{"id":92687,"date":"2024-06-03T00:34:41","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T07:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=92687"},"modified":"2024-06-03T00:34:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T07:34:41","slug":"audra-is-mama-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2024\/06\/03\/audra-is-mama-rose\/","title":{"rendered":"Audra IS Mama Rose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Something I predicted a few years ago has finally come to fruition.&nbsp; <strong>Audra McDonald <\/strong>is going for her seventh <em>Tony Award<\/em> (but who\u2019s counting) by leading <strong><em>Gypsy<\/em><\/strong>.&nbsp; It is often said that not enough time passes between <em>Broadway <\/em>revivals of <em>Gypsy<\/em>, so I thought why not look at the history.&nbsp; The original with <strong>Merman <\/strong>opened on May 21, 1959.&nbsp; The first revival hit <em>Broadway <\/em>on Sept 23, 1974 with <strong>Angela Lansbury<\/strong>.&nbsp; For those of you without an abacus handy, that\u2019s about 15 years.&nbsp; Another 15 years passed before <strong>Tyne Daly <\/strong>got her turn \u2013 on Oct 27, 1989.&nbsp; She was replaced by <strong>Linda Lavin<\/strong>, who finished the run.&nbsp; Again, close to 15 year later, <strong>Bernadette Peters <\/strong>landed in a production originally offered to <strong>Patti LuPone<\/strong>.&nbsp; That opened on March 31, 2003, and featured the current <strong>Mrs. Neil Patrick Harris<\/strong>.&nbsp; When LuPone finally got her turn, it was only 5 years later \u2013 March 27, 2008.&nbsp; And now, on December 19, 2024, Audra McDonald begins previews \u2013 after another 15-year gap.&nbsp; She\u2019s not the first <em>Mama Rose of Color <\/em>\u2013 in 2014, <strong>Leslie Uggams <\/strong>played Rose in an <em>Equity <\/em>production at the <em>Connecticut Repertory Theatre<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That Audra will be splendid is not in doubt.&nbsp; The production will be directed by <strong>George C. Wolfe<\/strong>, so she\u2019s in more than capable hands.&nbsp; As for casting, I hate to be so on the nose, but couldn\u2019t <strong>Norm Lewis<\/strong> join her as Herbie?&nbsp; For the strippers, I\u2019d love to see <strong>Jenifer Lewis<\/strong>, <strong>Loretta Devine <\/strong>and <strong>Sheryl Lee Ralph <\/strong>\u2013 but, whatever you do, don\u2019t call it a reunion.&nbsp; As for Louise, that\u2019s always a tough call.&nbsp; I guess <strong>Zendaya <\/strong>is probably too big.&nbsp; And <strong>Keke Palmer <\/strong>is probably too old.&nbsp; Age may not be an issue since I hear discussions are ongoing for <strong>Den\u00e9e Benton <\/strong>to take the role \u2013 which makes sense since she already plays Audra\u2019s daughter on <strong><em>The Gilded Age<\/em><\/strong>.&nbsp; Of course, this goes on the assumption that it will be an all-Black cast.&nbsp; It could be one of those colorblind productions that folks love so much.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/colorbar1.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-568\" src=\"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/colorbar1.gif\" alt=\"colorbar1\" width=\"500\" height=\"1\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Something I predicted a few years ago has finally come to fruition.&nbsp; Audra McDonald is going for her seventh Tony Award (but who\u2019s counting) by leading Gypsy.&nbsp; It is often said that not enough time passes between Broadway revivals of Gypsy, so I thought why not look at the history.&nbsp; The original with Merman opened<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92688,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92687\/revisions\/92688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}