Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?- Page 2
Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
TooDarnHot
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/08
#25re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 3:15pm
"how many of you out there actually saw all five Broadway productions?"
me.
#26re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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.)
"Madam Rose...and her daughter...Gypsy!"
#27re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 3:51pm
"Light the candles! Get the ice out! Roll the rug up, it's today!"
Updated On: 6/21/08 at 03:51 PM
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#28re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
#29re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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.
"Light the candles! Get the ice out! Roll the rug up, it's today!"
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#30re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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?
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
StockardFan
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
#31re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:19pm
Joyce Dewitt played Mama Rose?
KFTC!!!!!
Updated On: 6/21/08 at 04:19 PM
#32re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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. 
"Light the candles! Get the ice out! Roll the rug up, it's today!"
#33re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:20pmOh, I forgot to mention mine is Patti. :)
The Best Thing Right Now: Hair Revival!
StockardFan
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
#34re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:21pmsondheimgeek who are you guys talking about?
KFTC!!!!!
#35re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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.
"Light the candles! Get the ice out! Roll the rug up, it's today!"
Updated On: 6/21/08 at 04:23 PM
StockardFan
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
#36re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:24pmOOH! Got it. Thanks......I might have to listen to that for a giggle!
KFTC!!!!!
#37re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:27pmShe has an 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' that can only be rivaled by Merman.
"Light the candles! Get the ice out! Roll the rug up, it's today!"
StockardFan
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
#38re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:29pmI can't tell if you are being serious or not? LOL!
KFTC!!!!!
#40re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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.
"Light the candles! Get the ice out! Roll the rug up, it's today!"
#41re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 4:49pm
Merman
Lansbury
LuPone
"There are only two worthwhile things to leave behind when we depart this world of ours: children and art."
-Sunday In The Park With George
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#42re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 5:30pm
Linda Balgord.
(Unfacetiously though, LuPone.)
Updated On: 6/21/08 at 05:30 PM
#43re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 6:13pmPatti LuPone
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
#44re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/21/08 at 7:02pmI'm gonna say Patti Lupone.
#45re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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.
"I long-ago realized that this country is a nation of
morons, when it comes to knowledge of anything outside, or beyond, pop culture." Steve Slezak
#46re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/22/08 at 5:14amMandy Patinkin.
-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
#47re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
Posted: 6/22/08 at 7:11am
Betty Buckley
Everybody has a heart. Except some people.
- Bette Davis
#48re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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.
bollingerchampagne2
Swing Joined: 3/31/08
#49re: Who do you think was the best Mama Rose?
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.
