....I mean she made that show a hit to begin with. I think that Ethel went through more emotional stress when she was in the show than any other performer of Mama Rose.
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