The So-Called Prime of Miss Rufus Wainwright — Page 3

Zzzzzzzzzz.

---

Dear Mr. Namo--

Rufus is performing for two nights at Carnegie Hall reenacting the legendary Judy concert, note for note. This is not the same as some twink doing an hour tribute to Judy at The Duplex. This is a mediocre singer using the Judy concert to resuscitate his waning career. That and a 40-piece orchestra to boot and Sam Mendes's directing and filming this mess.

Is Rufus Sam's next boytoy?

---

I'm a huge Rufus fan. I've been following his work since the late 90s. However, I am very skeptical about this event. Will he be singing the songs w/ all of Judy's arrangements or will they have new arrangements. As has been said already, I don't think he has the chops for the bigger, brassier moments.

And what's all this talk of Sam Mendes' boy toys. Isn't he married w/ child to Kate Winslet?

I agree. If you don't get it, or you're simply not into it, don't go.

And I'm a casual Rufus fan, I appreciate his worldview. But other than that, I have zero interest in championing his career or deciding whether or not it's "waning." He's got a career, and he's doing something at Carnegie Hall.

---

It's not just that it's a Judy "tribute." Those are done all the time, obviously. It's the idea of recreating her Carnegie concert.

---

Rufuz with a Z?

---

Just wait until he gets ahold of one of Bernadette Peters' concerts.

---

I think this concert is going to make Judy Garland fans out of Rufus Wainwright fans.

I don't think it was ever intended to make Rufus Wainwright fans out of Judy Garland fans.

Although it may with me--if he conducts himself with dignity and musicality, and it looks as though he may.

---

Personally, I'm hoping he sings these songs the way I'd EXPECT Rufus to sing them. IF I wanted to see the Judy concert completely and (more or less) accurately created, we could get an impersonator.
I highly doubt he's going to interpret them the exact way she did, musically and emotionally.

b12b, I was trying to get to the gladiator analogy when I wrote, "Where people who don't 'get' things feel a righteousness in demanding that somebody explain themselves or their intentions until they do 'get' it?"

I couldn't figure out how to get to the "And after you do explain yourself, I reserve the right to reject your explanation" as if they are presumed "guilty" and need to convince a "jury" of their innocence. But you got there perfectly. Your point about the American Idolization Factor is so accurate, I'm really grateful for that insight.

---

I said the concert might work IF he conducts himself with dignity and musicality because my first thought (as expressed in an earlier post on this thread) was that 2 hours of barnstormers would be too much for him, as it would be too much for most of the iron-lunged belting divas currently singing on Broadway or in cabarets.

Judy's arrangements--by Mort Lindsay or Nelson Riddle or Kay Thompson and others--were (cleverly) designed to move dynamically toward the top of her range. This is what gave the arrangements their electrifying belty quality. It also makes them difficult to sing, one after another after another.

The order of songs in the Carnegie Hall concert (which is subtly different in the bootleg recordings made during the tour leading up to Carnegie Hall), was designed to exploit this electrifying quality. The first act built toward "San Francisco" and the second act built toward "Chicago."

I don't think that even Rufus's diehard fans would maintain that he is capable of "belting" all those songs out, one after another after another. (I'm not even sure Bwaysinger is capable of sustaining that much of what the Germans call geschrei!) So he will have to do something else with them.

Only after I bought the tickets as a curiousity, I began to listen to his music and think that Rufus could do this so that it would NOT be the 2-hour trainwreck I initially imagined but something transcendant, in a quieter postmodern way, not barnstorming.

I'm sure that he will get through the first act okay, although ending with "The Man That Got Away" followed by "San Francisco" will be tough. They've both got to end big and loud--and each in a different way. It can't be a whole concert of quiet ballads.

But he will have to create a different kind of excitement for the 6 final numbers in the second act. They're not just big; the're monumental:

"Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart"--big belty ending
"Stormy Weather"--big belty center section
"You Made Me Love You/"Me And My Gal"/"Trolley Song"--HUGE belty ending
"Rockabye Your Baby"--big and belty throughout, plus how will he handle the now-racist overtones (?)
"Over The Rainbow"--supposedly he will sing this one with his mother and sister
"Swanee"--see above for "Rockabye"
"After You've Gone"--2nd half is big and belty
"Chicago"--HUGE and belty

I'm exhausted just imagining it! But I'm looking forward to it.

---

Updated On: 6/5/06 at 12:03 PM

Psst, PJ. I can't quite belt as high as a woman but I did once have to perform 5 days a week for 6 months doing about 22 songs a day. Of those songs, only two didn't top out at a Bb or higher.
It's doable. DOesn't mean Rufus can, though.

We have a weird perception going on here as well with Judy's "legendary" concert at Carnegie Hall. Everyone talks about it like it was the Sermon on the Mount.

While it was triumphantly received, became a monster of a hit record, and won the Grammy for Album of the Year that year... it was far from a perfect evening by today's "Idol" standards...

I suggest that many of you go back and listen to it again. You may be very surprised.

She was often sharp, flat or both during several songs. She forgot her lyrics more than once quite obviously, and it's on the final recording. She slurs her words beyond recognition at times, cuts notes off suddenly, breaks musical phrases to catch her breath, and there are many other "insufferable technical flaws" throughout.

*slams down the judgment gavel*

She also connects to her audience emotionally and personally the way few performers ever have. That's the part that seems to count for NOTHING these days. Judy's Carnegie Hall concert would not be "legendary" by today's standards. It would not have taken on the elevated status it has today, by our "Idol" worshiping public.

Everyone wants to know if Rufus will hit these notes, sing them in the same key, or deliver them with the same volume or power that Judy did... and these are the LEAST important concerns, IMO. If I wanted to hear them interpreted the same way, I'd put on my Judy CD.

I want to know if Rufus will "connect" to his Carnegie Hall audience the way that she did. Could he, or anyone for that matter, ever reach that level of synergy?

And his playing field is a LOT less forgiving today.

In a way, I feel that he's already won by drawing attention to "the way things used to be" and showing us "the way things are" today. By getting us to ponder, debate and discuss what's fundamentally important about this upcoming performance, he has already succeeded artistically.

---

Updated On: 6/5/06 at 01:14 PM