Alice Ripley: Her Voice

Okay so I am a huge huge fan of hers. I have seen her live several times and obviously own all her recordings. The thing I want to bring up is this: what happened to that glorious voice that was heard in Sideshow and such. Listening to her in N2N I love her but it's obvious her voice isn't there anymore. Was it the 8 shows a week? Was it her rock band? What happened?

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Her voice is still there, it's just different. She can still sing the **** out anything. She just can't bust out those ridiculous high belt notes.

ljay, I thought the same thing. Ha.
thread in question

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... don't get me started on her vocals...

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her voice is unique..but I like it...and apparently a bunch of other people do too

I absolutely love her tone, but given the strain she put on her voice on so many of those difficult songs she's recorded, it's no wonder it's not quite as strong as it used to be. Ah, she's still infinitely better than I'll ever be.

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Lupone is still going strong.

her voice was infinitely better in rocky horror. very feminine and powerful and belty.

its just not what it was- which is why its so remarkable that she found a vehicle so suited for her.

would love to hear her in les miz or little shop tho...

I always think she and Julia Murney sound alike.

Actually JoeGillis, I think Idina's voice is going in the opposite direction. If you listen to her in the OBCR of RENT and compare that to the soundtrack or See What I Wanna See and Wicked she has really improved and seems to have learned over the years how to properly use her voice.
Too bad the same can't be said for Ms. Ripley.

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Say what you will about her voice, but nobody and I mean NOBODY acts a song the way that she does. And to me that's most important. You have to watch her live. It's an experience.

Is it not possible that these changes are intentional? That entering middle age, she doesn't want to blast away as she did as Violet (or the mother in TOMMY, when I first saw her; she understudied and went on to fabulous effect).

I've seen all of her Broadway appearances, several times in SIDESHOW. But don't you recall how many people disliked the SIDESHOW sound? I recall even fans of belting saying the two women sounded like they were "yelling..." The SIDESHOW vocals, discussed here as her golden moment, were strikingly theatrical and unique -- designed to serve the Krieger blend of pastiche (the period 'performance' duets) and pop power ballads, which took the roof off the 46th Street. Many people felt the pop-rock influence actually damaged SIDESHOW's credibiliy as story, that the Daisy and Violet of the 1920s had been given an early Lloyd Webber treatment when they deserved, say, Irving Berlin. I disagreed, the goal was to explore their sexuality and yearning, but it's possible that Ripley doesn't want to be boxed in as a screechy pop-belter, particularly in the IDOL era of post-Whitney, post Maria. SIDESHOW was over a decade ago.

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it just seemed to me that she didn't have the stamina anymore to belt for 2 hours. Most of the concert was incredible, but the last few songs seemed to be difficult for her to get through.

Well, something's improved since Raw was recorded then, because her last solo song at the Kennedy Center concert last April was "You Have To Be There" and she belted the HELL out of it.

I adore Alice's voice ~ it's not cookie cutter, and I love that!

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Updated On: 4/13/09 at 08:49 AM