Rosiland Russell

Okay. This is a good one. Rosiland Russell won the screen role of Mama Rose in the film version of Gypsy. Ethel Merman created the role on Broadway, where she sang the Hell out of it. Rosiland did sing on Broadway in Wonderful Town, but certainly did not have the chops to sing Mama Rose. She had recorded the Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim songs for Gypsy's soundtrack, but the renditions were subpar. Like notoriously bad. Ethel actually possessed the Roz recordings and would play them for party guests when they were drunk! You can listen to Roz's original tracks today. In fact, Lost Vocals is a great place to view an "un-dubbing" of Roz in Gypsy. But she's bad. Real bad. That's where Lisa Kirk comes in. Lisa had sung on Broadway in Kiss Me Kate and was brought in by Warner Bros. to dub the singing for Ms. Russell in Gypsy. The concept was that Lisa would partially dub Roz's voice, resulting in a ghostly blending of the two. I am deviating a bit from this blog's rules--yet sparing you unwarranted pain--by using the track for "Rose's Turn" that was heard in the film itself, but not used on the LP release. "Rose's Turn" is mostly Lisa on the LP version, providing guaranteed listening enjoyment from your home stereo sound system in 1962, whereas you hear more of Roz's vocals when you are literally watching her sing in the movie. Basically, more Roz and less Lisa here...but enough Lisa to ease the pain. Chalk it up to Hollywood witchcraft. Can you tell which is which?

Roz's doppelgangers:

Are you a good witch....

...or a bad witch?

Jean Simmons

Jean Simmons played Desiree Armfelt in the original London production of Stephen Sondeihm's A Little Night Music. Her rendition of "If I Were A Bell" in Guys & Dolls is painful. It's much nicer listening to her croon with Marlon Brando in the duet "Woman In Love," written for the film version of Frank Loesser's Broadway smash hit.

Suzanne Pleshette

Suzanne Pleshette actually had a very legitimate singing voice. Big surprise considering the rasp of her speaking voice, which sounds like she's been drinking whiskey and smoking hashish since she was four-years-old. Arthur Laurents talks about her auditioning for the role of Louise in the original Broadway production of Gypsy. He said she had no problem being sexy, but was at a loss with the tomboy aspect of Louise's first act persona. I find this hard to believe since there is nothing more butch than Suzanne Pleshette in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Suzanne bounced back from being snubbed from the original production of Gypsy. She replaced Anne Bancroft on Broadway in The Miracle Worker, which obviously took major acting chops. And before making The Birds, Suzanne played a nightclub singer in the Tony Curtis vehicle 40 Pounds Of Trouble, singing "If You."