Best Fantine on record...

[Unknown User]

Best Fantine on record...#0

Posted: 9/4/05 at 5:14am

Just wondering what everybody thinks- I've got a couple of "Les Miz" c.d.'s, and I kind of like what Debra Byrne does with it on the symphonic recording. Oh, I don't know...

[CastAlbumFan]

re: Best Fantine on record...#1

Posted: 9/4/05 at 5:32am

Randy Graff will always be my favorite Fantine. She's the first Fantine I've heard on a recording, and I've always liked her work in other shows like CITY OF ANGELS.

Praying Decca Broadway will put "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" on CD!

[JoMarch]

re: Best Fantine on record...#2

Posted: 9/4/05 at 6:05am

Anyone but LuPone. She sounds like she's on valium on the OLC recording.

[stage_door76]

re: Best Fantine on record...#3

Posted: 9/4/05 at 6:11am

ah...

is there really any competition here?

clearly, ms. ruthie henshall takes the cake as the most vocally capable fantine. not to mention her stunning acting performance. she is a sure fired star.

definitely the best fantine. ever.

"...But Kungurtseva reels off multiple fouettes and the tape is stopped so she can take a bow. The Jester, an abomination introduced to Swan Lake in Soviet times, extorts applause from the audience. The cuts don't help the storytelling, the production is bare bones and they go for the '50s-style happy ending. The audience cheers like mad at the end. It's the Russian ballet, after all..."

[ShbrtAlley44]

re: Best Fantine on record...#4

Posted: 9/4/05 at 6:20am

I agree, Ruthie Henshall.

[stage_door76]

re: Best Fantine on record...#5

Posted: 9/4/05 at 6:29am

yes, i agree with me too


RUTHIE IS THE BEST!

"...But Kungurtseva reels off multiple fouettes and the tape is stopped so she can take a bow. The Jester, an abomination introduced to Swan Lake in Soviet times, extorts applause from the audience. The cuts don't help the storytelling, the production is bare bones and they go for the '50s-style happy ending. The audience cheers like mad at the end. It's the Russian ballet, after all..."

[adamgreer]

re: Best Fantine on record...#6

Posted: 9/4/05 at 8:31am

I also agree. It's definitely Ruthie. She's my favorite overall Fantine as well, and I never even saw her live.

[Jon]

re: Best Fantine on record...#7

Posted: 9/4/05 at 8:40am

I agree with Henshall. Graff is to Broadway brassy, LuPone is just a mess.

[Elizabeth_DeBris]

re: Best Fantine on record...#8

Posted: 9/4/05 at 9:12am

Ruthie Henshall, but in all fairness: I've never seen any of them perform live (I have the Tenth Anniversary Concert DVD, though, for Henshall).

[lamentingenvelope]

re: Best Fantine on record...#9

Posted: 9/4/05 at 9:20am

RUTHIE LOVE!!

With Debbie Byrne a second. However Debbie is without a doubt my favorite Grizabella in Cats.

[Gingersnap]

re: Best Fantine on record...#10

Posted: 9/4/05 at 9:36am

Count this as another vote for Ruthie! So far, she's my favorite...and one of the few I've bothered to remember by name.

Patti LuPone...though I like her in other things...did nothing for me as Fantine (and Fantine is my favorite female character in the show)...she didn't seem fragile enough.

http://www.hugh-panaro.net

[wickedrentq]

re: Best Fantine on record...#11

Posted: 9/4/05 at 9:40am

Also gotta go w/ ruthie. I also haven't seen the big ones live, but in terms of who is my fav to listen to, it's definitely her.

"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli

[hannahshule]

re: Best Fantine on record...#12

Posted: 9/4/05 at 10:13am

Ruthie

~And let us try, before we die, to make some sense of life~

[Benzy92]

re: Best Fantine on record...#13

Posted: 9/4/05 at 10:33am

RUTHIE.

[WickedGeek28]

re: Best Fantine on record...#14

Posted: 9/4/05 at 10:41am

Fantine was my favorite when I first got into Les Mis. I had the OBC so my first was Randy, whom I later saw in Fiddler but didn't get to talk to her about it , but Ruthie is great as well.

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird

[SayWhyNot]

re: Best Fantine on record...#15

Posted: 9/4/05 at 10:47am

Sorry. Gotta say Patti LuPone. She was the first _I_ had heard and I was floored by the song and the voice. I guess it's a lot about the first time we hear (and re-hear and re-hear) a particular voice in a particular song. 'Never heard Ruthie Henshall, but I can only imagine . . . . .

[Elphie]

re: Best Fantine on record...#16

Posted: 9/4/05 at 10:58am

Ruthie Henshall!!!!

"They hear drums. We hear music."

[Teeny Todd]

re: Best Fantine on record...#17

Posted: 9/4/05 at 11:25am

yeah, me too. ruthie henshall.

[softershade]

re: Best Fantine on record...#18

Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:41pm

Jumping on the bandwagon here: Ruthie!

[Mother's Younger Brother]

re: Best Fantine on record...#19

Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:48pm

In English? Ruthie, by a long shot.

Otherwise, Louise Pitre on the Paris cast is my favorite.

[Sant]

re: Best Fantine on record...#20

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:25pm

Ruthie Henshall.

[EponineThenardier]

re: Best Fantine on record...#21

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:38pm

Ruthie. (as on Record)

not on record Joanna Ampil, Jayne Paterson and Carmen Cusack as phonomennal(sp?) as well

[melissa errico fan]

re: Best Fantine on record...#22

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:02pm

Patti

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

re: Best Fantine on record...#23

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:05pm

You gotta go with the actress Cameron Mackintosh chose for the dreamcast himself: Ms.Ruthie Henshall! Both of her major songs "I Dreamed a Dream" and "Fantine's Death" are so touching!

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

[BSoBW2]

re: Best Fantine on record...#24

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:10pm

Rose Laurens.