Question for the Broadway crowd? Is Linda Lavin a bitch?

She sure looks like one.

Early to rise, early to bed.

In and between I cooked and cleaned and went out of my head.

Going through life with blinders on, it's tough to see.

I had to get up, get out from under and look for me.

You must be new here. Otherwise you'd know the answer is HOLY FUCK YES.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

Yes.

She is a nasty cunt.

What was the deal with the marriage to her second husband? I remember the divorce being particularly nasty. Didn't she allege allegations of mental cruelty or something?

I remember that two of her co-stars (Polly Holiday and Diane Lane) couldn't stand her.

She can be nice when she chooses to be. I think she struggles with the booze.

Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?

Mebyt she thought you were holding up a Sean Saves The World promo...

Depends who you compare her to.

[quote]I remember that two of her co-stars (Polly Holiday and Diane Lane) couldn't stand her.

Who did Diane Lane play on Alice?

R13 Alice's daughter...because of course they looked soooo much alike.

OP, you've got to learn to roll with the punches.

[r13], I think [r8] means Diane Ladd, who replaced Polly Holliday when Flo was spun off on her own show (and who played Flo in the original movie). Ladd lasted barely a season before being replaced, reportedly because of the behind the scenes drama.

[quote]Ladd lasted barely a season before being replaced, reportedly because of the behind the scenes drama.

I remember seeing the rerun of her last episode not too long ago.

Ladd just called into Mel from a pay phone set to say she quit. I doubt the other actors were really there when it was shot.

btw Polly and Ladd are both crazy bitches from my experience. Maybe Linda is the normal one?

Let's discuss her, apparently, less than stellar Rose in Gypsy. Some say she was too small for the stage and some say she spoke in an Irish accent for no reason.

She seems fine in his clip. It's not the best "Rose's Turn" I've ever seen and almost feels like a rehearsal, but Linda certainly isn't embarrassing herself. Wish there was more. I also detect no Irish accent. Hmm....

In this clip, it's hard to see the charm Rose was supposed to have.

Ooh, more Polly Holliday gossip! Please.

Behold the PHD thesis in White Way Cuntdom, part one and deux.

Lavin, Bacall, they are all given a thorough going over.

part Deux. There is plenty of discussion of Lavin and her "competition" in these threads and loads of other delish dish about other divas

Who is Linda Lavin?

R18. I have a bootleg video of Lavin's GYPSY. True about the Irish accent. Her acting and singing was fine. But she was no Tyne Daly who I saw on stage at the St. James. You can have your Patti LuPone and Bernadette Peters. For me, the two best Rose Hovak's I have seen were Daly and Angela Lansbury.

Lavin was good in Tales of the Allegist's Wife and The Diary of Anne Frank. But I saw her ignore a fan who complimented her on her role in the latter as she headed for her car.

I saw her last night in Union Square, after her performance of "Too Much Sun". I've read so much about her on this site that I declined to even smile in her direction, much less compliment her on her performance.

I was surprised how much I loved Tyne's Momma Rose. She's even great on the recording in spite of the cold she had.

True R27

I could never figure out how Linda Lavin and Judith Light managed to acquire the careers that they had. Both are pitifully homely, mediocre actresses at best, and ZERO personality or "star quality".

How the hell did Alice last NiNE seasons?

I've never seen Judith Light on stage r29 but she's supposed to be a good dramatic actress, from what I have heard and from critics.

Beth Howland and straws, R30.

It annoyed me to no end that they were always trying to push her singing "talents" on [italic]Alice.[/italic]

r29 Can't speak for Lavin, but I must disagree about Judith Light. She is a striking older woman now. She is tall and slim, wears clothes like a dream, and is a very good comic and dramatic actress. She has quite a bit of charisma, and is always very sweet to fans. She also supports the gays in a big way.

Tyne has been sensational in everything I've ever seen her in - except for The Seagull where she was woefully miscast.

