Tonya Pinkins for Mamma Rose?

[222disneyland]

silly idea of mine

[denali.fire]

Another Gypsy revival? Ugh.

[JSquared2]

Wouldn't sell 10 tickets.

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Plus she'll blow out her voice every Wednesday matinee so she'll be struggling vocally for the rest of the week of performances.  

 

[americanboy99]

Cut the shade. 

She would be unbelievable. 

[cuz-i-can]

Good idea,  she'd surely be more exciting and would put Lupone and Peters versions to shame.

[Call_me_jorge]

Maybe in a regional production somewhere. Def. not broadway, though.

[Valentina3]

I just came here to say this - YYAAAAASSS

[RippedMan]

Roundabout, make it happen! But not an "all Black" version. Mixed-race. Do it. 

[RogerMoore]

Tonya has said that this is her dream role and even said she asked Arthur Laurents to make her the replacement Rose for Patti LuPone were Patti to go on vacation or leave the show. This was on a podcast - I believe Theater People.

[zelgo]

How about Tanya Harding as Mamma Rose?

[AEA AGMA SM]

I love this idea and would gladly pay to see it. Tonya is a driven, passionate performer who unfortunately comes with the reputation for being extremely difficult to work with. So it would be a very tough decision for a producer to decide if the resulting performance is worth it.

[qolbinau]

A difficult, unreliable performer with no marquee valuable in a show that was revived twice recently and flopped both times? This sounds like an easy sell!

[Jarethan]

qolbinau said: "A difficult, unreliable performer with no marquee valuable in a show that was revived twice recently and flopped both times? This sounds like an easy sell!"

I knew the Lupone production was a financial failure.  I did not realize the BP version also was.  Is that the one to which you are referring or did I forget one?  If so, do you know if it was a big financial failure?  (Just surprised...I thought it had done better).

PS -- I agree that it is a bad idea.  If you add up the performance totals of every Broadway production of Gypsy to date, I don't think they add up to the current run of Kinky Boots.  When you consider all the repeat viewers (of the various productions) -- i.e., just on Broadway, I have seen Lansbury, Daly, Lavin (ugh!), and Peters, for a total of 10 performances, and I am probably low compared to many on this board -- that tells me that there is not a large built-in audience for Gypse, even with Broadway superstars.  Any future production that does not have some sort of superstar (or incredibly praised performance, a la Daly) is not going to have a chance at success, unless there is no new production for at least 20 years.

PPS -- I didn't see Lupone because I was so Gypsy'd out that I could not justify a trip to NYC too do so.  

[qolbinau]

According to the NYTimes, Bernadette's Gypsy likely lost half of its $8 million investment. If you look at the grosses, it did appear to be a somewhat hot ticket (only somewhat) in 2003 but things slowed down in 2004. I can't help but wonder if they could have been a little more frugal with the spending. However, perhaps at the time they thought the star power of Bernadette Peters with a very high-profile, prestigious director Sam Mendes (who had great success with Cabaret) in a show that hadn't been seen for over a decade would be a smash hit.