Seth Rudetsky always notices these unusual pronunciations of certain words in songs. I've noticed that it was a trend in the words "me" and "you."
Glenn Close and Jennifer Hudson pronounced the word "me" in "With One Look" and "And I Am Telling You..." respectively as "MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY."
David Elder pronounced "you" in "I Only Have Eyes for You" as "yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo." (yo, as in "Yo, waddup dawg.")
"Ev'ry-buddy wants ta get into de act!"
- Jimmy Durante
"Breathe from your hoo-hoo."
-Kristin Chenoweth
That always bothers me when David Elder sings "yooooo" on the 42nd Street recording.
Another one of those is Matthew Broderick on H2S revival, in "I Believe In You," his "You" at the end of the line sounds like he's trying too hard to open up the vowel and it's obnoxious.
During "The Music of the Night" many Phantoms opt to pronounce garish as "gAHrish," which sounds out of place, especially in the American productions, where most of the actors are basically directed to have the thickest American accents you have ever heard (same thing with Les Mis).
How to properly use its/it's:
Its is the possessive. It's is the contraction for it is...
E vowels tighten up your throat. They're a pain in the ass to sing half the time no matter how strong of a voice you have. Why do you think Sho Bean sings them through her nose?
When Gina Gershon was in Cabaret, she sang the title song like "Life is a CabUHRAY ole' chum, come to the CabUHRAY" Don't really think it's a big deal, but anyway.
Joel Grey did the same thing in the movie version "Im Cabaret, Au Cabaret, to CabUHRAAAAAY" the little inflection through the nose.
I don't WANT to live in what they call "a certain way." In the first place I'd be no good at it and besides that I don't want to be identified with any one class of people. I want to live every whichway, among all kinds---and know them---and understand them---and love them---THAT's what I want! - Philip Barry (Holiday)
I love how Chita Rivera always changes vowel sounds, like, ten times every time she holds the word "Jazz." She did it even more at the 10th Anniversary Show than she does on the OBC recording. Haha. Love it.
"I just want a story and a few good songs that will take me away. I just want to be entertained. I mean, isn't that the point?"
Not a Broadway song, but I never understood Natasha Bedingfield's pronunciation of "hyperbole" as 3 syllables (hy-per-bowl rather than hy-per-bo-lee) in her song "These Words." Is this a British pronunciation of the word, or does she just not know how to pronounce it?
"What was the name of that cheese that I like?"
"you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"
"well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
actually i think holliday's performance of and i am telling you has led to multiple sins in this way. i mean, andy songs you can transcribe as;
eeeeeyyyyaaaaaand iiiiiiiiyyyyyeeee yyyeeeaaaamm tuuuuuhlling yeeeew, yiiiiiiiiiimm not gewinnnah
is just bizarre, and now a lot of people kinda copy it, especially the last vowel.
and i completely agree with the american's doing a british accent thing - i was watching vids on the site that must not be mentioned and found many many odd ones - secret garden, scarlet pimpernel, jekyll and hyde, les mis.
colm wilkinson can come up with some odd ones too - i know he's irish but i don't think his accent makes him come up with some of the bizarre sounds he does, its what makes him so easy to imitate (its far too long i'm shuaah)
Colm Wilkinson sounds like Sean Connery to me... or, at the very least, Will Ferrell's parody of him.
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
In response to the Barbara Walsh "rise" thing, Anthony Rapp does the same thing on the Rent OCR during La Vie Boheme, "Here she lies" part in the intro, which kind of bothers me as well.
On the AIDA cast recording Adam Pascal says "tommow" instead of "tomorrow" in the song "Enchantment Passing Through." I don't know if he sang it like that every time he performed the song, but it always throws me. I saw it performed on tour and the actor playing Radames actually sang "tomorrow" and it was very nice to hear the word pronounced correctly during the song.
I can't remember who the singer is but in 1976 revival of MY FAIR LADY, the Freddie consistently sang "on the street where you leave." Otherwise quite a nice performance so it was jarring.