Arthur Laurents Expresses Adoration For Matt Cavenaugh In The Advocate- Page 3

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 10:36am

Wait--so Matt Cavenaugh sings the B?

[jv92]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 3:07pm

"There's a story that at a Dinner Party at Sondheim's,
The subject of SWEENEY TODD came up, and they went to the piano
and Steve had Larry sing, for the first public hearing:
JOHANNA."

My God, that sounds fabulous. And why wasn't this taped Steve and Hal? You taped plenty of other things!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 4:44pm

PJ, he didn't sing it the night I saw the show.

Have Matt and Josefina been missing many shows?

[beltingbaritone]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 4:50pm

"Wait--so Matt Cavenaugh sings the B?"

PJ, going by the video of Matt singing "Maria" on that site, he's singing a Bb.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 4:55pm

So what is the old coot talking about when he says "Matt hits notes Larry Kert couldn?t"?

[beltingbaritone]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 5:01pm

Matt doesn't even sing the high note every night, if I'm not mistaken. He does the G natural alternative from the movie and original cast recording. I mean, I was one of the few who enjoyed Cavenaugh but....

Updated On: 5/14/09 at 05:01 PM

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 11:24am

No, he doesn't do the B, PJ. I guess it was unnecessary to bring up, I was just saying that even if that was the case, which it's not...

Hmm, here's another thought...talking about movie notes...maybe Arthur meant Matt sings the last high note of Something's Coming in the movie that I hate, that Larry couldn't "hit" because he was never required to sing it in the first place?

Again, it's all retarded, we shouldn't even be acknowledging idiotic statements like this.

I still think if they were going to dub the movie, they might as well have used Larry's voice, since I prefer his to Jim Bryant.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 12:08pm

So does Matt ever sing the B-flat high note?

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 1:31pm

Does Arthur even say he is referring to singing, or is he possibly saying that Matt goes to places dramatically that Kert never went. Just wondered.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 1:33pm

I think Arthur was talking about Matt's Bj.

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 1:39pm

I'm pretty sure Matt hit the B-flat both times I saw it. I know he does it sometimes.

I have an audio from previews, and Matt definitely hits the B-flat. I matched it with a piano. If some of you don't believe me, I will gladly upload it. I don't doubt that some of you wouldn't believe me, lol.




Updated On: 5/15/09 at 01:39 PM

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 1:43pm

Laurents says Matt "hits notes" that Kert couldn't. The statement is vague enough where he is insulting the memory of Kert but also could come back and clarify that he was talking about dramatic notes. It's appropriately vague...perfect for a meanie like Laurents.

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 1:48pm

Well whatever it is, Matt can indeed hit the B-flat, and I have proof. I guess it depends on his stamina, when he sings it. I'm SURE he sang the B-flat on the cast recording.
Updated On: 5/15/09 at 01:48 PM

[NYadgal]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 1:56pm

Namo, he sure hums a good tune

[beltingbaritone]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 2:54pm

There's a video of Matt singing the high Bb on that site. He doesn't sing it every night. I heard him sing it once, and the other time he didn't. One was a matinee, one was not. Is there a pattern or is it just coincidence? I'm guessing that it is in fact depending on if he's up to it that performance.

Updated On: 5/15/09 at 02:54 PM

[dayao]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 7:59pm

A B flat is one single note, which was not really that much of an issue in the original staging of WSS; it doesn't erase the fact that Cavenaugh does not even come close vocally or dramatically to Kert's level of performance in WEST SIDE STORY. But let's be honest...very few performers today would compare favorably with Larry Kert, who excelled at dancing, singing and was a superb stage actor. Matt Cavenaugh is no Larry Kert and never will be but maybe someday he will find a role that will better suit his more limited vocal and acting talent than Tony in WEST SIDE STORY. I see him more as a presence on series TV and the movies than on the stage. I suspect that Laurents' adoration of him has nothing to do with his vocal cords.

I saw Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence in a mid 1960 revival of WEST SIDE STORY and they were magnificent, especially Kert, who did indeed sing the ending of "Something's Coming" as Jimmy Bryant did in the film, except that Kert was even better and his dramatic delivery of the song was superior to Bryant; this was also the case in all of the other songs, especially "Maria", and Kert is still the definitive interpreter of this song. Even though he was in his late 20s he still looked young enough to have played Tony in the 1961 film of WEST SIDE STORY and it is a crime that he did not get to preserve his brilliant performance for posterity in the film.

