Greatest Entertainer- Page 2

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 11:59am

Aw, BwayTheater11's trying to learn how to be snarky. It's so cute.

It comes with practice, son. Don't worry, you'll get better.

[thirdrowcenter]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:18pm

Sammy Davis Jr. came to mind, Sinatra too but I vote for Judy Garland. Hugh Jackman might make this list in his lifetime.

[magruder]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:19pm

I'd vote for Garland too. There's the power and intensity of her instrument, coupled with her unique live performance histrionics. She was also an underrated actress, with sly, wry intelligent delivery and a sharp sense of comedy. (I actually much prefer her slightly world-weary Annie in the Annie Get Your Gun outtakes to the overeager, muggy Betty Hutton). Then, add in the childhood stardom, the career setbacks and comebacks, the addictions, the gay husbands, Liza, and a tragic death, and she's got all of the stuff to hold the title as Greatest Entertainer of All Time. Just for slipping "Battle Hymn of the Republic" past the objections of the CBS brass on "The Judy Garland Show," following the Kennedy Assassination, earns her that recognition.

[bstndiva]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:27pm

I vote for Madonna. I think she has alot of charisma and is a fine actress. She was great in "Evita" and "Swept Away". She can sing, dance and act.

Judy Garland was good for her time but I don't think she would have made it big if she were around today. She had a lovely voice but her manner onstage was blah.

[Matt_G]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:30pm

Bstndiva had the balls to say Madonna was great in SWEPT AWAY (Which she was!)
Diva is my new best friend.

[mamamia sammy]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:31pm

So your two best friends are bstndiva and glitzguy3.

What a trio!

[Matt_G]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:32pm

and you, Star.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:42pm

You mean, it's not Cher?? lol

I dunno who I would pick--comparing Elvis and Garland feels like apples and oranges.

Or downers and uppers.

Updated On: 7/1/04 at 12:42 PM

[Matt_G]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:43pm

Oh, I forgot Cher!!!! Now THAT woman can do it all. And she still looks fabulous.

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:53pm

I would vote for Judy - and calling her onstage manner "blah" is one of the more incredible things Ive ever heard. Listen to her live recordings and the reaction of the audience - that doesn't equate to 'blah' to me.

[magruder]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 12:57pm

Yes, Judy Garland would be so out of step with today's audiences, because she has an actual voice.

[bstndiva]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 1:10pm

I agree. I said Garlands voice was lovely. I was never impressed with her stage presence.

Cher has lasted for decades and still wows the audience. She is also a pretty good actress. I loved her in Moonstruck.

[eyeonbroadway]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 1:23pm

I'd go with Judy Garland too. I'm guessing that a lot of the objections to her stage presence is based on her later years when she lived on alcohol and looked like it. Unfortunately, other than her movies, I'm not how much footage survives showing her in her prime. It must have been fantastic!

[magruder]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 1:43pm

You mean Garland's legendary stage presence where she threw everything she had into delivering a song, to the point that she'd drive an audience into a frenzy, instead of lip-synching soullessly, like the stars of today? Sure, I like Madonna, but at the Drowned World tour, she looked so bored, like she'd rather have been home watching Judge Judy.

[robbiej]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 2:00pm

Or tapes of the old Judy Garland show.

Ah, Garland. Unlike many of today's (and even yesterday's) performers, she was still thrilling even when ripped to the tits.

That BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC is one of the greatest moments in TV history.

Her Xmas special alone captures the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat that was Judy Garland.

[JeffG]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 2:03pm

I read from this very board

Idina
Sutton
Kristin
Deborah Cox
Eden
Eddie Varley

[junglered]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 2:16pm

Agree with Judy Garland...(although, Mindy Cohn does come in a very close second. She was robbed from becoming the new Galinda, I tell 'ya).

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 2:35pm

I can definitely see how people would choose Judy (or Liza, for that matter), though I was never a fan, myself. I would certainly put Cher over Madonna for versatility and body of work. Cher was changing with the times when Madonna was just hitting the horizon and she got an Oscar to boot!

What about Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, or Sammy David Jr.?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 2:38pm

The Sinatra thing always eluded me.

[magruder]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 2:48pm

Barbra, Sammy and Frank are/were great talents, but as far as greatest entertainer, I tend to deduct points from Sammy for the smarmy "look how great I am" self-absorption, Barbra for her increasingly mummified concert appearances and that phony-baloney performing recalcitrance, and Frank for his utter disdain for the sanctity of lyric writing.

[robbiej]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 3:00pm

Actually...the thing I think Judy had which really puts her over the top as Greatest Entertainer of the 20th Century (I know we're saying EVER...but let's be a little realistic) is her obsession with pleasing her audience. The connection between Judy and her audience was primal. She needed them not just to thrive as a performer, but also to survive. It's all she knew. And even if some of it was calculated, you never saw that. It was astonishing.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 6:09pm

Madonna has a bigger d*ck than any of us?

Do you mean her yacht has a big deck ? Or that it is tied to a big dock?

Or does she have a big duck in a pond?

[Dolly_Levi]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 6:11pm

Some of the greats that come to mind ...

Of course, MS. GARLAND

LIZA

CHER

STREISAND

I think that above and beyond talent and charisma, there is that undeniable star quality. "You either got it, or you ain't, and boys - they got it."

[boborunstheshow]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 6:13pm

Kristin Chenoweth!

*bobo runs from room before the annoyed glances reach him*