Profile for Dodge3

Freddy was disturbingly flat on his high notes the night I saw it too - third preview.

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 ...

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 film version. The fact that Henry sits in ...

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.

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 the one impulse neither of these characters ...

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 YEAR, HIGH SOCIETY or ROMAN HOLIDAY.

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 herself, how she la...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIwY_Hd0tE

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 trip up the best of singers, but...

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 always been an actor who can sing. The voice on that sc...

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 through "The Winner Takes It All." A voice can't be "sweetened" to ...

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 a...