Glenn Close?

She didn't steal Norma away from Patti. I think Patti even says in her book that Glenn may not have known what went down between Patti and the Really Useful Group. She was likely not made aware.

I do agree, though. Glenn isn't the best singer, but she acted the hell out of that role and really made the show look a lot better than it was.

Updated On: 7/17/12 at 03:06 AM

I dont get in either. Barbara Cook she aint, but still her voice is beautiful and more importantly she can act the role like nobody else can and that is what any great musical performer must be able to do. Glenn Close is a phenomenal actress, probably the greatest of her generation.

Glenn was a fantastic Norma and probably the best of all of them on Broadway, although I was very partial to Elaine Paige, who was wonderful.

The ones who say she can't sing are -- surprise, surprise -- the LuPone obsessives who can't get over what happened and hate anyone who dares to take on a role that Patti has done previously (cf. comments about Elena Roger in Evita). One particular fanatic I knew of online wanted every show Patti had done to be permanently shut down and never open again unless Patti was in it. No joke.

I agree with Scorpion. The Close Norma (and the Paige) had a twinkle in her eye. She didn't play the end all evening, as some did. She made Norma comic, buoyant, a good time. And she gave the character what Swanson gave her -- an inherent "size" and theatricality. She was always on, her life was presentational. That made her 2nd act descent a much steeper fall, and heartbreaking. People sometimes forget that the role is demanding, yet doesn't have a lot of long scenes. It requires strong choices, nailing the point of every scene. Buckley certainly sang it well, but started as a victim (the dead monkey she made almost too much of). That absence of 'twinkle' is a pitfall. If the actress feels sorry for Norma, look out.

Close's vocals were small, but having seen her in LA and NYC, I noticed her growth and and they were spot-on, in character, and musically very pleasing. She sang everything -- no speaking -- and genuinely stopped the show. And her performance of the defining "New Ways to Dream" is by far the best. She got inside the song in a way no one else did. And when she played the silent movie moments, she was mesmerizing. A fearless performance.

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Updated On: 7/17/12 at 07:58 AM

I saw her twice on stage: Barnum and Sunset Blvd. I was entranced each time.


I miss the days when shows would cast folks like Close - maybe not a singer I'd ever want and album of, but an actor that made you believe because they sang the part as the CHARACTER. I'd rather have that, then a beautiful voice without character. ANY DAY.

(I admit, that I was always an actor that sang vs a singer that acts, myself.)

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Me too Mama....i can sing, but not like the big boys/girls.

It wasn't a big hit, but Allisn Janney was from the same "actor who sings" mold in 9 to 5. I'm sure you remember people actually thought she might snag the TONY Award from Alice that year.

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You don't have to be Patti-obsessed to want a great actress with an amazing voice who's right for the role in your Norma. I'm not Patti-obsessed, in fact from what I can tell Glenn's Norma was a lot better than hers, because Close did act it so well and was right for the role. But I can separate all of that from an objective critique of Close's voice. Which I'm not a fan of.

Now Buckley! That's a Norma!

Updated On: 7/17/12 at 09:08 AM

I've seen 3 Normas: LuPone, Buckley and Clark.

Auggie is absolutely right about Buckley's performance -- thrilling vocals but not much else. It made for a dreary evening.

I saw LuPone in London the week that the whole Glenn Close thing went down. I don't know what was going on backstage ( I haven't read LuPone's book ) but LuPone's performance that night was one of the most touching, vulnerable performances I've ever seen her give, hitting all the right notes from beginning to end -- and I don't mean just vocally.

I saw Clark on tour in San Francisco, and she was my favorite -- funny, touching, sad, very much in the Swanson mold of Normas. And she sang the hell out of it.

For whatever that's all worth.

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Castle raises an excellent point: Close was at the top of her career in films (this was on the heels of FATAL ATTRACTION and DANGEROUS LIAISIONS). She was a true star, and that component absolutely informed her Norma. This was movie folk playing movie folk, Close's stage roots notwithstanding. I remember her entrance (I saw it first in LA). Her presence provided an electric sense of the occasion, of a star at a personal peak, and the her casting exemplified the impact of star on role and story. It's a mysterious alchemy, star and role, but it's palpable and it contributed. Lloyd Webber is no fool (!) and clearly made the right call. People shout "unfair!" should remember that it's a business, not a sporting event. Close's entire run was sold out, except for her absences. She won the Tony. I don't think in hindsight anyone regrets the casting decision(s).

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Updated On: 7/17/12 at 11:43 AM

"No one should have to go through that."

I suppose, but they do if they're in show business. I remain fascinated by the widespread belief that Lupone being disinvited to continue on Broadway after almost a year in London is a catastrophe. She's a Juilliard trained actor, she'd been in the business, won a Tony, Olivier, been a star in London. And so a bigger movie star was chosen for Broadway. Disappointment? Sure. Something to piss you off royally? Absolutely. But tragedy? I simply don't see it. Why didn't she suffer in private and rise above? Sue Lloyd Webber, fine. She was paid off, handsomely. But get back to work and get over a sense of entitlement and above all else victimization.

I'm in the minority -- and I'm a Lupone fan -- but I've always thought Lupone's nervous breakdown was a bigger comment on Lupone's fragile sense of self than Lloyd Webber's treachery. (Gee, a theatrical mogul is out for himself; devastating realization!) And her memoir only proves a striking lack of perspective on the very business she's chosen for herself. Twenty-some years later, oh, how she still wants us to understand how she suffered. I find all of her kvetching about this revealing, but about Lupone's discomfort with the realities of her profession, not the duplicity on SUNSET.

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Updated On: 7/17/12 at 11:59 AM

I'm always reminded of Paxton Whitehead's quip when Glenn Close was first gaining lots of recognition:

"Glenn Close? That's not a name; it's an address."

Ooh. Somebody post the one of her and the cigar!

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