She shows up for those BC/EFA flea markets and sells jewelry she makes besides autographs to benefit the cause. She also told the Weisslers to go fuck themselves so there are many reasons to love and respect her.

Can anyone consider Judith Light and Linda Lavin "stars"? They make a splash in certain roles, but neither could keep a play running on her own.

R36 that's not exactly her fault if the show kind of sucked. And her role was especially thankless.

Although I do hate her on that Family Ties episode where she's hitting on Steven Keaton - they actually just showed it last night (on a network called UP). One of my least favorite episodes.

I think it's Sondheim who said Linda's Rose was the closest to the real thing. Unfortunately, it made for a painful 3 hours in the theatre. No charm. Relentless. Stomped her feet. Snarled. Did everything but pinch the kids. Was it interesting? yes. But I pity people who were seeing the show for the first time.

Yes she is! Absolutely impossible to work with.

Top o' the mornin' to ya, Mr Goldstone.

I saw Judith Light onstage in Wit and she was remarkable. I will be a fan of hers forever after that.

I HAVE to see this Gypsy performance. It sounds ridiculous. Can someone post it? Even as an unlisted video?

I'll agree that Tyne was the best Rose I've ever seen. Usually, with that role, it's always this big diva who's fully aware that she's playing a big diva. It's one notch above a drag performance. With Tyne, all I saw was Rose up there. There was no "look at me! Aren't I brave for tackling this huge role?" There was a bootleg that used to be on YouTube and I remembered my jaw was o the floor the entire time. She wasn't the best singer, but it kinda worked for the character in the same way it's worked for many Sallys in Cabaret.

From what I've seen and heard of Angela in the role, she approached it the same way - as a character, not a diva.

Her Rose's Turn from Gypsy. The monologue is completely unconvincing. I love this one comment, because it's true: "The audience is supposed to be terrified at the end of Rose's turn and Lavin terrified them in the wrong way."

However, she was brilliant in Broadway Bound and Anne Frank among others.

I think the monologue is better than her version of the song. Doesn't seem like much of a mental breakdown to me. Still better than Midler.

[quote]Lavin was good in Tales of the Allegist's Wife and The Diary of Anne Frank.

Did someone yell at the end, "She's in the attic! She's in the attic!"?

What was the deal with Linda & Polly's feud? Did they just not get along, or was it all because of Polly's character overshadowing Linda's? And how about the Linda/Diane feud?

R17, kiss mah grits---CUNT!

You Queens are crazy! Bette Midler knocked this role out of the ballpark!

Seriously? Did we see the same film? She was the campiest thing ever put on film. She'd have been too much even from the top of Radio City Music Hall. She was just too big for film. I'll give her this: many of her smaller scenes are well done, but her big numbers are laughable, especially Rose's Turn and the monologue before it. Yikes! Why is she screaming?

Bette Midler also looked awful in GYPSY. The sad, orange, clown hair did her no favors. Who thought that looked good?

Also, Midler has a bad habit of smiling goofily when she sings. She did that a lot in GYPSY, which was annoying!

OP, you wrote that you held up your Playbill and commented that you enjoyed the show. To give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe Ms. Lavin did not hear you or did not know you were talking directly to her. Perhaps you might have said, "I'm sorry to bother you, Ms. Lavin, but I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed YOU in the show tonight." That might have gotten a better response.

It might have gotten a better response, R52, but it just as likely might have gotten OP a fork in the eyeball depending on what mood that bitch was in.

You paid to see me on stage. You saw me on stage. So leave me alone. I don't owe you anything more.

In the '80s Polly frequently accompanied a gay friend to business events when he needed a woman on his arm. Times have changed.

[quote]Did everything but pinch the kids.

Well you see, that was her problem right there. If you're going to do a job, do it all the way.

R55 she was also very good friends with Dustin Hoffman -one of those random odd couple type celebrity friendships. He lobbied to get her a few roles, like the "Mr. BernSTINE" secretary in All the President's Men.

Also, to be fair...isn't Diane Ladd also a bit of a crazy loon?

