Question about "Gypsy" and Miss Mazeppa

[Richard C. Wall]

I was told by someone on the original production team of
GYPSY that Faith Dane walked in to auditions and played
the trumpet and told them she was a stripper. She had never
acted in anything before in her life. I don't know if she called
herself "Mazeppa".

Many years later, she came to auditions at a dinner theatre in
Maryland and auditioned for the role again, but she was way
too old by that time!

Richard
=======

RocketTimm wrote:
>
> The recent discussion about various Mama Roses made me rent and re-watch the
> movie version of GYPSY again. Unfortunately I never saw Merman do it, but I
> saw Lansbury, Daly, Lavin, Midler, and various summer stock productions, and
> felt, of all these, Lansbury was the best.
>
> But to get to the real point of this post---the Miss Mazeppa in the movie was
> played by Faith Dane, and she is far and away the best Mazeppa I've seen. She
> got laughs in the role that other actresses playing Mazeppa never did. I see
> from an old Theatre World that she originated the role opposite Merman.
>
> But I can't find other information about her. Did she appear in other shows?
> The IMDb lists no other films. Did she make any others? Does anyone have any
> biographical info about her? Maybe someone with a copy of the original
> Playbill could help. I'd love to know more about her, where she was from, what
> happened to her, etc. She was just great in the movie.
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> Timm

[Dennis]

Miss Dane lives somewhere in the Washington, DC area. There was an article
in the Washington Post when the Tyne Daly revival was here talking about her
attending a performance and going backstage to talk with the cast.

RocketTimm <rocke...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:19990601211910...@ng-cn1.aol.com...

[RocketTimm]

[Beb11572]

>The recent discussion about various Mama Roses made me rent and re-watch the
>movie version of GYPSY again. Unfortunately I never saw Merman do it, but I
>saw Lansbury, Daly, Lavin, Midler, and various summer stock productions, and
>felt, of all these, Lansbury was the
>best.

I never saw Lansbury do it, but I can't imagine how she could have suited the
role. I would think her to be the antithesis of Rose. Lansbury is
class...Rose is crass. I just can't picture Angela Lansbury gleefully stealing
silver from a Chinese restaurant. Tyne Daly or Ethel Merman, you betcha!

>But to get to the real point of this post---the Miss Mazeppa in the movie was
>played by Faith Dane, and she is far and away the best Mazeppa I've seen.
>She
>got laughs in the role that other actresses playing Mazeppa never did

THIS I totally agree with you on. Faith Dane came off so crass, she made Ethel
Merman seem like Angela Lansbury by comparison. My God, that whiskey
voice...Elaine Stritch, move over!! She is the only Mazeppa I ever heard who
makes the line "Once I was a schlepper, Now I'm Miss Mazeppa" as hilarious as
it should be. And the only one who when she says, "I'm gonna shove this bugle
right up your..." sounds like she's gonna do it!!

[GO8GO]

There was an story about her in the book about the Chateau Marmont. She would
stand out on the balcony in the nude and play the bugle at all hours of the
night.