I have seen all of the Broadway Roses, most of them multiple times, and I list them in the order of their appeal to me:
1)ETHEL MERMAN who sang AND acted the hell out of the role.
2)TYNE DALY whose tremendous stage presence made up for her lack of stellar singing. I could watch her read the telephone book.
3)ANGELA LANSBURY whose performance in London (which I saw) surpassed her Broadway performance(which I also saw), in that on Broadway IMO she overdid the mad scene element of "Rose's Turn", even though she was following director Arthur Laurents's wishes.
4)BERNADETTE PETERS, who was good but not great, IMO.
5)BETTE MIDLER, who was not as good as she should have been, but it's good to have the film since it greatly surpasses the Rosalind Russell film.
6)LINDA LAVIN, who just didn't have the strength or stage presence.
I would love to have seen Dolores Gray in the part.
I never saw an understudy go on so I can't comment on them.I wonder how Mary Louise Wilson would have been, going on for Angela Lansbury.
I look forward to eventually seeing Patti LuPone in the part.
"Madam Rose...and her daughter...Gypsy!"
Updated On: 11/28/06 at 03:40 PM
