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Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

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#1

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 7/3/16 at 7:29pm

I adore Billy Porter. He is truly one of my favorite performers of all time. But I'm just curious, did he ever have nodes or vocal damage? He doesn't sound bad by any means, I just notice his tone is more raspy in his more recent projects than when is he was belting out Beauty School Dropout back when. I'm just wondering what could be the reason for this, or if I am just hearing things differently.

Updated On: 7/3/16 at 07:29 PM

#3

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 7/3/16 at 8:52pm

Billy Porter played Teen Angel in the 1994 Broadway revival of GREASE! over 20 years ago so yes, his tone was clearer and smoother back then. Vocalists' vocal cords mature and are strengthened thru years of performing so for obvious reasons, Billy's voice is a bit fuller these days.



Of note is Barbra Streisand. Her voice and tone was quite raw and nasally pre-FUNNY GIRL. If you listen to her early (1963) recordings, especially the 1962 Original Broadway Cast Recording of I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, there definitely was a change in her voice in those 2 years. By the time she did FUNNY GIRL (1964) her voice became more polished and fuller in those few years of recording and performing continuously.

#4

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 7/3/16 at 9:04pm

He definitely has vocal damage, his upper register is extremely weak at this point. The end of his number in Shuffle Along was honestly painful.

#5

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 7/3/16 at 9:42pm

perfectlymarvelous said: "He definitely has vocal damage, his upper register is extremely weak at this point. The end of his number in Shuffle Along was honestly painful.



"

I understand that the voice changes as time goes on, and I'm sure some of his raspiness now is from that, but I was revisiting some of his old Broadway.com vlogs from his INCREDIBLE run at Kinky Boots, and the moment that struck me the most was when they were recording the cast album, and at times his voice seemed to be cutting in and out while recording some of the songs. Obviously he was exhausted because of previews, but it seemed like more than that.

#6

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 7/3/16 at 9:56pm

Voices do change as time goes on, but if you listen to other singers around his age who are still working it's pretty clear that it's more than just aging with him. The raspiness and breathiness in his upper register sounds SO drastically different from 20 years ago and that type of deterioration doesn't usually occur if a person is vocally healthy.

#7

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 7/3/16 at 10:25pm

I remember reading an interview with Porter in which he said that acid reflux had caused him to have persistent vocal issues in recent years.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#8

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 7/3/16 at 11:02pm

perfectlymarvelous said: "He definitely has vocal damage, his upper register is extremely weak at this point. The end of his number in Shuffle Along was honestly painful.



"

He described in an interview how he got acid reflux around the time of 9/11 and how his voice changed since then. He was astounding in Kinky Boots though, and I disagree with your assessment of his Shuffle Along number. It may not have been vocally pristine, but he sold it and it was amazing.

#9

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 7/3/16 at 11:47pm

AC126748 said: "I remember reading an interview with Porter in which he said that acid reflux had caused him to have persistent vocal issues in recent years.



"

Found the article! Thanks. That makes total sense. Acid reflux is scary **** for singers.

#10

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 7/4/16 at 2:13am

I really LOVE his Lowdown Blues in Shuffle Along...wish there would be a recording of him doing it.

#13

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 3/10/17 at 10:19am

He was definitely having some vocal problems when they recorded the Actor's Fund staging of Dreamgirls. Still really good, but you could tell he was struggling

#14

Billy Porter's Voice Then and Now

Posted: 3/10/17 at 10:24am

Speaking simply technically, yes, Porter ravaged his voice with years of bad technique. A similar thing can be said of Alice Ripley and Tonya Pinkins, but blame for their damage must be shared by Tom Kitt and Jeanine Tesori, who wrote scores for them that encouraged bad technique.

I, too, was very concerned for him during his big Shuffle Along number; he tried to hide the fact that he couldn't handle it vocally by employing a distracting and elaborate physicalization, but the voice just wasn't there.

Updated On: 3/10/17 at 10:24 AM

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