Dean Jones or Larry Kert
Dean Jones or Larry Kert
Dean Jones or Larry Kert#1
Posted: 7/18/07 at 3:46pmWho was a better Bobby in Company? I just listened to the cd the other night and they have both Larry Kert and Dean Jones singing 'Being Alive'. I think Larry has a better voice but there is something about Dean's voice that makes it a little more human. Thoughts?
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#2
Posted: 7/18/07 at 3:47pmDean! I thought Larry Kert was charming, but his performance came across as something that you'd see on a TV sitcom. Dean Jones put real emotion, real angst into the role, especially in "Being Alive." Thank God he's on the album.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#2
Posted: 7/18/07 at 3:50pmI watched the dvd of the making of Company and you can see Dean Jones really getting into it. Larry does have a stronger voice but doesn't the song have a little more emotion due to Dean not being perfect or having a strong voice?
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#3
Posted: 7/18/07 at 3:50pmI prefer Dean's rendition of the songs better than any other Bobby I've listened to.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#4
Posted: 7/18/07 at 3:52pmSame here. He was going through a rough time durring the process of creating Company (that's why he left), but he still would have been great without those problems. He was just damned good.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#5
Posted: 7/18/07 at 3:52pm
Another vote for Dean Jones. He still sang the hell out of it too at the original cast reunion concert for Company around 1994 or so.
Kert probably had the better voice, but Jones gets to the core of that song in a way that I haven't seen equaled.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#6
Posted: 7/18/07 at 3:56pmTo me Dean comes off as actually troubled and in an emotionally pivitol state. While Kert is just a better singer.
Joined: 12/31/69
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#7
Posted: 7/18/07 at 3:59pmWas it Sondheim who said that seeing Dean was like seeing a man having a breakdown on stage. With Larry, it was a star performing the showstopping number.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#8
Posted: 7/18/07 at 4:14pmDenis Jones
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/03
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#9
Posted: 7/18/07 at 4:14pm
Friends saw both.
They said that Larry was very, very good and did a great job, but that Dean utterly broke your heart.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#10
Posted: 7/18/07 at 4:26pmInteresting thread! Based on those two songs on the recording alone, I've always thought Dean had the better voice, but that Larry would have been more "human." Dean Jones was a true male belter -- a rare breed. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Hugh Jackman as someone who comes close to that 150%, all-out, brassy sound that Jones had.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#11
Posted: 7/18/07 at 4:29pm
Dean, I actually love his voice.
He was astounding in the 1994 concert. Being Alive was incredible and he sounded the same.
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#12
Posted: 7/18/07 at 4:30pm
John Raitt could belt with the best of them.
I saw the show with Dean Jones. He was amazing, but I was young and some of the nuances may have slipped past me.
I'd love to have seen Larry Kert in the role.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#13
Posted: 7/18/07 at 4:57pm
Larry.
I was 14 and saw the original production 5 times, once with Dean Jones and 4 times with Larry Kert.
Maybe I was so bowled over by the entire production that Dean Jones made no impression on me. After all, there was Stritch and Barbara Barrie and Donna McKechnie! And that Boris Aronson set!
But each time I saw it after that, I was more and more moved by Larry Kert's performance--and his Being Alive was electrifying.
Years later, I went to see Larry at a now-closed Manhattan cabaret on East 49th Street. I went with my best friend, Reed Jones, who had originated Skimbleshanks in Cats on Broadway. Reed was ill with the Plague and many of our friends were dying or dead, and Larry did "Being Alive" again at the end of his show. The idea of connecting with another human and feeling alive was all the more pointed in the face of death. The emotional impact on the two of us was beyond anything I could describe in this post.
A few years later, Larry himself was dead.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#14
Posted: 7/18/07 at 5:02pm
PalJoey, that is an amazing story! I had a friend who was living in New York in the 60's and 70's and he has for years tried to get me into some of Sondheim's work and I just wasn't interested. He kept telling me how I would LOVE Sondheim's COMPANY. Well, he died last year and when I was going through his stuff he had a brand new cd still in the plastic from COMPANY with a note on it with my name. The note was very emotional.I listened to it and was blown away. He was so right. This man was my mentor. I met him when I was 16 years old. He was 47 but I felt we were both the same age. I kept asking myself why didn't I listen to this when he was still alive? He had more stories about the cast and crew and all things Sondheim than anyone I ever knew. Being Alive is probably one of my favorite Broadway songs and I think of my friend a little everytime I hear it.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#15
Posted: 7/18/07 at 5:11pm
Wow, the past 2 posts are powerful...thank you guys for sharing.
Put my vote in for Dean Jones, he seems to be on the edge of what Bobby was feeling at 35 yrs old and single.
Just my thought.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#16
Posted: 7/18/07 at 9:01pm
Was Dean Jones' "Being Alive" ever video recorded in performance?
Broadway Blog: “When you’re listening to this, try to ignore the lyrics. I know it’ll be difficult, but block them out. They’re not the best. But the tune is beautiful.”
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#17
Posted: 7/18/07 at 9:06pmI think I'm the only person I know who simply cannot even stand to listen to Dean Jones sing.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#18
Posted: 7/18/07 at 10:38pmI've yet to hear Larry Kert's Bobby in full, but out of all the Bobbys I've been able to listen to (David Carroll, Dean Jones, Gaines, Lester, and Esparza--whom I also saw live), no one has been able to truly get me to feel for Bobby as much as Jones. He is also the only one I think actually gets the subtle humor of "Barcelona" without overplaying and at the same time turning the song into a revelatory moment for Bobby. Great actor and singer.
re: Dean Jones or Larry Kert#20
Posted: 7/18/07 at 10:45pmI obviously am not able to judge based on full performances, but I much prefer Dean Jones's version of "Being Alive," and generally really enjoy him on the cast recording.
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