HELP! - Need Opinions on BEST Diva Songs!

[Broadway Bob*]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 3:07pm

I am starting to plan a benefit concert for my local theater for the fall. The concept behind it is that women say men get the best roles in theater, but I say women get the best SONGS! (ie the Nathan Lane/Gregory Hines duet from the 1995 Tony Awards.) So I would like everyone's opinions on what they thing the BEST ever diva songs from musicals are. Please list your top 3 choices or so. Thanks for the help!


B*

[broadway122]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 3:29pm

Diva's Lament is the first that comes to my mind.

[I<3bway]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 3:35pm

And I am telling you I'm not going- Dreamgirls

[blondebaby589]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 3:44pm

Any song sung by any role that Patti has played.

[TheatreFreak05]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 3:50pm

Rose's Turn
Anything Goes

Maybe Rainbow High from Evita?

[dramatothemax]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 3:52pm

Glitter and Be Gay (Candide), Everybody's Girl (Steel Pier)

Look at the Leading Ladies Concert DVD haha

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 5:57pm

"I Just Want to Be a Star" from Nunsense.

Or, an oldie, but still a goodie, "Art Is Calling Me" from The Enchantress. Especially if you have somebody with a more legit voice as opposed to a belter.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 6:24pm

And I Am Telling You from Dreamgirls

What I Did For Love from A Chorus Line

Memory from Cats

(Diva songs are like Lays potato chips, no one can eat just one)

Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music

Cabaret and Maybe This Time from Cabaret

All That Jazz from Chicago

With One Look and As If We Never Said Goodbye from Sunset Boulevard

People from Funny Girl

I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady

I'm Still Here from Follies

Ladies Who Lunch from Company

There's No Business Like Show Business from Annie Get Your Gun

[whatever2]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 7:11pm

OMG ... gotham! i've totally adored everything you've ever posted -- til now. =:o

that list ... really?

most of those are songs sung by divas, but decidedly NOT diva songs. one needs to have attained diva status with the real b*llbusters (e.g., And I Am Telling You) before they can assume permission to divatize a ballad like "Send In the Clowns".

If we're trying to *make* a diva, that's a seriously random list ...

my $0.02.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 7:16pm

Lot's Wife - Caroline, or Change
Back to Before - Ragtime
The Ladies Who Lunch - Company

[madbrian]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 7:18pm

As Long As He Needs Me from Oliver
Don't Rain On My Parade from Funny Girl
Everything's Coming Up Roses from Gypsy

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 9:15pm

"one needs to have attained diva status with the real b*llbusters (e.g., And I Am Telling You) before they can assume permission to divatize a ballad like "Send In the Clowns".

Define "diva". Dame Judi Dench sang Send in the Clowns in the London revival and performed it better than anyone else before or since. (And that hack Barbra Streisand also performed it on one of her Broadway albums).

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 9:36pm

Goth, I thought your list was great.

Unless one is defining "diva song" as "barn-burner" (which I don't), I thought you nailed it.

[Sauja]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 9:53pm

I vote for Meadowlark and Colored Lights. I was woefully unaware of the latter until hearing Julia Murney sing the pants off it at that Kander and Ebb benefit "Come to the Cabaret" a few months back. Breathtaking.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 10:12pm

I'm inclined to say The Music and the Mirror, but I don't think it'd work without the dancing. =P

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 10:16pm

"As If We Never Said Goodbye" from Sunset Boulevard?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 10:17pm

"I'm inclined to say The Music and the Mirror, but I don't think it'd work without the dancing."

Yeah, that's why I didn't include it. It's not going to show up on Nana Mouskari Sings The Divas.

[whatever2]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 10:35pm

> define diva

not sure (it's a little like the i'll-know-it-when-i-see-it definition for pornography) ... but isn't "Dame" just "diva" in british english?

maybe it's just a vague question. but, seriously: if the question is, "what are good songs for a diva to sing?" then i stand down. but if it's "what are good songs for making a diva?" (which, possibly incorrectly, is how i took it), then some of those songs just aren't on the roadmap to divadom.

the dench example kind of makes the point -- singing "send in the clowns" didn't make judi a diva ... being sung by judi granted "send in the clowns" entry into the canon.

not sure that made it a whole lot clearer, but divas get a different repertoire than aspiring divas. oooh ... that makes more sense -- i'll go with that. final answer.

Updated On: 6/23/09 at 10:35 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/23/09 at 10:37pm

Diva pretty much means goddess.

It's originally an opera term, I believe.

[ladybegood]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 6:44am

One of the greatest archetyal diva songs ever has surely got to be "With One Look" from "Sunset Boulevard"!

[Broadway Bob*]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 9:15am

Great suggestions and thoughts. Please keep them coming. And to clarify... they don't necessarily have to be "diva" songs, just the greatest ecamples of songs that are sung by females in musicals. It's just the best songs tend to be (but are NOT exclusively) "diva" oriented either meaning big and belty OR sung by a legendary actress.

Thanks again! This is helping more than you could possibly know!

[SingingCats]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 10:53am

Anything Goes and Everything's Coming Up Roses.

[[tos]fan999]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 7:07pm

"I Can Cook Too" from On The Town
"Always True To You (In My Fashion)" from Kiss Me, Kate
"Maybe This Time" from Cabaret
...and I love the medley of "I'm The Greatest Star/Secondhand Rose/Don't Rain on My Parade" that Streisand does on her Timeless album.