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MY FAIR LADY (2018) Previews Apr 1
2018, 07:13:05 PM
Freddy was disturbingly flat on his high notes the night I saw it too - third preview.
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Flower Drum Song revival - should it happen Mar 20
2018, 04:54:56 PM
The problem with the original libretto is less the cultural approach and more the structure and form of it, which is disjointed and clumsily crafted - akin to the stage libretto for The Sound of Music, only much more so. Like that property, the film version of Flower Drum Song significantly improved upon the source material, creating a more streamlined and cohesive storyline, juxtaposing song placement and redistributing who sings what in certain numbers. Commercial prospects aside, the show wou
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MY FAIR LADY (2018) Previews Mar 18
2018, 08:19:45 PM
What people often forget about Henry Higgins is that, owing to his debilitating social awkwardness, all of his head and heart are tied up in phonetics. The reason the original ending has always worked for me is because, when he switches on Eliza’s voice in the final scene, it’s not his final creation — the swan — that brings him comfort. The recording he chooses is who she was before he ‘reinvented’ her. I think that’s what makes Hepburn smile in the
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Roman Holiday Previews May 26
2017, 10:53:23 PM
I'm not sure the producers understand the era themselves. I don't recall any dialogue mentioning specifically what year the musical was occurring in. I assumed it was the 1950s because there was serious 'va-va-voom' in the women's costume design and lots of Sophia Loren wig styles, but then the character of Irving remarked that the Mouth of Truth "looks like an old Euro." After that, I was lost as to when it was taking place.
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Roman Holiday Previews May 26
2017, 09:54:58 PM
I know - 12 pieces seems small, but the orchestra sounded like double that amount - really filled the space - and the orchestrations were lovely. And yes, the producers mentioned in the publicity materials how they heard "Easy to Love" and "immediately knew we had found our eleven o'clock number" despite the fact that (a) the lyric is all about projecting a relationship, which would indicate early placement rather than climax, and (b) projecting is&n
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Roman Holiday Previews May 26
2017, 04:38:43 PM
It's ironic, but arguably the most effective use of the Porter catalogue in a fresh property was the 1975 film AT LONG LAST LOVE. Yes, of course, it was one of the biggest bombs in all of filmdom, but one thing you have to give Bogdanovich: He wisely attached the songs to a plot so shallow that Porter's lyrics never once seemed out of character. That, in and of itself, is an accomplishment that wasn't achieved by HAPPY NEW YEA
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Roman Holiday Previews May 26
2017, 01:19:48 PM
As with all stage incarnations of beloved films, the more you revere the original, the more you will be disappointed in the adaptation. Two things struck me all through the watching of Thursday night's preview: First, how vital it is that the Princess never appear American. It dispels the entire enterprise, like a magician working in daylight. And it goes beyond the loss of the mid-Atlantic accent so imperative to Audrey's success in the film; it extends to how she carries h
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Vocal Dubbing in the Film Version of INTO THE WOODS Sep 24
2016, 10:06:29 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIwY_Hd0tE
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Vocal Dubbing in the Film Version of INTO THE WOODS Sep 23
2016, 10:12:00 AM
Good question. If you look at Sondheim's work, he is the first to say he writes for actors who sing, not singers. Best example is Lansbury — not a trained singer, occasionally dubbed in her MGM films (i.e. THE HARVEY GIRLS) but allowed to sing for herself in less presentational, more British-centric pieces, like THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY or TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY. On stage, she emerged as the prototype of the actor who sings. "The Worst Pies in London" could
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Vocal Dubbing in the Film Version of INTO THE WOODS Sep 23
2016, 09:50:18 AM
Keep in mind, the way the process of screen dubbing has always worked — and more so today with all the techno wizardry at our disposal — actors themselves often don't realize they've been dubbed. Historically, filmmakers have tried to keep it quiet from both their stars and audiences. And while it's plain to our ears, you would be amazed at how many stars during the 1950s-60s actually believed they were doing their own singing.
