Darren Criss sings "Something's Coming" from WEST SIDE STORY on Glee! — Page 3

^ I absolutely love the Tom Waits version, a great example of an "excellent singer" with an "arguably terrible" voice. He sounds so "broken" when he sings it. I would rather hear a great singer over a great voice any day of the week. (Add in everyone from Janis Joplin to Elaine Stritch as examples.) ... although a great singer with a great voice ain't too shabby, either.

But the orchestrations for the Waits version by are probably the best I've ever heard, outside of the original. It was such a surprise to have him cover it on his Blue Valentine album back in 1978.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taeFKIKfnZU

---

Updated On: 9/24/11 at 01:51 PM

PJ, your psychic ability is truly admirable.

---

Criss's version of "Something's Coming" is pleasant, but it bugs me that he sings "If I 'kin' wait" not "can wait". It just seems needlessly lazy in places to me, overall.

---

Speaking slightly off-subject on the Idina/ Lea duet of "Somewhere", I can't wait to see this number in context on Tuesday's show: it would seem that Idina's only there in spirit, which means that for the second verse "There's a time for us..." everyone in the room's just sitting around watching Michele look longingly into the wings while the orchestra plays backup to... nobody?

Both renditions of his songs honor the music as written, as well as the emotional climaxes of the songs as written. The singers make their big notes blossom precisely at the crescendi with the kind of huge emotion Bernstein relished. Are they the perfect voices for the songs? Perhaps not, but he knew all too well how the perfect voices are frequently less exciting. And would he have loved Darren Criss's cute-boy antics, Lea Michele's ambitious-Jewish-girl persona and Idina Menzel's nouvelle-diva aura? Absolutely! 100%! He would have given all three of them big bear hugs, sloppy kisses and then stuck his wet tongue deep into their ears (the true sign of Lenny's affection).

Always happy to see a post referring to details, which I believe is where a lot of the power lies and can completely change the way people perceive a song's meaning. It might also explain why I find recent attempts at re-orchestrating certain shows lamentable and lacking and most don't; nobody gives a crap anymore about the "small things," nuances, color, texture, that inject a certain unmistakable character or mood, identity, evoke images or memories. Or as you pointed out, details that tell us something different but are still in line with the basic elements that maintain the original's integrity.

As for Glee, I don't know enough about it to decide whether the Glee snobs are actually snobs or not, but the only popular criticism I'm in agreement with is the auto tune thing, which has appeared in the majority of their renditions. To their credit, though, it isn't present in "Something's Coming," at least not to these sensitive eardrums.

---

I happen to be a big fan of Darren, and I think he's charming and a very talented person - however, Broadway scores do not suit his voice whatsoever.

He can sell a pop song or his own original music (which is in a pop/singer-songwriter kind of style), but given a legitimate Broadway standard, his voice fails to do the song justice. Normally, what comes across as vivid and enjoyable on a pop tune, comes across as flat, lifeless, and underwhelming. I love Darren, but this version of "Something's Coming" was one of the most painful things I've ever had to listen to - and I saw Matt Cavenaugh thirteen times in the role.

"Somewhere" sounds like a pop power ballad diva off you'd hear at Splash on any given Monday night. Both Lea and Idina bring a much more experienced and wider range to the number, which is something Darren lacks. But, the song is completely destroyed by their over-singing and the odd arrangement, which I concur with the person who said it sounded Wildhorn like.

I'm a huge fan of West Side Story and Glee, but this is an insistence where I feel like Glee should have never done these numbers and left well alone. Do more 'Wicked'. Give Darren "Dancing Through Life" and give Lea "I'm Not That Girl" and call it a day. Leave West Side Story to those who can handle it properly.

---

Updated On: 9/25/11 at 07:54 PM

I'm not speaking for ClumsyDude, but I shouldn't have used the word "flat" to describe Criss on "Something's Coming." "Flat" has a musical meaning and I didn't intend to imply Criss is not on pitch.

I just think his version sounds lifeless, as if he has no idea what he is singing.

Compare to Larry Kert or, more recently, Brian Stokes Mitchell.

(For the record, still not a GLEE hater. I normally like Criss very much.)

I thought Darren Criss was a musical theater graduate from U. of Mich.? Not that that's supposed to mean he's a brilliant singer automatically, but I would have thought he would've learned a thing or two in the vocal technique department. In certain recordings and performances, I do like Criss but the article posted here on BWW that featured clips of him singing some songs at the Rolling Stone offices? Yikes. There's some scary singing right there. But this kid has charisma and good looks and I guess those go a long way in terms of making up for technical vocal deficiencies since time immemorial.

Is this the plot for this season? To produce "West Side Story?" There are no legit sopranos on the show and if, God forbid, Lea Michele has to sing Maria's songs, just end it already.

I thought Darren Criss was a musical theater graduate from U. of Mich.?

He definitely majored in theater at U of Mich, but I'm not sure if he specifically trained in musical theatre or not :) He definitely DID some musical theatre (the Starkid productions) but that was just a fun thing that he and his friends did on the side as a student-produced thing I believe- not formal training.

The impression I get based on interviews and stuff is that he probably did the theatre thing and the music thing (since he's as much a musician/songwriter/composer as he is an actor), and then combined the two more with his friends as a hobby rather than actually training for it.

Again, though, this is just my best guess- I could be wrong and it could be that he did specifically train in musical theatre

Anyway, about those Rolling Stone videos:
He definitely doesn't usually sound like that- that event happened to be right when he'd just gotten back from Coachella and I think he even specifically mentioned at some point around there that he was running on very little sleep, so yeah, that was just a case of his voice being really tired that day :)

His voice definitely isn't always perfect, but it's darn consistently strong in most all his concerts and stuff, unless he's been going and going and is really tired or something (which has happened a few times, especially recently, because the boy seriously does not stop going- sometimes I seriously wonder when he sleeps haha).

This is I think a pretty good representation of what he sounds like on a regular basis just jamming on guitar and stuff (plus it's just a really cute/fun video imo):
http://youtu.be/w6SIoqrsVmc

---

Updated On: 9/27/11 at 02:20 AM

I was a fan of him from his Very Potter Musical and Sequel days. I liked him a lot better in that than I do Glee. And I'm a fan of the song and how he sang it other than belting the last note which I don't think was a good character choice for auditioning for Tony. Although it's Glee so you have to take that into consideration.

was last's night version of 'SOMETHING'S COMING' different than the one posted here earlier?...maybe some fine tuning with background music?...BUT I LOVED IT...Darren knocked it out of the ballpark/theatre so to speak...the other musical numbers left me somewhat cold, but i got all the tingly parts going when Darren sang...

I thought Criss overcompensated for the dullness of the vocal track with highly exaggerated hand gestures. Nonetheless, it would be a rare high school that wouldn't be thrilled to have him as Tony.

And who knows: maybe McKinley is doing the kabuki version of WSS?

I thought Darren Criss was a musical theater graduate from U. of Mich.?

He definitely majored in theater at U of Mich, but I'm not sure if he specifically trained in musical theatre or not :)

To clarify, his program was the BFA Theatre - Performance program. And needless to say, as a student at the university we like to all laugh a bit to ourselves when we see his photo/a feature on him on one of the bulletin boards in the theatre building. And the comment about the student-run theatre group is true. AVPM & AVPS were done through a student group called Basement Arts.