It's funny because it was in reruns ALL the time when I was growing up in the 80s, but the last place I remember it airing was on TBS in the late 80s. After that, I never saw it...anywhere. I think it may be the most forgotten long running hit show ever.

WEHT Polly Holliday

Hello R57!

Alice at least has more than one season out on DVD!

[quote]Also, to be fair...isn't Diane Ladd also a bit of a crazy loon?

Yes. Back in early '91 and '92, she was so desperate for an Oscar nomination that she shamelessly campaigned:

[quote]You pray to God they go see the movie before they vote,' says surprise Best Supporting Actress nominee Diane Ladd, who put on an 'exhausting' Oscar campaign for her no-holds-barred turn in David Lynch's Wild at Heart. 'No one would take an ad in the trades for Diane Ladd. I had to do it myself.' Although the studios long ago stopped serving lavish meals when screening films for voters, Ladd herself cooked a spaghetti dinner for 20 Academy members, including Esther Williams, Abe Vigoda, and Shelley Winters, with Wild at Heart as dessert. She also wrote voters offering to lend them one of the 20 videocassettes she wheedled out of the film's video distributor; she thinks 300 people saw her work this way. ~ Entertainment Weekly, March 1, 1991

[quote]For Ladd, though, the pursuit of Oscar has been anything but trivial. As she did last year when nominated for her role as the hellish mother in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (Dern played her daughter), Ladd waged a vigorous campaign. She talked up the film to friends and colleagues and charged $15,000 on her credit cards for four ads in the trade papers touting her performance. She hopes her efforts will rekindle interest in the film, which, though critically acclaimed, has had only a small distribution. "When I heard I was nominated," she says, "I thought, 'Thank God, this'll help the picture.' " ~ People Magazine, March 30, 1992

But it worked, and she was nominated both times.

I used to have the BIGGEST crush on Alice's son. He really did it for me.

R61, I always thought Philip McKeon would've been hung like a stallion.

[quote]You paid to see me on stage. You saw me on stage. So leave me alone. I don't owe you anything more.

Where have all the real stars gone? It's all just a business now, isn't it?

I've seen Judith Light in Wit, The Assembled Parties, Lombardi, and a couple of off broadway plays, the titles of which I don't recall. She was wonderful in each of them.

Ironically, Judith Light won her first Tony (she has two, and won them in consecutive years - the only actress to ever do so - take that, Audra!) for her role in OTHER DESERT CITIES on Broadway. When that play first premiered at Lincoln Center, the role Judith had was played by..... Linda Lavin!

Linda opted not to transfer with the play to Broadway because she chose instead to do the lead in Nicky Silver's THE LYONS, which also transferred to Broadway that same season, and Linda got a Tony nomination for Best Actress (but lost). Judith won for Supporting Actress.

I always wondered what Linda felt watching Judith win a Tony for a role Linda had created. And in her acceptance speech Judith didn't even acknowledge that Linda had created the role.

And I wonder what that bitch Linda thought about the leading lady of that play - another crazy bitch, Stockard Channing!

Yeah r59 but One Day at a Time is still more part of the collective consciousness then is Alice. For one thing, the general media presence of Val and Mack Phillips keeps the show in peoples' minds much more. But it's one of the MORE forgotten hit shows of that time, I agree.

R62 he had such a major growth spurt too. I swear he returned one season like a foot taller.

R60 was Diane Ladd a stage mother, too (with Laura)? She seems like just the type.

Is Linda Lavin a bitch?

Is Vera a dingbat?

Is Flo an easy lay?

Do Mel's sweat-soaked undershirts reek of salami and stale beer?

r67 I just listened to Laura Dern's podcast with Marc Maron and she doesn't sound like she was particularly pushed. She grew up with both parents as actors and was around them all the time, Shelley Winters was her godmother, and wanted to be like them. She took classes and stuff but didn't really do it professionally until she was in her mid teens so I guess Diane wasn't really pushing.

