Darren Criss sings "Something's Coming" from WEST SIDE STORY on Glee!- Page 4

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 9/28/11 at 8:59pm

Well, the girls later decide that Kim is the "real" Miss Saigon so it could be Kim.

My reaction was "Well, you're not Asian, so you really can't."

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 9/28/11 at 10:02pm

Okay I just listened to this... Glee has managed to butcher yet another wonderful Broadway song. Simply awful. I don't like his voice at all.

[snl89]

Posted: 9/28/11 at 10:14pm

To clarify, his program was the BFA Theatre - Performance program.

Good to know, good to know :) Though out of curiosity, since I'm still not quite clear, would that be musical theatre or just theatre? haha

Anyway, on Something's Coming:
Upon more listens I've come to really like Darren's version a lot, actually :) I mean I obviously never disliked it, but the more I listen to it the more I find it charming and refreshing. I feel like for people who a very used to the super polished Broadway standard sound, I can understand why it might sound lackluster in comparison. But I actually like what the pop sensibility of his voice brings to it. It makes it sound more youthful and accessible to me in a way. But then, much as I love musical theatre I've always been a big pop music lover too, so that might be part of it- I like the intonation and stuff that he uses. Plus I thought the performance was super cute!

But again, I can understand how it could be polarizing, and how especially people who prefer the really well trained, polished Broadway sound might find it weak in comparison.

Updated On: 9/28/11 at 10:14 PM

[SimplyDeLovely]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 12:09pm

Though out of curiosity, since I'm still not quite clear, would that be musical theatre or just theatre? haha

It's just theatre. Musical Theatre has a separate BFA program, and is it's own department (the two departments are the Dept. of Theatre & Drama and the Dept. of Musical Theatre). Students are welcome to audition for university productions in the other department(s), but quite often, students in the musicals are musical theatre majors, and the plays (with the exception of one all-MT production a year) are usually, but not always, mostly theatre majors (either Performance, Directing, or Theatre Arts).

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 5:54pm

"But again, I can understand how it could be polarizing, and how especially people who prefer the really well trained, polished Broadway sound might find it weak in comparison."

This is very true. On the one hand, you get someone like José Carreras singing Tony's songs, of which I'm not fond as the accent, the age-appropriateness of the color and sound of his voice, among others things, are just off, and then there's Criss and other pop singers on the other whose voices are not quite so technically solid and sound.

I prefer someone who lands somewhat somewhere in the middle like Anthony Warlow and Nathan Gunn, who's sung the "West Side Story" duets in concert before. I also very much like Vittorio Grigolo's versions of Tony's songs from the 2007 studio recording. His accent is present but not as overt as Carreras's with the main difference being Grigolo's lyric tenor sounding healthy and young and appropriate for Tony's age. (Too bad his Maria, Hayley Westenra, was so GD weak in that project.).

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 9:21pm

I think it depends on the song. I don't mind a pop interpretation of "Something's Coming." Singers crooning "Maria" or "A Boy Like That" would be something else again.

It isn't Criss' pop influence that destroys his "Something's Coming," he simply sings the song in a very lifeless manner.