News on your favorite shows, specials & more!
pixeltracker

Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!

Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!

morosco Profile Photo
morosco
bwayphreak234 Profile Photo
bwayphreak234
#2Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/7/20 at 10:38am

I came across this yesterday, and my jaw hit the floor.


"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "

Jordan Catalano Profile Photo
Jordan Catalano
#3Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/7/20 at 10:50am

How has she never been on broadway?

CapnHook Profile Photo
CapnHook
#4Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/7/20 at 11:26am

Holy shiz!!


"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle

SouthernCakes
#5Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/7/20 at 12:26pm

Loved it!! Now I want to see her in the full production! Finally a diva who can SANG! I felt like the tempo was so damn slow.

ErmengardeStopSniveling Profile Photo
ErmengardeStopSniveling
#6Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/7/20 at 1:00pm

I wish Dominic Cooke had just let her emote without giving her so much business........

Still, a gorgeous performance. Wish she had originated it instead of Imelda.

morosco Profile Photo
morosco
#7Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/7/20 at 3:50pm

At the one minute mark she appears to be briefly distracted by her wedding band and all that it represents.

I just can't stop watching it!

PutonyourWarPaint Profile Photo
PutonyourWarPaint
#8Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/7/20 at 6:12pm

Her money notes in the "I Wish I May" clips on *that site* -WOW.    Would love to see her as Elizabeth Arden in War Paint. 

jacobsnchz14 Profile Photo
jacobsnchz14
#9Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/7/20 at 7:30pm

I loved her as Sally. LOVED her.

Balcony Bill
#10Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/7/20 at 11:29pm

A tad overdone to me, and she seems to be struggling with the low notes. My first time hearing this was in the concert version of Follies at Lincoln Centre, with Barbara Cook, and her much simpler yet devastating version will always by my favourite--a reminder of what a great singer can accomplish just standing still.

Owen22
#11Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/8/20 at 4:21am

I was actually enjoying her performance up until this moment. I actually thought her coquettishness made more sense to the character than Imelda's. She also looks like she could have once been a Follies girl. But, though vocally not as astounding, Imelda's version was WAY more powerful. For some reason Joanna played the song very angry. Imelda was following the lyrics, she was losing her mind during the song. It was devastating. It just proved who the superior actress was. (And not only was she angry--Riding completely overdid it!) The only good thing about Joanna Riding's Sally was that it allowed Janie Dee to dominate the way she always had, but now was out from under Imelda's shadow.

binau Profile Photo
binau
#12Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/8/20 at 5:11am

Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!


"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

SweetLips22 Profile Photo
SweetLips22
#13Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/8/20 at 5:34pm

Nope, did nothing. Too busy, too many 'now I do this now I do that moments' --lipstick/perfume/hand cream, sip, pill and sip  then the big finish with the wig off?? I thought, Oh she's actually a man--La Cage.

Liked the tone on some of her notes though,

GlindatheGood22  Profile Photo
GlindatheGood22
#14Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/8/20 at 5:37pm

I too was perplexed by the wig thing - what is that supposed to do, aside from remind us of La Cage?


I know you. I know you. I know you.

Owen22
#15Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/9/20 at 2:57am

SweetLips22 said: "Nope, did nothing. Too busy, too many 'now I do this now I do that moments' --lipstick/perfume/hand cream, sip, pill and sip then the big finish with the wig off?? I thought, Oh she's actually a man--La Cage.

Liked the tone on some of her notes though,
"

Again this was business created for or by Imelda Staunton to complement her interpretation of the song. 

 

devonian.t Profile Photo
devonian.t
#16Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/9/20 at 3:06am

She was a huge improvement on Imelda but that staging was too fussy.

Broadway has missed out on one of Britain's best leading ladies- she really has been incredible across her career.

Michael Bennett Profile Photo
Michael Bennett
#17Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/9/20 at 9:57am

Joanna Riding has given some of the greatest female musical theatre performances of the past couple of decades - and they've all been in the UK. She is way overdue to make a Broadway appearance.   Think what you will of the staging, but the vocal and acting skills on display in this clip are nothing short of remarkable.

FANtomFollies Profile Photo
FANtomFollies
#18Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/9/20 at 10:14am

I think she does a great job, but this really makes me appreciate the last Broadway revival. Sometimes 'park and bark' really is the right choice.

morosco Profile Photo
morosco
#19Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/9/20 at 10:35am

The beat where she takes the pills is one too many pieces of business and is a little distracting because it kind of turns into a drag show performance at that moment.

I say keep all the business except for the pills and it would be a sublime performance.

SmoothLover Profile Photo
SmoothLover
#20Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/10/20 at 1:47pm

Thumbs up!

ljay889 Profile Photo
ljay889
#21Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/24/20 at 2:35pm

Man, I really did not enjoy that. Riding seems like a lovely actress, but that was completely overdone. 

Here's Victoria Clark on the number:

"Hands down, the best note he ever gave me was that "Losing My Mind" is not a book song, it's a torch song. You, the actor, can't sing the song as Sally. You've got to forget that you're Sally and just deliver a torch song and let the audience draw the conclusions. He'd come up to me after every show and go, "Nope." I finally got it right to his candor during the very last performance. He gave me a big hug and said, "Yeah, that was it.""

https://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/patti-lupone-vanessa-williams-sondheim-feature_90797.html

The director's interpretation of the number in this London production completely contradicts the whole point of Sally's Folly. She's not supposed to be singing it as Sally. I'm shocked Sondheim allowed this, and also shocked that he seemed to love this revival. 

I remember when so many complained on here that Bernadette merely "cried too much" during the number, but at least she was still singing it as a torch song, not as Sally. 

binau Profile Photo
binau
#22Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 3/24/20 at 3:14pm

The whole production was highly underwhelming. Some interesting staging pre-Loveland but it was so literal and the singing performances were awful*. I can't think of a single performance that improved upon the most recent Broadway revival in any of the leads or supporting characters. How I wish the 2011 revival was filmed Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!

 

* I did not attend again with Joanna Riding, perhaps regrettably. 


"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
Updated On: 3/24/20 at 03:14 PM

morosco Profile Photo
morosco
raddersons Profile Photo
raddersons
#24Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 5/9/20 at 12:40am

Y'all will never be satisfied with Follies, will you?

Loved this. 

MichelleCraig Profile Photo
MichelleCraig
#25Joanna Riding sings Losing My Mind. Stunning!
Posted: 5/9/20 at 1:17am

I really liked this performance...but I think for this revival, Imelda's performance is the better of the two. It's also on YouTube.

I was lucky enough to see Dorothy Collins do it pre-Broadway at the Colonial Theater in Boston. I love her performance because it was stamped in time before the song took on a life of its own.

I was twelve when I saw Dorothy Collins do it in Boston.

Updated On: 5/9/20 at 01:17 AM


Videos