Bernadette Peters As Dot in Sunday..

It's most likely the "Artists are bizarre, fixed, cold, that's you, George, you're biz-AAAAAARE..." in the opening number. And yes, Jenna Russell sings it.

Bernie loves going down to those notes.
Listen to her on
THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A DAME"

Jenna sings the 'BiZZAARRE' on the recording and onstage. And I find that bit quite funny! hehe!

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Audra keeps gravitating toward these "women of the streets" roles (not meaning hookers, but of the lower classes)... and every time she opens her mouth... out pops Julliard. Time and again. It's such a schooled, trained voice, and she can't seem to shake it or affect it enough to be convincing to me. As much as I'm impressed with her abilities.

And it goes against these characters.

I'm glad she finds these women interesting, and she's a hell of a talent and a very good actress...

...but I don't want to see "Mrs. Howell" play a milk maid either.

I remember reading criticisms of Julie Andrews performance in the OBC of My Fair Lady saying the same thing (which probably cost her the Tony)... she was great as the "lady," but as much as she tried, she wasn't very convincing as the "poor flower girl." Most people accepted it because they chose to.

Bernadette was brilliant in the role of Dot. She has such a unique voice and presence on stage. She has this unusual personality that frequently comes across as a little girl playing dress-up, inside a grown-up's body. And for Dot, that worked beautifully in her favor. I still think it's her best work ever, in any medium.

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I think it's simply a choice on her part. Not that she can't, but that she's unwilling to. I refer you to her Down With Love. And actually I can only think of a couple of roles where she plays the types of roles you describe. Only one has actually been in a full production. Dot, MAYBE Sarah (which I enjoyed), and MAYBE Deena, who isn't really a meaty, throaty belty part anyway. I dunno to me it really is a once in a while thing.

I've heard that one of the very few actors who was equally convincing at playing both classes in the role of Eliza Doolittle (in Pygmalion) was Gertrude Lawrence. Many have said that she was completely convincing as a guttersnipe and her transformation to an elegant refined lady was apparently remarkable.

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best12bars, i cant agree with you more about Ms. Moorehead she was a fine actress and i always believed her. I also thought Bette Davis did an excellent job in Now, Voyager and Of Human Bondage playing both ends of class.

In the 1936 film,Wendy Hiller play a great Eliza Doolittle too.Miss Davis's change from a dirty poor old woman to a lady in 1961 remake Pocketful of Miracles is a really shock.

I think since it's a musical it doesn't necessarily matter what they sound like when they sing. Can poor people not have naturally gorgeous voices? I think if the way it's written calls for gritty singing, then fine. Audra will never do Effie, or Jenny, I dont know.. Eponine. We like to see those roles with gritty, harsh singing. She's too much a technician to do that, though she does say she oversings in passionate times.

I haven't heard Audra's Dot, but I'm sure it's QUITE different from Bernadettes, and I'm willing to guess that it works in a completely different way that Bernadette's worked.

I would love to see Audra get (another) crazy diva role.

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Especially since Chita not only won over Bernedette, but also over Liza Minelli. I have to say it might have been a pay-back Tony. She's been nominated so many times and at the point it was her first win. Not that she wasn't spectacular.

I got the new "Sunday in the Park with George" CD this week. I really like it. A lot of people were complaining about the Cockney accent of Dot but it didn't bother me. Bernadette spoke with an accent too.

Well Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams also