Can Bette's voice handle it?- Page 2

[Kad]

Posted: 2/13/17 at 1:17pm

Dollypop said: "She's not singing Turandot. Dolly only sings 5 songs."

She also has time off-stage, too, which helps.

It's a formidable leading role, sure, but it's not a grueling one.

 

[justoldbill]

Posted: 2/15/17 at 1:08am

If fatigue sets in, she could do the show in a wheelchair- with red sequined fins.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 2/15/17 at 1:21am

finally something funny

[SweetLips]

Posted: 2/15/17 at 2:15am

Rather a meaningless comment from a habitual rambler.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/15/17 at 5:01am

justoldbill said: "If fatigue sets in, she could do the show in a wheelchair- with red sequined fins."

Justoldbill, great comment!



 

[BenjaminNicholas2]

Posted: 2/15/17 at 6:25pm

Her voice isn't the huge issue...  It's her attention span.  

Her Vegas show ended up a bit of a mess, as seen on the live taping.  Instead of filming it when she was fresh and having fun with it, they waited too long.  She looks tired.  She sounds a little rough.  They ended up cutting many of her songs out of the recording, as her voice wasn't exactly what you'd want as a permanent memory.  

I saw her Vegas show many, many times.  I had friends with the run.  The difference between the first year and the last year were night and day.  She was bored and didn't have the professional courtesy to hide it from the audiences.  Consider now how many more shows of Dolly she'll be doing, how much longer the production runs each night...  I worry.

Updated On: 2/15/17 at 06:25 PM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 2/15/17 at 7:51pm

@Benjamin, the human body is a glorious thing but one of its shortcomings is that it is integrated. People can talk all they want about someone's voice, but the body-especially when it has been doing the same thing for more than seven decades-functions as a unit, and when the back aches, or the stomach growls, or you stub your toe, your brain will not line things up as it normally does. When any of these things happen, the voice can suffer. We are not machines and our icons are not immutable. 

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/15/17 at 8:54pm

She has said she wrestled with the decision to take this on. Knew the stakes and liabilities, all voiced here. She's also made it clear she didn't love living in Vegas during that run. Will a NYC life make all of these issues more connected? i.e, will she be happier doing even a grueling schedule in one of her home towns? Speculation, yeah, but then everything about this is. 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 2/15/17 at 10:15pm

@Auggie I agree. We don't know. I just kinda bristle at folks that are over-confident about something they have no way of knowing. I hope she astonishes us all.

[BenjaminNicholas2]

Posted: 2/16/17 at 10:26pm

HogansHero said: "@Auggie I agree. We don't know. I just kinda bristle at folks that are over-confident about something they have no way of knowing. I hope she astonishes us all.

 

"

I never said I hope she fails:  I just have a rather intimate knowledge of the way she worked for a long Vegas run.  I hope, for her sake and for those who see her (or are her fans), that she knocks this one out of the park.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 2/20/17 at 5:28pm

I know this is a bit off topic, but I'm so excited about this show, I'm plotzing!

When the original production opened in 1964, I was a junior in high school. Since then I've graduated high school, attained three college degrees, taught for 36 years, directed countless productions and have been retired for 10 years. The show has been my magnificent obsession since I first saw it. I saw it 73 times after that.

 Now it's coming back in a new production.

Counting the days until March 15th!!!!!!

Thanks for letting me butt in.

Updated On: 2/20/17 at 05:28 PM

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 2/20/17 at 5:38pm

saying she would not have gone forward with this if she couldn't do it is about as meaningless as anything anyone could say:

 

I know this thread is a week old, but seeing as it was bumped...

For the record, seeing as my crystal ball is on the fritz, I thought this was the best answer available to the OP's question...."Can Bette's voice handle it?" - she obviously thinks the answer is "yes!", so that's about all we can say at the moment and that's good enough for me. Her experience in Las Vegas actually makes me even surer that she wouldn't have signed up if she thought she was going to repeat that experience. I imagine the Broadway audiences will be more enthusiastic than the Vegas crowd, whom she has described as half dead.

Updated On: 2/20/17 at 05:38 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/20/17 at 7:13pm

I only know the Vegas show from the filmed performance(s), but a lot of the "I'm so tired" was shtick, pure and simple. I thought it was an ill-advised choice for a running joke, but I didn't think it meant she was actually exhausted.

