Fantasia to Announce Color Purple Stint on Idol Tonight — Page 3

<< Her acting wasn't that wonderful either. >>

Not sure how you can judge her "acting" when she is simply singing one of the songs from the show.

And let's not forget that she is not taking the stage with the rest of the cast until April. She will have plenty of rehearsal time.

Personally, I thought she sang the heck out of the song !

I will reserve judgement on how she acts the part until I see her on stage as Celie.

(Hopefully, she will be doing the Sat Matinees, because thats what I have tix for)

hmm... i was actually impressed with her version if I'M HERE at the beginning... but then... as the song progressed... i just didn't care for her anymore... in fact she just got annoying and just looked like she was trying to show off instead of sing... but i'm going to own that up to the fact that this was a performance just for American Idol and not the actual version that is going to be in the broadway show... but still... here's that her acting is MUCH better then the Lifetime movie she starred as herself in

Well the good news is that there will be no "yeah yeahs" in the Broadwway version.

I must admit to NOT being a fan of hers, so I had a very negative attitude as she took the stage on Idol last night. However, and it pains me to say this, I thought her performance was pretty good. Looked like she might have been a little under-rehearsed, since she was looking back at the band a lot. Also, was she wearing braces, because her 's' sounds came out like 'sh'. Maybe she can do Hello Dolly after The Color Purple?

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Agree about the jumping around, but we need to keep in mind that she was performing in the round, with the band behind her, probably limited rehearsals, and with no direction. She may just be able to pull this off...

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She must have negotiated quite a deal. In the television spots airing on NBC here in New York during TODAY this morning, it appears that she scored "Starring, Fantasia" credit directly under the title and in the same font as (roughly 50% the size of) the title. My guess is that given the size of the theatre, the weekly nut, and what I know of the other top actresses in New York right now, she's likely scored a weekly contract of $50K+ for her run.

Why, pray tell, is the "theatre community" so adamantly against The Color Purple? I'm very curious...

Also, it wouldn't make sense for Audra to be cast as Celie, who is dark-skinned.
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No need to worry sidjones09...

The producers don't like Audra so she won't be joining the cast any time soon. Besides, they almost enjoy the fact that the theatre community doesn't like their show even though it cost them at the Tonys. It puts them in a position of power for they feel this is in part due to racism. (Disclamer, I do not at all feel this is the case)

As for Fantasia, she may have a solid fan base but I don't think it is one partial to Broadway.

Updated On: 2/23/07 at 12:30 PM

I was mildly receptive to her interpretation of the song until she took a breath in the middle of the word "tallest." Big no-no, and something that bugs me to no end.

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Doodle: I assume she worked with someone (voice coach, pianist, musical director) to learn the song, no? So even if she hasn't had any formal training, one of those individuals should have caught the "tallest" problem. And I certainly hope that whomever she works with to prepare for Broadway gets her to fix it.

I've actually never heard LaChanze's version in its entirety, so I can't compare the two. I just know that the "tallest" error, plus some other technical issues really turned me off. I have studied voice and can often be too critical when it comes to technique, but breathing in the middle of words is a giant pet peeve!

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She's going to get so much rehearsal between now and April 10th that there is no way she won't be decent. Oprah will not let this casting fail.
Where she's going to run into trouble is doing 8 shows per week for six months. With as out of breath as she seemed after one song, she's going to need to be in better shape to get through the whole show.

Lord knows I'm one of the first people that would seem to jump on the anti-Fantasia bandwagon, but her performance of "I'm Here" was absolutely fantastic.

I'm sure that she's not going to perform it like that in the show...it was a little more R&B due to the nature of the performance. The song was cut and sliced to sound like a single, rather than a musical number from a play.

It's too early to judge her acting talents or vocal capability, but from that clip, she is 100% capable and really knocked my socks off. If nothing else, they just sold one more ticket.

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