The Official Raúl E. Esparza "Spread the Love" Thread, part two — Page 198

Heh, I saw Brilliant Mistake live, and I was absolutely floored by God Give Me Strength. I was sitting about ten or fifteen rows back, and in person, from a decent distance, it truly was incredible. About a year later, I saw a video clip shot chest-up, and... I was frightened. It was the most overblown melodrama I have ever seen from him! Eek.

Anyway, news:

From Riedel's column in the NY Post:

* Raul Esparza, the star of "Company," will sing "Being Alive" on the Tony telecast. But he'll be performing without the rest of the cast members, who, in the revival, play all the musical instruments. Apparently, the producers of "Company" don't want to have to pay the other actors to appear on the Tonys. So they've asked Jonathan Tunick if they can use his original 1970 orchestrations for "Being Alive," which will be performed by the orchestra at Radio City Music Hall.

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Updated On: 5/18/07 at 10:42 AM

Me neeeeither.

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This totally defeats the purpose.

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I don't think we're upset about how it's going to sound -- the original orchestrations for Being Alive are beautiful -- but about the fact that the point of a Tony performance is to give a sample of what people would see on stage at the show. This isn't it, and it's also ANOTHER slap in the face to the lovely, brilliant, extremely talented Mary-Mitchell Campbell.

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Updated On: 5/18/07 at 11:03 AM

"I don't think we're upset about how it's going to sound -- the original orchestrations for Being Alive are beautiful -- but about the fact that the point of a Tony performance is to give a sample of what people would see on stage at the show. This isn't it, and it's also ANOTHER slap in the face to the lovely, brilliant, extremely talented Mary-Mitchell Campbell."


I agree
*edit* and it's because they don't want to pay them...?

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Updated On: 5/18/07 at 11:11 AM

Raul must feel awful about it - he seems so appreciative of and loyal to the ensemble cast.

I just....don't see the point of performing the song with Tunick's orchestrations! At the VERY least, isn't there some way that the orchestra could just use Mary-Mitchell Campbell's? That obviously doesn't make up for the fact that the cast gets totally shafted (and I feel terrible for them), but it's completely pointless to perform a form of a song that isn't even in your show.

Well that sucks. The whole cast was wonderful to see in person.

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That is SO lame! Way to not stay true to this production of Company at all! Ugh.

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That was my first thought Skittles. I guess it has to do with their contracts and all the union requirements, but hell I'd volunteer for free to perform on national television.

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Well, I'm going tonight at 8, I am so excited!!!

I didnt want to risk it suddenly closing or something while I was away. Hopefully he won't call in sick today...

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thanks, I'm really excited.

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thank you for the discount code :)

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