I saw Kert once again as the definitive Bobby in COMPANY in London in the early 1970's, a production that included the majority of the Original Broadway Cast and it was one of the greatest evenings of musical theater I have ever experienced. Kert got a deserved standing ovation at the end of his magnificent, powerful vocal of "Being Alive" and his vocal of "Someone is Waiting" was simply stunning, the best I've ever heard.

Kert recorded a pop album in the mid 1960's of Leonard Bernstein songs which included concert versions of his songs from WEST SIDE STORY (unfortunately not nearly as good as his Cast Recording performances due to the inappropriate mid 60's pop orchestration). But on the same album, Larry Kert sings "It Must Be So" from CANDIDE, a song Bernstein wrote for a full operatic tenor and Kert acquits himself beautifully on this difficult number and could possibly have been a great Candide. Kert also sings Bernstein songs from WONDERFUL TOWN, PETER PAN & ON THE TOWN on this album which has been out of print for 50 years, although it was recently released in Europe by a public domain label.

Below are links to Sendspace MP3 files of:
It Must Be So
http://www.sendspace.com/file/e2oxxa
Happily Ever After/Someone is Waiting
http://www.sendspace.com/file/f8kig9

And for those interested in hearing the entire Larry Kert sings Bernstein album
http://www.sendspace.com/file/2nx73m

Updated On: 5/17/09 at 07:59 PM

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 8:43pm

What did Laurents have against Kert?

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 8:45pm

Thanks dayao.

Kert was so wonderful in COMPANY that although he did not originate the role on Broadway, the TONY committee still nominated him for Best Actor in a musical that year.

Thank Sondheim the London COMPANY was recorded.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/15/09 at 9:29pm

Thanks, Dayao! I used to have that album on LP, now I have it on my iPod!

Some of the arrangements are weird, but his voice is glorious, isn't it?

[dayao]

Posted: 5/16/09 at 2:45am

Yes, Joey, Kert's voice is indeed glorious, with a heroic, youthful, exuberant sound that can be heard even in his later shows and recordings. He was truly one of Broadway's greatest stars.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 5/16/09 at 7:35am

No matter what AL may have said, I think the attacks on MC are uncalled for- her didn't criticize Larry Kert. Also, aren't we beyond the innuendos please?

[jv92]

Posted: 5/16/09 at 8:30am

"What did Laurents have against Kert?"

It seems to me, and I may just be thinking silly here, that Laurents has something against people who died of AIDS and I don't know why. Remember the old story of how he giggled when he found out Tony Perkins had it? I don't understand how a person could be so cruel.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/16/09 at 9:18am

To clarify, the giggling about Perkins, while still monstrous, was more about Perkins's closet than about his contracting HIV.

Up until the electroshock therapy, Anthony Perkins was fairly out among his theater friends and involved in a long-term relationship with a male dancer/choreographer who got his start in the original company of West Side Story. (Name withheld because he's still alive, although he was sort of outed by Michael Bennett in Every Little Step.)

Perkins and his lover went for electroshock therapy together and "cured" themselves of their homosexuality, both subsequently marrying extremely beautiful women. (Perkins married model Berry Berenson and his former lover married a female dancer with a legendarily curvaceous body and enormous talent.)

Anyway, what Laurents was giggling about in the awful story was not that Perkins got AIDS per se...but that someone who went to such lengths to erase his homosexuality obviously didn't do it very well, the way we all laughed at Senator Larry Craig getting caught in an airport men's room.

Arthur's particular brand of evil is his compulsive nastiness: He wouldn't pause to censor himself and realize that scornful laughter was inappropriate or that AIDS is too horrible a thing to wish on anyone, even someone closeted.

To know Arthur is to know a million moments of similarly wanton cruelty. I'm not excusing his laughter, just providing context.

Updated On: 5/16/09 at 09:18 AM

[CukorLover]

Posted: 5/16/09 at 12:18pm

Thanks for those observations Joey. Such a shame those men had to grow up in such a homophobic world, although little has changed to educate mainstream America on this so called "disease."

Wouldn't it be terrific if Adam Lambert came out nationally after he takes the prize next week ? Not that it would change much, but the more people who are brave enough to honestly express themselves would sure be a step forward.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/16/09 at 12:27pm

"I think the attacks on MC are uncalled for- her didn't criticize Larry Kert."

Paging Dr. Freud, paging Dr. Freud, please pick up your slip in devonian.t's post, thank you.