The character Rose - the hard-charging, no-nonsense stage mother to stripper Gypsy Rose Lee in "Gypsy" - has been played on Broadway by Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters.

Only Peters was able to take the character beyond a browbeating battle-ax to introduce a degree of sex appeal.

At Westchester Broadway Theatre through Aug. 4, a Rose by another name - Broadway's Karen Mason - takes that approach and runs with it, putting her own stamp on an indelible character.

She breathes life into the stage mother from hell, and finds a sexier, somehow softer side to the most formidable of roles. It is a performance with subtlety, nuance and sophistication, three words one would never associate with Mama Rose.

You'll know you're not in for the battle-ax treatment when Mason, a celebrated cabaret performer, sings Rose's first solo, "Some People" and croons the line "I had a dream."

Her voice is strong, soft and pitch-perfect, without a hint of the nasally attack of her predecessors.

But Mason is also a first-rate actress whose skills and razor-sharp timing raise Rose to new levels.

Her 11 o'clock number, "Rose's Turn," begins as a controlled rant and develops a head of steam and a level of desperation that never gets to the mental breakdown others have aimed for.

After the song - an emotional journey of bitterness and despair - there are tears. Rose has lost her bravado, she's broken down.

It's not the Rose you know, but it's all the sweeter for the difference.

With the casting of Mason and Rick Hilsabeck as Herbie, Westchester Broadway Theatre has caught lightning in a bottle. These top-shelf veterans raise the bar and put an emphasis on the "Broadway" in the dinner theater's name, something too often missing.

Typically, the theater fields a cast of kids looking for their big break. Director Richard Stafford's cast is uniformly fine, from local kids as the newsboys and Rose's young daughters to the supporting cast of fine young talent.

Standouts include Sarah Peak as June, who handles her character's acrobatics and vocals nimbly and adds a layer of depth that fleshes out what in less capable hands could be a cardboard character.

As Louise, the girl who'll become the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, Kelli Barrett captures the role's many facets.

In the sweet song "Little Lamb," she's the overlooked girl playing with her stuffed animals. By the end of the show, she's a young woman who has learned at the foot of the master to give the people what they want - and make sure she gets what she needs.

During "The Strip," she turns "Let Me Entertain You," played for laughs by her sister in the first act, into a stripper's calling card.

At the press opening, Barrett had to contend with a wardrobe malfunction - which, for a stripper, means the clothes stayed on - but she handled it with aplomb and moved right on like a pro.

Herbie is an unenviable role. He's got the impossible task of trying to bell Rose the cat, who's actually a mountain lion. Hilsabeck walks the line expertly, finding moments to connect with Mason.

Therein is an important lesson for Westchester Broadway Theatre: If you hire first-rate actors, they'll deliver a first-rate production and make you believe that an ex-agent candy salesman could fall for a mother schlepping her kids from vaudeville houses to Elks lodges in search of top billing.

Hilsabeck makes the most of a difficult part.

As the more experienced strippers who stop the show in Act 2 with "You Gotta Have a Gimmick," Ann-Ngaire Martin (Tessie), Inga Ballard (Mazeppa) and Kathryn Kendall (Electra) are a perfect mix of world-weariness, pragmatism and direct current.

To his credit, director Stafford wisely didn't try to pass off 20-year-old Paris Hiltons as the tired Wichita strippers. These women looked the part, thanks in part to Gail Baldoni's costumes.

The choreography, by Stafford and Jonathan Stall, is as polished as seen at the dinner theater in a few seasons. Of note are the numbers "Mr. Goldstone" and the Broadway audition song by "Dainty June and her Farmboys." In both, all members of the ensemble contribute fully.

The only weak spot in the entire night seemed to be in the size of the pit orchestra, whose eight pieces couldn't seem to muster, as the stripper Mazeppa would say, "the uh and the uh and the uh, uh, uh," of a bigger crew.

It is a rare treat to have a star of Karen Mason's abilities on a local stage.

Don't miss it.