Through the Years with Bernadette Peters

Gypsy (2003)

In 2003, Peters took on the Mother Courage of musical roles – Rose in "Gypsy," apparently encouraged by the show's librettist Arthur Laurents and lyricist Stephen Sondheim in a new staging by the British director Sam Mendes, who took a stripped-down, Brechtian approach to the backstage story of a children's act struggling during the last days of vaudeville. But even before previews began, some in the press attacked Peters as being wrong for the role; then supposedly at the first preview Laurents confronted Mendes claiming he had ruined his musical. Making matters worse, Peters struggled with a cold that caused her to miss preview performances, which only fed more ugly rumors.

The show's troubles were such news that New York Times critic Ben Brantley spent half of his opening night review recounting them, with the other half raving about how Peters overcame adversity and gave a complex, nuanced performance. "Don't listen to the vultures," he wrote. When I saw the show late in its run, the Peters was in fine voice and played Rose with a fragile exterior that hid her steely center. She was a sexy Rose, and a believable one. When it all fell apart in "Rose's Turn," it was shattering. But don't take my word for it – watch her appearance on the Tony Awards that year to promote the show with "Rose's Turn," which a Tumblr account called "theater ramblings" described as "one of the most indelibly resonant and frequently re-referenced solo performances at the awards show just before she lost – defying detractors to comprehend how she could be unworthy of the accolade with a rendition of 'Rose's Turn' that has apocryphally earned one of the longest standing ovations seen after such a performance even to date."