Profile for Steffie2

You are correct Craww. A singer's ability and technique can be discussed objectively. But the majority of the people on this board are interested in subjective opinions, that is, what we get personally from performers and shows. I did not think it was appropriate to go into technical details about the singers because it might seem snobbish to many people to do so, at least on this board.

I never accused Lea Michele of not being trained or without technique. But if that is so it is for naught because her voice still sounds annoying, nasal and whiny. She is definitely better than Hudgens but that is not saying very much, and I think "On My Own" is a perfect example of this. In my opinion, Michele's vocal could be bettered by quite a few real high school students I have heard recently. All the training and technique in the world cannot make up for a singer having an ugly soundin...

Craww: Thanks for clarifying that. I mistakenly thought that you were a fan of Hudgens and I had offended you by criticizing her. I agree she is beyond terrible. As for Morrison, he was a boy band singer in the 1990's and I don't think he is much better now but even so "terrible" might be too strong to describe his singing, which I really feel is passable but not strong enough for Broadway or his role on "Glee".

Whether you take it seriously or not, in my opinion they are comparable because they both have the whiny high pitched sound I was referring to, which bad singers have been masquerading as a belt since the mid 1990's. But as you say in your earlier post you are a child of the 90's and this sound may be what you have become accustomed to and there's nothing wrong with that if you like it. I am a child of the late 70's & 80's and my idea of a real singer is Stephanie Block, Debbie Gravitte or Kr...

I had great hope for this show since Ryan Murphy's other show, "Nip-Tuck", although equally as quirky and over the top reality-wise, is for the most part well written and superbly acted. "Glee" could also provide mainstream exposure for the musical talents of current and future Musical Theater performers. But the show suffers from terrible scripts and to make matters worse, almost everyone in the cast seems to have zero charisma and zero musical talent. Matthew Morrison, whose facial expressi...

I know it is a minority opinion but I absolutely love the 1958 film of South Pacific, which I viewed on DVD after seeing the current Lincoln Center revival. It is a very faithful adaptation of the stage version opened up with gorgeous location scenery and while it's true that all of the principal singers are dubbed except Mitzi Gaynor & Ray Walston, the singing is excellent, especially Bill Lee as Lt. Cable. His vocal of Younger than Springtime is the most beautiful and moving I have ever hea...

Considering the casting choices for Eliza mentioned here, I think it makes perfect sense for Nick Adams to play Freddie. The role could be updated so he plays it without a shirt and his British accent is just as authentic as Anne Hathaway's.

Poet - James Barbour or Richard White Lalume - Catherine Zeta-Jones or Kelli O'Hara Marsinah - Josefina Scaglione Caliph - James Anest or Aaron Tveit Wazir - Brian Stokes Mitchell

Thanks for the explanation, Dayao. It helps me to understand why most of the shows I've attended in the last couple of years sound like the people on stage are lip-synching to a recording.

I am not sure where I heard this but supposedly Robert Wise wanted Larry Kert for the film of "West Side Story" and so did Sondheim and Bernstein but it was Jerome Robbins who refused to allow Kert to do the film, mainly because during the Broadway run, Kert spurned Robbins' advances towards him. Kert was a really handsome man so maybe Laurents had designs on him as well.

Thanks, Dayao, for posting this sad news. The Los Angeles Times, Variety and several other publications and blogs that are concerned with real Broadway and Musical Theater related news, instead of the being obsessed with American Idol and other Fox TV shows as Broadwayworld seems to be, have all published tributes and reactions to his passing. I find it appalling that a site with Broadway in its name, has so far not even commented on the death of a Tony Award-winning actor-singer, who starred...

When I heard James Anest as Emile de Becque in SOUTH PACIFIC several years ago his deep resonant voice seemed perfectly in line with his character. Imagine our surprise after the show when we met him backstage and out from the dressing room emerged this tall hunky guy who looked younger than the actor playing Lt. Cable in the show. Without the makeup and French accent, James did not look anything like his singing voice, which does not stop me from admiring his spectacular voice, arguably the ...

Thanks so much NCGuy, bk & ED. That really is a tense, scary program, far better written than most of today's TV, and TC's acting was awesome. I hear he is even more explosive in "Gunn". And I see that Amazon UK has "Mask & Gown" for sale on CD. It seems T C Jones was a very versatile actor & singer who deserves greater recognition. Now I'm tempted to bid on the Ebay playbill as it is autographed by Jones.

Thanks for the links. I have also found out that Jones appeared in a 1965 Alfred Hitchcock Hour called "An Unlocked Window", which is supposed to be one of the most frightening and graphic thrillers ever on television and uncredited in the Blake Edwards 1967 film "Gunn".

I saw a playbill on Ebay from a 1957 show produced by "New Faces" producer Leonard Sillman called "Mask and Gown", which starred female impersonator T C Jones. Does anyone here know anything about this show? Was it on Broadway? It featured original songs by Ronny Graham, June Carroll, Arthur Siegel & Dorothea Freitag. Was this show ever recorded? I couldn't find out much about T C Jones on the web. Was this the first Broadway show to feature a female impersonator in a major role?

I first saw her in the 1990's on a video of the 1969 film, "The Sterile Cuckoo". Her performance was fantastic and I wish she had done more films. This led me to seeing her in "New York, New York" and although the film was not the greatest she was excellent and her singing was unbelievable.

You make a good point about the different singing style required for certain works. Candide is really an operetta and Bernstein wrote it for singers with operatic voices and West Side Story's Tony and Maria are also written for operatic quality singers but the vocal style is much more contemporary. On her famous 1980's recording of "Show Boat", Frederica von Stade sings in a much more natural style than she would in opera even though Magnolia is as vocally challenging as any role in opera. Ja...

Nathan Gunn has a great voice but comes across very stiff on stage in the operas I've seen him in and in Camelot and at 41 may be a bit too old for the role. The Greek-American opera singer JAMES ANEST would be great as Sky. He sang Luck Be A Lady and I've Never Been in Love Before in recent concerts in Athens and Budapest (he is much better known in Europe and Japan than in his own country) and his rich baritone is perfect for Sky. He is a fine actor who played Emile DeBecque at age 23 in a ...

Nobody is putting down Broadway actors or sound technicians who use microphones judiciously as an enhancement of the live performance. The argument is that many of today's Broadway singers are not encouraged or required to be as vocally equipped as their predecessors and that most of today's stage musicals are so over-miked that one loses the sense that it is indeed a live performance. The sound designer is given more importance than the performer and this is detrimental to the live theater e...

If Ethel Merman were singing on Broadway today, it would be the puny sized orchestras that would have trouble being heard over her. Merman's voice could easily pierce through a typical 30 piece brass heavy Broadway pit orchestra in her day. The orchestrations for shows in the 1950's & 60's were much more complicated and intricate than anything today and these larger orchestras were the rule rather than the exception as they are today.