Ask newer fans what the greatest musical of all time is and recency bias probably means the answer will be something like or or . Ask seasoned folk with wider frames of reference and will usually land in the top three. For good reason.
The 1959 warhorse is perhaps the ultimate tragicomic depiction of showbiz struggle, which makes it a strong contender for the ultimate musical. It’s a cliché to call Rose, the archetypal pushy stage mother at the show’s center, the King Lear of musical theater. But that’s hard to dispute when you watch a consummate performer like pour her heart and soul and every ounce of her gumption, her supple vocals and finely nuanced acting skills into the titanic role.
The six-time Tony winner humanizes this driven, achingly unfulfilled woman without ever softening her abrasive edges, her relentlessly self-serving determination, her refusal to prioritize her daughters’ well-being in her quest for the vicarious elation of stardom she herself feels she was denied. McDonald’s Rose is a monstrous product of her misplaced ambition — manipulative, exploitative, maybe even emotionally abusive. But she’s also a figure of shattering pathos.
It’s crucial to the show’s success that we feel some understanding for Rose despite her aggressively domineering nature — that we get the burning need that keeps propelling her forward after every setback. This a woman who remains oblivious to both the unhappiness of her daughters and that of the man who l.
