Being Alive?
Being Alive?
#1Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:02pm
so, I LOVE this song and have heard many performers since this, but was wondering, whose version do you like the best?
I'm torn between Patti and Raul... but I will probably have to give it to Patti
your thoughts?
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#2re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:05pm
Anyone other than Raul...but I hate his interpretation of Bobby.
From a show standpoint, Larry Kert or Dean Jones are the best.
Solo album wise, I love Bernadette's.
http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer
#2re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:15pmJudy Kaye on A Stephen Sondheim Evening and Dean Jones. For me, they're way ahead of everyone else I've heard.
#3re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:17pmRaul's performance literally made me laugh out loud. As a solo performance, Patti's is my favorite. In cast recordings, it is Larry Kert.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#4re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:25pm
Here's Larry Kert, singing the song on the Tonys in 1989, two years before his death, from complications of the AIDS virus.
The years 1988 to 1994 were terrible, terrible years for the Broadway community. "Being Alive" took on meanings it didn't have in 1970. By the late 80s, the possibility of NOT being alive was around the corner for so many wonderful and talented people, so many of them in their 20s and 30s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxwb3ebf498
His best recorded version of the song is the Tribute to Sondheim 2-CD set with the Scrabble cover.
CurtisTaylorJr2
Leading Actor Joined: 3/17/06
#5re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:36pmI'm not a big Barbra Streisand fan, but her version is my favorite. I also like Raul and Patti's renditions too.
#6re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:40pmWhen I think of the song, I think of Streisand's version. I am decidedly not a fan of Raul Esparza's take on it.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#7re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 3:02pm
Patti's and Dean's.
(sounds like a steakhouse.)
"Carson has combined his passion for helping children with his love for one of Cincinnati's favorite past times - cornhole - to create a unique and exciting event perfect for a corporate outing, entertaining clients or family fun."
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
#8re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 3:08pm
I'm with Doodle and the steakhouse.
Updated On: 1/13/09 at 03:08 PM
HollyDiver
Stand-by Joined: 9/2/08
#9re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:09pmI'm going with Raul....by a landslide.
I'd rather be reckless than rockless.
BNN
Broadway Star Joined: 12/12/05
#10re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:11pm
If we are talking emotional quality, Raul by far.
But for sheer vocal excellence, Patti or Larry Kert.
Tick Tock
Sondheim_Geek
Broadway Star Joined: 2/20/07
#12re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:36pmIt's when Raul barked out MOCK ME WITH PRAISE that I totally lost it. I just felt it was a little too bitter/angry, not to mention way OTT. I thought it was a rather bizarre choice.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#13re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:37pmBernadette Peters and Raul. I wish I could find the Larry Kert dubbed recording.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#14re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:41pm
"It's when Raul barked out MOCK ME WITH PRAISE that I totally lost it. I just felt it was a little too bitter/angry, not to mention way OTT. I thought it was a rather bizarre choice."
Yeah, I'm with you, although I kind of lost it with his "Stop!" I thought that by the time they did the TV taping, he'd toned it down a little and was a bit better, though perhaps I felt that just because by then I knew what to expect.
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#15re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:44pm
Mister Matt and nobodyhome-
I agree totally. It was too intense and cold (much like the rest of that production). I actually though on the "Mock me with priase" that he was doing a Nixon impression :/
PalJoey-
OMFG That was a phenomenal performance. I wish *that* was the one on the LP (not that the LP was bad, this was just better)
http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer
#16re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:44pmHugh Panaro performed that song when he came to perform at my school, and it was one of the most glorious renditions of... anything ever. I've never seen his Bobby, but he was fantastic. The video is on YT somewhere, but it really doesn't do it justice.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
#17re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:46pmWell IMO the bitterness/coldness of Raul's performance could lead to some ambiguity.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#18re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:08pm
I wish I could find the Larry Kert dubbed recording.
His Being Alive is an extra on the recent CD release.
The other vocals were awkwardly mixed. It sounds like he's in another room from the rest of the cast. Which, technically speaking, he was.
#19re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:09pm
"If we are talking emotional quality, Raul by far.
But for sheer vocal excellence, Patti or Larry Kert."
For me, it's Judy Kaye and Dean Jones for emotional commitment, while it's Kaye, Kert and Geraldine Turner for vocal excellence. But I can't say I've heard every recording.
Winston3
Featured Actor Joined: 8/25/08
#20re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:15pmI would have to go with Raul. Granted, I haven't heard every recording of the song out there. But, I did love his Bobby. I will admit that the most recent revival of Company was my first introduction to the work itself. I honestly did know much of it other then two songs from the show (the title song, and Not Getting Married Today). The rest, was new to me.
Goodbye Sister Disco
#21re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:28pm
Well IMO the bitterness/coldness of Raul's performance could lead to some ambiguity.
How would it serve the show or even the lyrics? It just doesn't make any sense to perform those lyrics that way in context of the rest of the show. Why would that sort of resentment be an epiphany for Bobby at the end of the show? If you're talking about his sexual orientation in terms of ambiguity, it shouldn't really make a difference (though it is not supported anywhere, so the point is moot) since the lyrics he is singing are not gender-specific (which is why the lyrics work for female performers as well). The entire point of the song at the end of the show is NOT to have ambiguity. In trying to list the faults of marriage, Bobby realizes they are also the very reasons people choose to get married and then personalizes them into a plea, recognizing that he actually wants the same as everybody else. If any of the song could be played as bitter/cold, it could be the beginning, but not by the time he gets to "MOCK ME WITH PRAISE!!!".
I really wish we could have a revival of the original staging of Company, keeping the show in 1970 rather than trying to update it or conceptualize it further. It doesn't need to be updated to prove its themes are timeless or universal any more than Damn Yankees or Anything Goes needs to be updated to generate interest. I applaud the effort, but can some of us please get a glimpse of the revolutionary show that was?
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#22re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:29pm
I really wish we could have a revival of the original staging of Company, keeping the show in 1970 rather than trying to update it or conceptualize it further.
Amen.
Shannon Bo Dannon
Broadway Star Joined: 8/19/08
Craww
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/13/06
#24re: Being Alive?
Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:35pm
I find it strange that I'm the only one who loathes listening to Dean Jones with the same ire many reserve for Raul. I think the only song on the original Broadway cast recording that I enjoyed him on was, oddly enough, Barcelona. I still don't think I've ever heard Larry Kert do it, I wonder if I'd enjoy him more.
(The only Being Alives on my iPod are Patti and Raul, so I guess that's where my bias lies.)