She does allude to Diane being a tough angry mother though.

The interesting thing about Ladd is she is such an overt sore loser. Watch her 3 Oscar nods on youtube. She always looks really mad when she loses. None of the put on a happy face things most people do.

She is not a bitch at all. Very funny. But a farter.

R69 I remember reading an interview with Diane Ladd after she lost the Oscar to Ingrid Bergman. Was furious that Bergman made a big deal over Valentine Cortese (another nominee) and how she should have won. Never mentioned the other nominees.

Was Ingrid a bitch? Did she and Linda Lavin know eachother?

Bitch she may be, but loved her on "Barney Miller."

Yes, she's a bitch. She thinks she's a star.

She IS a star.

I used to love Midler in GYPSY. After watching LuPone do her brilliant rendition, I watched Midler again.

Midler now comes off as campy in comparison.

Lavin can be great on stage--she was in The Lyons, which is the last thing I saw her in.

Her Rose in Gypsy didn't work. The part needs a larger than life quality that Lavin didn't bring to it.

Never had any personal interaction with her.

From the clips I've seen, Linda's Rose was quite good...on film. She was subtle, but I can see how that wouldn't read on stage past the 10th row. She really gets the shaft when it comes to that part. At least she tried something new. If it helps, apparently, the real June told Linda she was the closest to her real mother. That counts for something.

Is Linda Lavin a bitch? Let's just say she was on the phone with E! network discussing the future of Fashion Police before Joan arrived at Mt. Sinai.

[R43] = thank you for posting the Lavin version of Rose's Turn. Now I'm really grateful that I missed it. Truly awful, perhaps the worst I've ever seen. We did this show in high school and our 16 year old Rose was better than that! She even seemed to be up on her lines during the monologue!

Two Tonys in a row is a difficult feat but not for the reason most would think. Unless you're a huge star with a limited engagement contract, it only means you were in a role that for whatever reason-and probably not a very good one- you played for only a brief time. Too brief for the producers to earn the awards worth in box office receipts.

She was presenting a Tony with Sandy Duncan one year and when Sandy blew a line from the teleprompter, Linda gave Sandy the rabbit ears and mocked her to the audience like Sandy was a moron.

Sondheim has said that Linda's Mama Rose most resembled the real woman.

Her "Rose's Turn" did kinda suck. What was that, a rehearsal take? Je-sus! She's playing it all wrong, as if it's a song of triumph and pride, much like Ros Russell in the '62 film. Ladies, please. This is about a woman realizing she's all alone, 'cause she was a selfish bitch with stupid dreams of stardom that'll never come true as much as she still wants them. It's a nervous breakdown, not a freakin' pageant performance.

Still, I think Linda's "Some People", which is also on YouTube, is pretty stunning and perfectly acted and sung. It might be my favorite version of that song.

I recently saw a bootleg of Linda in Gypsy and I actually really liked her in the role, but everyone's right. She did have this weird, inconsistent Irish/Minnesota-ish accent that made absolutely no sense. Strange choice, but she was certainly a better Rose than too-big-for-her-britches Bernadette Peters or scary ass Betty Buckley [whose performance still haunts my nightmares.]

is

water

wet?

No, Linda was not the problem, the real problem is well buried and the rest of us couldn't be happier. And I don't mean Vic

You could tell the guy who played her son Tommy, had a huge cock.

Not as big as mine

r97

Phil McKeon with sister Nancy:

There is nothing Lavin could ever do to lose her Dinner Theater vibe.

R69 I think because in Ladds mind winning an Oscar is the be all end all in actors life. Her best shot at winning was 1975. In 1991 and 1992 it was never going to happen. But there's something to be said for showing your honest emotions. All the fake smiles are funny but necessary I guess.

I'm working with her now. I don't know wtf you people are talking about. She's been perfectly fine, and she's making no money for this project.

She wasn't as big a bitch as me

r92 is it true she's running an underground child sex ring out of the project's basement?

You just know that her pussy stinks!!