I hope this doesn't sound condescending, but I have never found Being Alive to be an especially opaque lyric. I don't think audiences do either. When I saw the original and the 95 revival, after Bobby sings Somebody hold me too close, I heard "Awws" from the audience, as if to say "He finally gets it." Now that may not jibe with everyone's interpretation of the song, but its certainly one that many people take with them by the curtain.
JBC3 said: "She's been called sassy, brassy, bold, and a diva for so long, I sometimes wonder if she plays to the hype. Is she playing a bit of a character or revealing her true character?"
I definitely think your'e on to something, coming on as a no bull**** tell-it- like - it -is broad IS playing to a type, and helps make her a more marketable commodity.
I so wish she had taken the high road and passed on telling the Prince story. Rehashing a 40 year old incident(that , if truth be told, sounds extremely trivial with a bit of distance) just makes her sound petty and vindictive.
I wouldn't go so far as to argue he's a great natural singer, but to hear Cole Porter sing Anything Goes or You're The Top while accompanying himself is really something. Of course the songs themselves help.
Mister Matt said: "Whatever the future portends for Wicked, the producers achieved their ultimate goal~IT OUTRAN AVENUE Q!! Without having to play Vegas!
The ultimate goal of every producer is to make money. Avenue Q's run is irrelevant to the producers of Wicked."
Excellent post, poison! while I don't agree with all of your choices, your reasoning and your expression of it are truly eloquent. Yours should be the final word on the subject.
Even the scenes in Mommie Dearest with Howard DaSilva as L.B. Mayer were superior to the Judy scenes. And yes, TE, a more three dimensional portrayal of Garland's handlers would have been more honest. By the way, one detail bothered me-when the unnamed songwriters(of course Arlen and Harburg) played Over The Rainbow for Garland,she hadn't even been cast yet. Didn't they write it with her in mind, AFTER she had gotten the part?
TotallyEffed said: "Almira said: "Zellweiger gives s largely one-note performance, not much deepthor weight. What you see in the first 10 minutes is exactly the samething you see for the next 90 minutes...,and not being a force of nature herself, her singing is at moments embarrassing especially when everyone around her is describing it as this rare god-given gift to the world.
I waited until I had actually watched her piece before I weighed in. My observations:
1. Those who claim the object of her humor was ridiculing Georges parents for overloading him with extraciriculars are being disingenuous. Listen to her inflections-she clearly used ballet as the punchline in her piece. And after all, no one laughs at parents who enroll six year old boys in kindersoccer or T ball, and sarcastically comments Let's see h
Lets not forget that R&H personally approved the casting of Joan Roberts and Shirley Jones. It's certainly going too far to insist that their appearance, acting, and sopranoey singing are an anachronism, and this Laurie is now the only valid interpretation.
Twenty years ago, I sat four seats down from Sondheim(and his then partner) at the Mazzie/Mitchell revival of Kiss me Kate. It was wonderful, because everyone recognized him and no one bothered him. They left after Act One.
About the opening number in Company... the Bobby baby, Bobby bubbe chant, accompanied by that metallic sounding electric keyboard, are deliberately annoying! Bobby's married friends are voices playing and replaying in his head. It's repeated throughout the show, until the finale, when he can longer take it, and screams "Stop- what do ya get?" Then, of course, he sings "Being Alive." Sondheim isn't afraid of using repetition in music to
And can you find an example of Sinatra introducing "Something" as being written by Lennon and McCartney, as I can produce numerous examples of his attributing the song to George Harrison and introducing it with a praise he gave to few other contemporary songs.
