We should be wary of assumptions about who would be simply perfect for what. Isn’t that how typecasting begins, after all? And what actor want to think of themselves as typecast? Actually, the new Broadway revival of Gypsy makes a strong argument for that maligned practice.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been hearing about how Patti LuPone was just born to play Mama Rose, the staggering presence at the center of Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’s 1959 musical. This was essentially based on a couple of basic facts related to both the actor’s style and the widespread conception of the character: LuPone’s steel center would work great for a tough old broad like Rose, and like the original Rose, Ethel Merman, LuPone is an old-school Broadway belter.
Seeing Rose like this has become common wisdom: After Merman, Broadway revivals have starred such powerhouses as Angela Lansbury (1974) and Tyne Daly (1989), while Bette Midler led the 1993 TV adaptation. (Hollywood’s Rose was Rosalind Russell in 1962, qualifying as an outsize personality if not vocalist, since she was dubbed by Lisa Kirk.) read more
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