Meryl Streep sings?

did you not see Postcards from the Edge?

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I think in her prime she would have made an excellent Eva Peron in the film. Too bad they had to lower all the keys for Madonna. Yuck.

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One of Mary Louise Streep's roles in high school was "Daisy Mae" in ABNER. True dat. Wonder if she brought any of the emotional insights gleaned from portraying Dogpatch's resident Sandra Dee into her searing portrait of Sophie...you know, the one making the choice.

Can you imagine Michelle Pfeiffer??? Oh lord. I'm about to lose my breakfast.

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Yes, I saw Baker Boys as well as Grease 2. Precisely where my reaction came from.

Liza...hmmmm...

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Rath - gotta admit - I'd rather see Michelle Pfeiffer do it any day than watch Madonna mangle it.

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LIZA ALL THE WAY!!!

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Not only does she sing in Death Becomes Her, but she is on the soundtrack cd. Its in my oddball star song selections. The song is only 2 minutes long.

Postcards never released a soundtrack to my knowledge and that was a good song.

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Except, Matt, she can't sing. At least with some good training, Streep could have been up to it vocally.

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Streep actually took voice lessons with Beverly Sills' coach when she was in high school (she's told stories about waiting for her lesson and hearing the great Beverly sounding dazzling on the other side of the wall).

There's also an amazing scene of Streep in "Ironweed" as that disheveled character she played performing an impromptu song for the Jack Nicholson character in a bar. It's not great technical singing, but rather her singing in character -- raw, passionate, desperate ..... a heartbreaking demonstration of how a great actress (with a good voice) can give a devastating musical performance. Too bad she never played Piaf (or, if she could handle it vocally, Fosca in "Passion").

I have her Alice at The Palace -- a weird score by Elizabeth Swados (is there any other kind from her?) but Streep sings it well.

Her performance of "I'm Checking Out" (as well as "You Don't Know Me") in Postcards always gives me goosebumps and I think shows that had she decided to devote half the energy to singing that she did to acting over the years, she really could have been a first rate vocalist. Not sure she could have fully handled all of Evita's vocal demands in the original keys, but it would have been a hell of a performance (she'd certainly have done better vocally than Madonna -- something Streep herself said in an uncharacteristically catty moment after losing the role).

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Updated On: 10/6/04 at 10:58 AM

A bit off-topic from Meryl singing, BUT...

When will Meryl be on Broadway? Or at least in a theatre piece?

I would pay good money to make a trip to see it.

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Thank you thank you, Margo. How could I forget? The "Ironweed" performance remains indelible. I remember after I finished that brilliant book, thinking the role of Helen just had to go to Cloris Leachman -- I dunno, it just seemed ideal for her in every way. (I even envisioned it a "comeback," a la LAST PICTURE SHOW, for which she won an Oscar.) When Streep was cast, I remember gnashing my teeth and feeling she was too young, too ... Meryl. And though I went in a doubter, she blew me away. She was just extraordinary, particularly in the muscal sequence ("He's Me Pal!" -- which she sings as Helen sings it, and as Helen imagines it's being sung/received by the crowd. Heartbreaking!), and her death scene. I know it's a cliche, but the woman can do anything.

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Updated On: 10/6/04 at 11:32 AM