Word: merman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Gypsy, a slapstick but chilling portrait of the ultimate stage mother, faithfully evokes the original Jerome Robbins production, including, alas, the cutesy, numbers-strung-together Arthur Laurents libretto. If Daly cannot quite dislodge from memory the performances of Ethel Merman and Angela Lansbury, particularly not as a singer, she rivals them as a force of nature. Coarse, thoughtless, unscrupulous and fierce, her Mama Rose is nonetheless just likable enough to explain why two daughters and a surrogate husband stick around so long and forgive so much. Among supporting players, only Jonathan Hadary, as Rose's agent and lover, excels...
...Porter really were to lend approval, it would be chiefly for Patti LuPone. As Nightclub Belter Reno Sweeney, she rivals the role's originator, Ethel Merman, in volume and clarity of voice, and far outdoes her in intelligence and heart. CoStar Howard McGillin has shirt-ad looks, puppyish charm and a lilting tenor. Other delights: Tony Walton's Art Deco ocean-liner set, Paul Gallo's seascape lighting and Michael Smuin's crisp choreography. The supporting cast is mostly ordinary, and Kathleen Mahony-Bennett's oomphless ingenue is not even that. The book, by P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton...
...show's best song, Nobody's Side, has Florence offering words to the wounded ("Never stay too long in your bed,/ Never lose your heart, use your head"), and Paige taunts the lyric into an anthem of cold-steel defiance. Here she evokes the clarion brass of Ethel Merman, the liquid phrasing of Barbra Streisand and the rasping energy of the Ronettes--an electrifying amalgam. Chess reveals Paige as the strongest, smartest voice in today's musical theater...
...waterfall. But her four marriages all ended in divorce; the last, to Actor Ernest Borgnine, in 1964, lasted 38 days. One of her two children, Ethel II, died of an overdose of alcohol and barbiturates in 1967. Although she made notable TV shows, especially with Broadway Star Mary Martin, Merman had only modest success in the movies, where her outsize performances sometimes seemed unreal. In perhaps the worst career setback, her role in the film of Gypsy went to Rosalind Russell...
...Although Merman retired from Broadway in 1970, after playing the title role in Hello, Dolly, she continued to perform in concerts. Last year she underwent surgery for a brain tumor. Her philosophy to the end: "Always give them the old fire, even when you feel like a squashed cake of ice." -By William A. Henry...