Barbara or Kristin?
Barbara or Kristin?
#0Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 9:17amWhich soprano would you prefer, Barbara Cook or Kristin Chenoweth? Well, Kristin is the next Barbara Cook because she has played some of Barbara's legendary roles before so it's up you all. This is just your opinion. There is no right or wrong answer.
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bwayondabrain
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/05
sally1112
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/13/04
TheaterJunkie
Understudy Joined: 6/11/06
#4re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 9:34am
Kristin 
She is more operatic and versatile.
EDIT: See my next post. *sings* "I feel stupid, oh so stupid..."
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Updated On: 10/14/06 at 09:34 AM
coolphantom919
Broadway Star Joined: 6/6/06
#7re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 9:57am
Long before there was Kristin there was Barbara Cook (by the way Ms. Cook is NOT called Babs!) Remember that Bernstein hand picked ms. Cook for her role in Candide.
Oh and by the way I do like Kristin very much. So please no hate PMs.
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Updated On: 10/14/06 at 09:57 AM
AngusN
Broadway Star Joined: 3/23/05
#9re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 9:59am
Got to be Kristin. That girl could sing the phone book and make it sound beautiful.
Love her!
#10re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 10:05am
*slaps hand to head* I am feel sooo silly. I totally missed that this was Barbara COOK, not Streisand... I still say Kristin 
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
#11re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 10:07am
While Cook has impeccable technique, and a great warmth, there is a texture to her voice that I have always found unappealing.
Kristin.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#12re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 11:13am
Eponine, you should have know from the spelling that it was not Streisand, who leaves out the second "a."
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For to be hopeless would seem so strange.
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#13re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 11:17amI love both. I think Kristin has just benefitted more from the newer vocal techniques. She IS more versatile than Barbara Cook, but back in the day, Cook was the one. You're trying to compare two different generations and two different levels of techniques being taught, which is pretty impossible.
-jess-
"I think every actor on the stage should have a shirt that says,'believe it or not-I'm doing my best.'" -Alan Rickman
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#14re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 11:18am
Like them both. Kristin's stage persona is often of a ruthless comic sharpie and vulnerability does not come easily to her. So I'd give the versatility edge to Barbara Cook. Of course, Cook hasn't given a performance in a Broadway musical since The Grass Harp in 1971, (not including the concert Follies of Carrie in London), so very few of us are able to legitimately compare them as stage performers.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
Updated On: 10/14/06 at 11:18 AM
#15re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 11:19am
*lol* You are quite right, DBillyP
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
#16re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 11:19amI think it's hard to compare, but I'd have to go with Kristin beacuse she's more versatile.
"In theater, the process of it is the experience. Everyone goes through the process, and everyone has the experience together. It doesn't last - only in people's memories and in their hearts. That's the beauty and sadness of it. But that's life - beauty and the sadness. And that is why theater is life." - Sherie Rene Scott
#17re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 11:39amI enjoy Kristin very much, but I would much rather turn on a Cook album or cast recording than a Chenoweth one. I would also rather turn on Follies in Concert then Candide in Concert, etc. etc.
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#18re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 11:44amAlso... forgive me for this, but Kristin is a bit shrill on the higher portions of "Glitter And Be Gay" in the Candide concert. But the number is overstaged, and she has sung it better elsewhere. I fault all of that business she had to do with swinging the pearls. (And Hal Prince's City Opera staging of that number is a thousand times funnier).
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#19re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 11:45am
Duh...
Barabra Cook is a Goddess.
Barbara, Barbara, Barbara.
kjklo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/03
#20re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 11:48amThat this would even be a question (much less the answers being given) is more than a little depressing.
LostLeander
Broadway Star Joined: 3/18/05
#21re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 12:05pm
Cook is a classic and the original.
Chenoweth has yet to prove herself as a real interpreter on songs.
She's funny as hell, but she does lack in the vulnerability. She's yet to show her versatility role wise. They've all been cute funny blondes.
Cook is the original ingenue. Of course, I've never seen her, but even in her recordings she has such a genuine understanding of the songs that shines through.
While I do love Kristin, I must say Cook until further evidence is presented.
Personally, I think I have too much bloom.
#22re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 12:44pm
I would be more likely to compare Kristin to Barbara Harris, seeing as how they are both comic sopranos. And Harris was in the original casts of both The Apple Tree and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, both of which Kristin did.
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Updated On: 10/14/06 at 12:44 PM
#23re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 1:00pm
I can (and I'm guessing many who have posted so far) go on what I hear on cast/concert recordings etc. Based only on "Glitter and Be Gay", the winner for me would have to be Barbara. While Kristin is fanatastic in this song, she is often more shrill in places where Ms. Cook is not.
Both, I think, are beyond fabulous.
kjklo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/03
#24re: Barbara or Kristin?
Posted: 10/14/06 at 1:04pmCook may no longer be performing on Broadway, but, fortunately, we all still have the opportunity to experience her sublime concert appearances.
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