Just Joey would be your best bet. Marilyn Monroe can be a little fussy. Takes a couple of yrs. to get settled in and is PACKED with nasty thorns. MM is a great exhibition rose but like I said, it takes a while to get settled in.

I'm not even close to your zone, so YMMV, but I'd definitely choose Just Joey over Marilyn Monroe. I gave Marilyn away last December after ~4 years, mainly b/c she grows so tall and wide here. Really nice exhib style blooms with medium fragrance, but her size was the deal-killer for me in my garden. As Ken noted, she does also have some of the most wicked thorns out there. I do have a fondness for HTs with good form and substance, so I appreciate what MM has to offer. It's a really good/great rose. My friend who adopted her loves her and cuts blooms all the time. But for me, I'd choose Just Joey. JJ doesn't last as long on the bush or in the vase, but it's more my cup o'tea as far as the blooms in the garden.

Susan

I have them both, love them both. I agree with the above, though if you want exhibition-type flowers with thick substance to the petals, MM is your rose.

Thanks for the input, y'all! Your comments are all very helpful.

Stross, I live right here in N.O. I have grown Just Joey but not Marilyn Monroe. At one point I considered JJ my favorite rose; the ruffled petals are unique, the fragrance good, and the subtle blending of shades of apricot(actually sherbet orange to me) beautiful. But...I was never satisfied with the amount of blooms I got nor the wait time between flushes. Also, JJ blooms did much better in the cool months than our hot humid summers, when they didn't last more than 2 days. MM on the other hand is reportedly a hot climate rose. Related to St. Patrick, which I do know about and which loves it here. JJ and MM are actually different colors, though. And JJ is much more compact. If you go with JJ, I'd urge you to try to find it on fortuniana rootstock, perhaps Jim Mills in Buckatuna, MS? He specializes in fortuniana. Or one of the Florida nurseries. It will be a much more vigorous plant for you if you do.
If you're open to other suggestions, I've actually replaced my JJ with the Buck rose Prairie Sunrise. It is very close in color, a different bloom form and only average diameter, but just as great a fruity fragrance, a nice, full, old fashioned bloom form, and on a compact bush, even smaller than JJ but bushy and attractive. This rose blooms much better for me.
An alternative to Marilyn Monroe might be Special Occasion, which is gorgeous, a more manageable size plant, and, I think, much less thorny. You can check it out at the Heirloom roses site, though I'm sure some other vendors also sell it.
My absolute favorite apricot cutting rose is the HT Valencia, which is healthy and a respectible bloomer here. The blooms hold very very well and are really big; unique vanilla/rose fragrance, too. But it's actually golden apricot, with virtually no pink tones. And the plant is leggy and a bit sprawling; not as huge as MM but just not a bushy landscape plant form.

You should listen most to someone who lives in your area!

While MM has St. Patrick as a parent, it never had the problems with opening that St. Patrick had here for me on the Calif coast. But then again, MM's other parent, Sunset Celebration, is one of my best roses in every regard. St. Patrick is a true hot climate rose. I do think that JJ prefers cooler weather. I'll second the recommendation for Prairie Sunrise... it's a really nice rose. I don't think of it as similar at all to JJ though. Interesting on Mike's observations about Valencia. Mine is a virused specimen from Arena from the late 90s/very early 00s. My Valencia is a most mannerly bush with quite the compact habit. It's in the ground, and never gets above 4 feet, but it's very healthy. Medium to good fragrance, very good form, good size blooms. Pretty stingy though.

Susan

I have Marilyn Monroe and I love it. I got mine from Palatine Roses and it took about two months to grow and then exploded in blooms. This year was the second year for it in my garden and it did wonderfully. The only drawback is that it is very thorny. As everyone has said it makes a great cut flower and has a nice scent. It does want to get large but the winter kill here keeps it in check.

I don't have Just Joey and my Valencia is too new to say anything about it yet.

Thanks again for the further input. Glad I did not put in an order for Just Joey yet! I will look into Prairie Sunrise and Valencia, but have not eliminated the possibility of MM just yet. Yes, it would be great to find these on fortuniana. It's funny that St. Patrick came up in this conversation... The spot I have to fill is on one side of a climbing rose. The rose on the other side is...St. Patrick! That climbing rose is going to be Gloire de Dijon. The GDD I got from David Austin Roses about six or seven years ago went kaput over the summer. :-( Am looking to order another one to plant this January/February. Now THAT is a rose I wish I could find on fortuniana! Anyway, thanks again for the helpful input.