Best Joanne?

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 4:47pm

Joanne in Company is a tricky part.
I feel like Stritch and LuPone were brilliant because of their abrasive tone. A friend argues that neither brought emotional depth to the role. What do you all think?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 8:52pm

I never saw Stritch but love her in the cast recording of course and she's iconic in the role. I saw both Barbara Walsh and Patti LuPone live, and while I enjoyed both, LuPone simply blew me away (and I'm admittedly not a huge LuPone fan, not necessarily a detractor though). I disagree that she didn't bring "emotional depth" to the role, if anything, her performance was full of layers. I mean, she didn't break down crying in the middle of her monologue or song if that's what your friend expected, but the role doesn't call for it and she managed to bring out emotion in more subtle (can't believe I'm using that word to refer to LuPone) ways. Her "Ladies Who Lunch" was not only a powerhouse that stopped the show, but it was a deeply layered number that revealed Joanne's bitterness, vulnerabilities, and pain but also her incredible intelligence and perception which I think is what makes her stand out from the rest of Bobby's friends. Easily one of my favorite musical performances. Walsh was good but I so disliked John Doyle's production that I can't rate her as "the best" Joanne, but then again that's such a subjective status.

[madbrian]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 9:15pm

Stritch and LuPone are both love-'em-or-hate-'em performers; I can't imagine too many folks on this board can be objective when comparing them. That said, I never saw Stritch in character, though I've seen her perform Joanne's songs. I was very disappointed in LuPone's take on Ladies Who Lunch at the Sondheim birthday concert, but she was much better in the Company show. To me, it seems like LuPone started the song, and Joanne finished it.

[Porter2]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 9:21pm

I never saw Stritch but love her in the cast recording of course and she's iconic in the role. I saw both Barbara Walsh and Patti LuPone live, and while I enjoyed both, LuPone simply blew me away

I feel the same way about Stritch. (I actually didn't like Walsh that much, but I didn't HATE her). Patti's performance of " The Ladies Who Lunch" gave me more goosebumps than her stunning version of "Everything's Coming Up Roses."

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 1:53am

I enjoy Barbara Walsh's way of singing "A toast to that invincible bunch/The dinosaurs surving the crunch" the best. As for the rest of the song, I like Elaine's the best. For me, Ms. Walsh isn't far behind Ms. Stritch, though. Although I'm wondering if I like the 2006 Revival version because of the piano and not because of the vocalist. I still need to see LuPone's Joanne, so I can't judge her performance.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 2:49am

Is this even a legitimate question?

As much as I enjoyed LuPone in the concert version, Stritch is iconic in this role.

[peerrjb]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 5:05am

I saw Vivian Blaine as Joanne at the (then)Alvin Theatre in December 1971. I'd seen Ms. Stritch in the Nat'l Tour earlier that year, which was a delight.

Ms. Blaine was stunning. A total person, not just a presence above the mass. Joanne was suddenly the New York woman caught between her own rock and Bobby's hard place, so to speak; the never-shuts-up bitchy clublady so well described in the song. And her "Little Things" was priceless.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 1:25pm

Personally, I think Stritch is iconic as well. I honestly prefer Walsh over LuPone. In a way Lu Pone is Joanne, so I feel like it's kind of a sleep walk for her.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 1:31pm

I saw Vivian Blaine as well. I also saw Jane Russell. While I agree that Vivian Blaine's "Little Things" was funny, I don't think either of them gave as devastating a performance as Stritch did.

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 2:10pm

Tracie Thoms

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 2:12pm

Kelly Bishop.


Oh, she hasn't played Joanne? Then probably Stritch, followed by LuPone and Walsh.

Updated On: 7/11/11 at 02:12 PM

[shrekster224]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 4:00pm

Darn, you beat me to saying Tracie Thoms, historyboy.

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 5:29pm

If I had a nickel.

[aliceidinabernadette]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 5:31pm

Another vote for Walsh. While I've only seen LuPone and Walsh (neither live, unfortunately, Walsh on the DVD, LuPone in the screening), I chose Walsh because she was with it the whole show, every time I looked at her, she was Joanne. Her voice suited the role perfectly, in both her big solos and just her lines in full cast numbers. Yes, LuPone's "Ladies Who Lunch" was very good, I felt that she was just waiting for her big moment during everything up until that point.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 5:50pm

Jane Russell. She was my first Joanne.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 6:05pm

Maybe not the best, but I saw Liz Robertson (Catherine Parr to Alan Jay Lerner's Henry VIII) in the role and she did a very different take on it: much more exposed emotional vulnerability than the role usually receives. I was expecting her to be totally miscast and was very pleasantly surprised.

I'm excited to find out who's going to be playing Joanne to Daniel Evans' Bobby later this year.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 6:50pm

Stritch is incomparable on disk and videotape. Although I saw Jane Russell on Bway, Stritch will always be Joanne in my head.

But I thought Lupone made the role entirely her own. I loved how she actually noticed that "Ladies" has a Latin beat (something Joanne would know). Watching the recent concert film for the third time I was reminded how I first noticed Lupone as a fine actress (in "Robber Bridegroom" and "Working") before I ever really noticed she could sing.

[grandpianoalex]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 7:47pm

iDinA mEnZel iz dA bEsT EvaRRRRR!!!

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 10:07pm

Saw Stritch many times, and although she could be amazing, this was still during the period of heavy drinking, and there were nights when her "Ladies Who Lunch" sequence scared me, because I wasn't sure she would make it. Jane Russell brought a sultry, sexy quality that Stritch did not, and Vivian Blaine was sharp and sang very well. Also saw Karen Mason, in a great production at Huntington in Boston with Davis Gaines, and a great younger actress, Jane Wasser, in a small off-Broadway production, and each of them brought something new to the role. Neither Debra Monk nor Barbara Walsh were special or well cast, but Patti Lupone was surprisingly good in the recent concert. The best? I guess Stritch when she was on top of it

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 10:37pm

Kelly Bishop would have made a good Joanne.

Did anyone see Donna McKechnie in the production with Norm Lewis? I'm curious what she (who doesn't seem acerbic at all) did with the role.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 10:47pm

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 10:52pm

Me

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 11:14pm

I'm surprised that nobody has said Anna Kendrick.

[budfrump]

Posted: 7/12/11 at 12:21am

I havn't seen Elaine but I saw the filmed version of Patti and Barbara and of course listened to the original recording, and I think I like Elaine the most.
It's iconic.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 7/12/11 at 12:23am

It's not a contest...