Streep has a
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Vocal Dubbing in the Film Version of INTO THE WOODS Sep 23
2016, 09:18:45 AM
It's the vibrato, that's the giveaway. Everything else in the film Streep can handle, but you haven't heard that vibrato, that power come out of her in any other film. Go back to POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, MAMMA MIA - any film she's done. You will hear pitch, you will hear style and commitment, but not that vibrato, not that ferocity, which is singularly Murphy's. If Streep had that vibrato and power, it would have been soaring throu
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Vocal Dubbing in the Film Version of INTO THE WOODS Sep 22
2016, 11:44:03 PM
I follow BWW daily, but I was moved to register tonight for one particular reason. I have been waiting for more than a year for the savvy ladies and gentlemen on this board to pick up on something. As it hasn't been picked up on, I wanted to open the discussion to see what people think. Sorry in advance for the length of the post, but there's a lot involved here. Rob Marshall made much ado about posting the vocal credits in the final scroll of CHICAGO so audiences would know that all of the actors sang for themselves. He did the same with NINE. When I attended an industry preview of INTO THE WOODS at the Director's Guild in New York, about two months before the film was officially released to theaters, I sat with a great friend of mine, a musical director for TV who has spent most of his life under headphones. Together we were poised for discovery, because I am a Hollywood dubbing historian with a good ear, and his ear is unparalleled from years of scrutinizing sound and its screen components. So. During "Stay With Me," I felt that unexpected little trigger I get when dubbing is afoot. Without being able to rewind and rewatch, I just let it sit. An hour or so later comes "Last Midnight." My inner dubbing meter activated again. At this point, I was curious to see if Marshall would post his traditional vocal credits at the end, but being a rough cut, shown for the purpose of drubbing up Oscar interest, the credits were not yet finalized for viewing. When the lights came up, in verbal shorthand, I turned to my friend and quizzically said, "Streep." And he, with his ear always one step ahead of mine, replied, "Donna Murphy."
Since then, we have both made a study of it, going so far as to loop Murphy's Central Park rendition on top of the movie soundtrack, which offers identical inflections. Listen to the film version again; it's one of the most sophisticated, amazing dubbing jobs we'll ever hear. In "Stay With Me," Streep gets as far as "Stay at home..." and Murphy quietly enters on "I am home..." The vibrato shift is welcome and unmistakable, such a relief musically and so beautifully mixed that you'd never suspect it. Then Murphy takes glorious flight into the bridge, until Streep returns on "stay with me..." A less sophisticated tech team would have transitioned to the new voice on "Who out there could love you more than I?" — it was a genius stroke to switch out the voices on the quieter, more subtle line before. Murphy sings most of "Last Midnight," too, though in this song, the interchange of voices is more frequent, and far more difficult to delineate — as intricately plotted as the constantly shifting dual track that merged Deborah Kerr's speech and Marni Nixon's singing for Anna's soliloquy in THE KING AND I (deleted from the film, but mesmerizing to hear on the soundtrack album).
I think there are two reasons no one has caught wind of the Streep dubbing in INTO THE WOODS. First, Meryl has sung off-and-on for years on stage and screen, and we, by this point, assume she can do anything — because she usually does; her Florence Foster Jenkins vocals are skilled beyond explanation. Another reason is the movie's brilliantly rendered pitch correction, which masks the familiar, slightly off-key nasality we have come to identify with — and love about — Murphy.
Here's the topper, though: Check out Streep's "Last Midnight" on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aasECsxrSzQ
At the 1:34 mark in the song, in the line "You can tend the garden, it's yours," listen closely. It's Bernadette Peters, right off the original cast album, or live in the studio as a cameo gag, who knows — but that is definitely Peters singing the two-word phrase "it's yours." So give a listen and let the discussion begin. To be clear, this is coming from someone who loves the whole smoke-and-mirrors art of dubbing, so the revelation is meant not as a "spoiler" but with affection and a tip of the hat to the artistry with which it was done. As a postscript, however, months after that initial preview, when we saw the finished film at the Ziegfeld, the now-completed roll gave full singing credit to Streep. It was like a taste of old Hollywood, when Vera-Ellen, Rita Hayworth and Jeanne Crain all shared the same dubber in Anita Ellis and no one knew it! As the credits rolled, my friend turned to me in the dark and said, referring to Murphy, "I hope she got paid a bundle for it."
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