[brian]

Who has been the best Mama Rose? For me, it has to be Josephine Blake at the Wythenshawe Forum. I recall my first 'Gypsy' at a theatre near Piccadilly. I cannot remember who took the part of Mama Rose but seem to recall Bonnie Langford as Baby June.

Who in the present generation would be the ideal Mama?

[Orchestrator]

Who has been the best Mama Rose? For me, it has to be Josephine Blake at the Wythenshawe Forum. I recall my first 'Gypsy' at a theatre near Piccadilly. I cannot remember who took the part of Mama Rose but seem to recall Bonnie Langford as Baby June.

Who in the present generation would be the ideal Mama?

Angela Lansbury played Mama Rose at the Piccadilly in, I think, the early '70s. I would love to have seen Merman when she was on form. I saw Peters about 4 years ago; she didn't really have the "brass" for the big songs but brought something marvellous to the evening. I also saw Tyne Daly on Broadway in 1990; she couldn't really sing at all but somehow brought it off. I'm not loking forward to Lupone, call it prejudice if you wish. I think Louise Gold might be pretty bang on and Sally Anne Triplet could certainly give it an excellent shot.

There was an excellent documentary about the human voice on BBC TV the other day featuring Rory Bremner and others and there was a clip of Merman singing No Bus'ness Like Show Bus'ness; I've heard some good imitations of her, not least Libby Morris, but I don't think anyone can actually match her for sheer sound.

[Felix]

I agree that Louise & Sally Ann would make fab Mama Roses! I saw some clips of Patti in the concert & the production and she was good but nothing special... but everyone was raving about her... ah well... I would have loved if Julia McKenzie played Mama once upon a time... but she's prob too old now...