Patti LuPone

Less than two weeks of onstage rehearsal for one of the most demanding roles in the musical theatre canon, no preview period whatsoever and the major theatre critics in attendance for the first public performance would be daunting for any actor, no matter how gifted. But for Patti LuPone, who recently faced that exact set of circumstances while starring in the Ravinia Festival's production of Gypsy, that recipe for disaster became a formula for overwhelming success.

On Aug. 11 LuPone — following such illustrious predecessors as Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters — became the latest actress to portray "Mama" Rose, the overbearing stage mother who, because she was "born too soon and started too late," lives out her show-business fantasies through her two daughters, alienating both in the process. It's a role that LuPone, who boasts not only a powerful, lush and soaring alto but the dramatic prowess that has led to stage triumphs in works by Terrence McNally and David Mamet, seems destined to have played. LuPone, however, says that she never thinks, "'I was born to play this part.' I may say it about Rosamund in The Robber Bridegroom, [but] I would not I say I was born to play Evita or [Rose], but other people have said that these are 'your parts.'"

LuPone may not say it, but the critics certainly did. In fact, Variety's Steven Oxman was so taken with LuPone's performance that he wrote in his review that "it's hard to imagine these three performances will be Patti LuPone's only opportunity to play Rose." If she is somewhat baffled by the roles people claim she should play, LuPone does admit, "I know I've got the technical chops, I know I have the voice, I know I have the energy for the part — I know I can understand it emotionally and intellectually. And," the Tony and Olivier Award winner adds, "the other thing is I've never seen anybody play it. I saw the [Gypsy] movie, but I did not see Tyne [Daly] do it. I was actually asked to replace Tyne, and I said no because it was Tyne's production . . . [and I would want] a production of my own. I didn't see Angela [Lansbury] do it, I didn't see Ethel [Merman] do it. I haven't seen the movie of Bette [Midler] playing it. I didn't see Bernadette [Peters] play it. I've never seen the play! I've seen the Rosalind Russell movie. What I say to that is ignorance is bliss! I came to it without any kind of point of reference, other than Rosalind Russell's, and I haven't seen that movie since I was a kid."

LuPone says her exploration of Rose also included a good deal of research: "I read all the books. I read 'Early Havoc,' 'More Havoc' and 'Gypsy,' and in all of the books, both [June Havoc and Gypsy Rose Lee] described their mother. June said that contrary to popular belief, her mother was not a Calliope, she was a music box. And Gypsy said [Rose] was a small, fragile, vulnerable woman and a man trap. I just played into the fragility and the vulnerability of it. . . . But [whoever plays Rose] has to have the chops to open up on those high notes, to sing as largely as Jule Styne wrote it. What I tried to do is combine the two things: the way it was written musically and what I had read about her."

It's during the first-act finale when Rose must exhibit that complicated mix of vulnerability and unflinching determination. "What I think is brilliant about that [scene]," LuPone relates, "is the way the speech leads into ['Everything's Coming Up Roses']. What I tried to do is connect that whole thing, and I was blessed to have Paul Gemignani at the baton because he is such an actor's conductor. There's no beat between the end of the sentence and the downboat — there's no breath, he's right there. I tried to build the whole speech as a revelation. This is what she's going to do, and she's convincing herself as much as she's convincing Louise that Louise is the next star. And then at the end, at the very last, I made the crack — I tried to show the crack in the armor. 'Everything's coming up roses for ME and for you.' Whether I succeeded or not, I don't know, but that's what I was trying to do. I think she has to remain positive. It only makes the fall deeper."

Although her late mother was not a stage mother — "As a matter of fact, my mother is famous for saying to both my brother [actor Robert LuPone] and me, 'You and your brother just flit from job to job!'" — LuPone says the role was not difficult to comprehend "because it is an incredibly well-written part." When asked what she believes propels Rose's actions, LuPone quotes book writer Arthur Laurents: "'Just wanted to be noticed.' I think all of it is blind — I don't think it's calculated. All the women in that family were very powerful women, and they all married early, had children and realized this is not what they wanted and tried to find ways out. Big Lady was an underwear, corset seamstress and left Rose and left the husband and went off and made her living and dropped back into the family and left [again], so Rose was basically abandoned by her mother. And Rose, who was married at 14, apparently saw her way out when June was on toe shoes at two years old."

LuPone says her time with the role, though brief, was extremely gratifying. "I understood why people wanted me to play it. On Friday night, when there was that standing ovation after 'Rose's Turn,' I was flipped out. I do not know why [the audience stood]. I'm not being modest. I just don't know why. . . . Perhaps I illustrated a monologue as opposed to an 11th hour number. It's incredibly structured, and it's heartbreaking. All I did — and I'm not a substitution actor at all — but I thought about [my son] Joshua. 'Give 'em love, and what does it get you? One quick look as each of 'em leaves you.' I thought it's a mother's lament." Continued...