MOTHER, DAUGHTER ACT MAMA ROSE AND GYPSY

Everything’s coming up roses for Charlene Kase.

The auburn-haired actress has played the part of Mama Rose, Gypsy Rose Lee’s pushy stage mother, in eight separate productions of the vintage musical “Gypsy.” Her latest fling with the flamboyant role teams Kase up with her real-life daughter, Lauren Hathaway, as the legendary striptease artist. The show, playing at the Lawrence Welk Village Theater through Feb. 22, marks the mother/daughter duo’s third go-round as the quintessential stage mother and the high-class burlesque queen.

On the surface, it would seem that life is imitating art. But as Kase and Hathaway relaxed in the lounge after a recent performance, both denied any resemblance to the show-biz counterparts they play on stage.

“No, she’s not at all like (Mama Rose),” Hathaway insisted, looking directly at her mother as she spoke. “I had a normal upbringing, with a mom and dad and sisters. I didn’t even start in show business until I was 14, and I guess it was natural for me since we have a lot of theatricality in our family.”

“We have a strong family background of theater and movies,” Kase added. “But even I didn’t get into the theater until I was in my 30s, and neither of my other two daughters have anything to do with show business.”

Nevertheless, Kase, who hails from Julian and still has close family ties in San Diego, had no trouble relating to the domineering but charismatic character that has become her signature part.

“I had a great aunt in vaudeville who was very much like Rose. She was a very charming lady, and she had about six husbands--like Rose,” Kase explained, breaking out in a warm laugh. “She was very determined, and very ambitious for her son. He became Bobbie Vernon, a well-known comedian. He even has a star on Hollywood Boulevard.

“And nana, my nana,” said Hathaway, “was in the ‘Our Gang’ comedies.”

“And Uncle Harry started the first trade paper in Hollywood,” Kase said.

Both Kase and Hathaway have been told they bear strong resemblances to the characters they play, and photographs in Gypsy’s autobiography (on which the musical was based) show a marked similarity in physical features.

“There’s one picture of Rose,” Hathaway said, “that looks just like my mother. And people who saw Gypsy perform say I’m a dead ringer for her and that my voice is like hers. But I researched her a lot and listened to (recordings of) her voice.”

The same holds for Kase, who insists the real Rose was more like her portrayal than the one immortalized by the brassy, big-voiced Ethel Merman.

“Gypsy Rose Lee herself once said her mama was a very warm person,” Kase said. “That’s the way she cracked the whip. People wouldn’t have let her wind them around her finger if she was such a monster. And she couldn’t have attracted all those men if she didn’t have something.

“I patterned my portrayal after my aunt, because you have to make the character someone you can believe in. I know it’s softer than Merman’s, but I think it’s more realistic. Of course, there has to be a carnivorous side. Rose is pretty tough.”

Gypsy died in 1972, about six years before Kase began playing the part, so she will never know what Gypsy would have thought of her interpretation. She has been told, however, that Gypsy approved of similar readings, including Angela Lansbury’s.

Playing a single part so many times can take its toll on any performer. Being thrust in a mother/daughter situation like the love/hate relationship between Gypsy and the domineering Mama can be even more of a strain. How did it affect this pair?

“I used to have trouble looking at my mother during those (rebellious) scenes, and I wasn’t used to playing grown ladies,” Hathaway said. “It took me a while before I was able to show love and to relax. I was too busy just trying to be equal (to her mother).”

Hathaway believes playing the aggressive stage mother has made her own mother more assertive, and Kase agrees.

“When I was growing up,” Kase said, “I was raised to be a nice girl and please people, but I guess this has toughened me up.”

Both love working together and feel they are continuing to grow in their roles.

“The first time I played Gypsy, I was only 21,” Hathaway said, “and I was so unlike Gypsy Rose Lee. It’s more complicated than, ‘She’s a stripper, so act sexy.’ Now it feels more comfortable.”

“I feel like I’m still learning in the role,” Kase said. “But it’s been wonderful working with different directors. You learn something from each. I don’t feel we’ve ever done the perfect production, and I love finding new things.”

One of the fine points Kase picked up from director Jack Tygett in this staging was a bit of business with a suitcase that telegraphs Rose’s intentions to the new man in her life.

“It’s just a small thing--kicking the suitcase next to his,” she said, “but it really makes the point. Jack is a very sensitive director--and a very nice person.”

“And he really understands the importance of telling the story through (Gypsy’s) perspective,” Hathaway added.

“I love working here at Welk, because it’s near my family,” said Kase, “but it seems I’m always playing nasty ladies. This is my third noisy character.” The others were Rosalie in “Carnival” and Dolly in “Annie Get Your Gun.”

The Welk production of “Gypsy” made its debut earlier this month, but things have just started to click for the cast.

“The show has really improved,” Hathaway said. “Somehow it usually takes a little while for the dynamics to all fall into place, even when you’ve done it many times before.”