Moreover, she was onstage almost the entire time, save for costume changes. As others have pointed out, while Dolly is a vehicle role, there are long sections where she is off-stage.

I really don't think the two can be compared.

[RagtimeRay]

Posted: 2/20/17 at 8:22pm

Dolly has six numbers:

I Put My Hand In
Put on Your Sunday Clothes
Motherhood March
Before the Parade Passes By

Hello, Dolly!
So Long, Dearie

Midler's last Broadway outing, just a few years ago, was in a one person show.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 2/20/17 at 9:12pm

OK. One more dose of reality: that TV show was filmed in 2010 or before. It is now 2017. The performance risk at 71 is not the same as it would have been at 64. The actuaries at Mr. Rudin's insurance company can tell you all about that if you care to ask. The issue and thus the uncertainty is not what's in her mind but in her body, and that, as Jay Lerner-Z observes, throws this question into crystal ball territory. And none of us have one.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/21/17 at 10:39pm

Hogan is right that we can't know for sure, but Midler has released numerous albums in the past 7 years and her voice sounds not just fine, but very well supported. I think she knows how to breathe in a way she didn't know in 1976. Of Dolly's six songs, "Before the Parade" is the only really difficult one.

Vocally, she'll be fine. I can predict boredom, but I doubt she can be more bored than Pearl Bailey, who according to legend once started a performance by telling the audience she was too tired to do her costume changes. So she rolled out the rack with all her costumes and said, "Here's what they look like." Then she proceeded to do the show in her street clothes.

I wasn't there. But I've heard the story from numerous sources.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 2/21/17 at 11:44pm

Gaveston, my comments are mostly about non-voice issues rather than the original question. There is a huge infrastructure supporting the voice, but as I said somewhere above, the body is an integrated whole, and what I am articulating is the risk of a problem down the line the impairs the performance, whether manifested through the voice or not.

[haterobics]

Posted: 2/22/17 at 5:33am

RagtimeRay said: "Midler's last Broadway outing, just a few years ago, was in a one person show."

For that show, she sat on a couch for 90 minutes, refuses to even get up, and didn't sing?

[Valentina3]

Posted: 2/22/17 at 12:18pm

GavestonPS said: "I can predict boredom, but I doubt she can be more bored than Pearl Bailey, who according to legend once started a performance by telling the audience she was too tired to do her costume changes. So she rolled out the rack with all her costumes and said, "Here's what they look like." Then she proceeded to do the show in her street clothes.

I wasn't there. But I've heard the story from numerous sources."

 

Someone tell me that's not true, Or rather, tell me it's true and then the whole story, repercussions etc.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/22/17 at 5:36pm

^^^^ As far as I've heard, there were no repercussions. Bailey was selling out. What was Merrick supposed to do?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/22/17 at 5:40pm

HogansHero said: "Gaveston, my comments are mostly about non-voice issues rather than the original question. There is a huge infrastructure supporting the voice, but as I said somewhere above, the body is an integrated whole, and what I am articulating is the risk of a problem down the line the impairs the performance, whether manifested through the voice or not.

 

"

I did understand you, Hogan. You were so articulate on the subject, I just didn't have anything to add.

I used to know people who worked for Midler, but that was 20 years ago. I don't have any inside info on her current health. But she sounds great on recent recordings (yeah, I know about auto-tune, etc.), so the best I can assume is she will have no problem singing six songs per show (only one of which isn't carried in large part by the chorus). But we shall see...

[EthelMae]

Posted: 2/22/17 at 9:31pm

I think Miss Davis will do just fine.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 2/22/17 at 10:30pm

I agree.  With her return to television in Ryan Murphy's highly anticipated mini-series FEUD: Bette & Joan, Ms. Davis' career resurrection is in full swing again and she'll do just fine.  Heck, maybe Ms. Crawford will sub for her on occasion as Dolly Levi Gallagher. 

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 2/23/17 at 12:07am

Just when you think it's about time for those 109 year olds to hang it up, wham, they totally surprise you with what they can do onstage

[A Director]

Posted: 2/23/17 at 2:06am

I don't understand all the worry.  A question that makes more sense is "Can Glenn's voice handle it?"  She couldn't do it the first time and still can't.