Highest and Best Broadway Belters- Page 2

[NYCbabe3789]

Posted: 6/13/04 at 7:17pm

Nancy Opel is Penny on the OBCR of Urinetown.

[Blonde]

Posted: 6/13/04 at 7:20pm

thank you! :)

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 6/13/04 at 7:39pm

Sherie Rene Scott belts pretty high in The Last 5 Years, as does Kaitlin Hopkins in Bat Boy (especially the end of Three Bedroom House; it gives me chills )

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 6/13/04 at 7:44pm

Carolee Carmello kicked Nancy Opel's ass in Urinetown. Particularly in "Privilege to Pee."

[boborunstheshow]

Posted: 6/13/04 at 7:44pm

Geeze, this just adds to my list people that im going to have to spend time researching. Ill never catch up...


bytheway: I loooove Kerry Butler

[Gypsy2]

Posted: 6/13/04 at 7:46pm

Put Eden Espinosa on that list as well. Don't you dare base all you judgements on that one time when she sang Defying Gravity on Seth's Broadway Chatterbox, because she's sang more than just that, adn she can belt the **** out of just about anything. Just you wait until Brooklyn comes out before you try to prove me wrong.

[ponine24601]

Posted: 6/13/04 at 8:19pm

eden rules! she deserves more than an honorable mention. That girl can SING!

[mallardo]

Posted: 6/13/04 at 8:30pm

ShbrtAlley44, I'm with you. Carolee Carmello nailed me to the back wall with that last note in "Privilege".

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 9:09am

I'd have to add Rachel York to this list. Witness her "Lovely" on "Putting It Together" where she sings her last note a la Julie Andrews in "Le Jazz Hot." Then there's "Kiss Me, Kate." Her duet with that bird in the title song at the opening of Act II hits the stratosphere. She has a 3 and a half octave range, and she has power at every note. She gets my vote as the next "Evita."

Posted: 6/14/04 at 9:57am

Kerry Butler did not perform at the Actors' Fund Chess Benefit Concert.

[Jamie Hat]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:01am

Lauren Kennedy. Don't count her out. She was the original Cathy in L5Y. (When her name was still Kathleen)

[twogaab2]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:03am

Ethel Merman, Susan Johnson, and Karen Morrow (and she still is).

[TheBalladeer]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:10am

I definitely think that Kerry Butler should have been on this list. She is an incredible singer, and belter. I also agree about Nancy Opel in Urinetown....WOW. She gave me chills singing "Priveledge to Pee".

As for Kaitlin Hopkins in Bat Boy, although I thought her singing in "Three Bedroom House" was incredible, I think her singing in that song was an example of "very convincing mixing". I don't think she belted that note at the end of the song...it was more of a mix.

Cheers,
The Balladeer

[divanut]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:13am

Oh... yeah. I always get the names Kerry Butler and Sutton Foster confused. Don't know why. Sutton Foster was in the Chess concert.

There is a lot of talk of Susan Johnson, and I am ignorant. People loved her. What was her best singing in?

[robbiej]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:28am

It took until page 2 to get to Susan Johnson????

For shame, children. For shame!

Updated On: 6/14/04 at 10:28 AM

[divanut]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:31am

LOL... I am embarrassed that I don't know who she is... I am.... truly... ashamed.

So what should I listen to of hers?

[robbiej]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:38am

Check this out:


Legendary Performers: Susan Johnson

[twogaab2]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:40am

Susan Johnson:
Most Happy Fella OBC
Donnybrook OBC
Woop-up OBC
Brigadoon-Columbia Studio Cast
Oh Captain OBC

These are an excellent representation (on Woop-Up however she seems to be experiencing some vocal distress-fatigue?- and phases in a couple of spots)

[onlylisab]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:28pm

I think that Sherie Renee Scott deserves more "belting" credit for Aida than Last Five Years (but I do love her in both shows).

[onlylisab]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:29pm

On that note, I also think Heather Headley deserves a shout out!

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:39pm

Just curious, what is everyone's definition of a "belter"? Maybe it's different than mine - I've always figured it's not just someone who sings "well", but someone who sings and can hit all the notes with a certain amount of power...sort of hard to put into words. Would Jennifer Hudson and LaToya London be considered belters?

In this case, I definitely vote Heather Headley. I'd list more, except, um, my education on Broadway history is seriously lacking.

Can guys be belters? I'm thinking Jesse L. Martin in the I'll Cover You Reprise.

Or am I totally on the wrong track here?

(PS onlylisab, are you a Lisa Brescia fan?)

[ILUVDEECHENOWICKED]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 10:49pm

Idina Menzel and Eden Espinosa BY FAR

[onlylisab]

Posted: 6/14/04 at 11:31pm

Type A Tiff: I've never heard anything by Lisa Brescia...why do you ask?

[divanut]

Posted: 6/15/04 at 4:46am

Re definition of a "belter"...

Though it seems like some people just mean "singing loud" when they say belting, I think what most of us who are obsessed with this subject mean, when we say "belting," is that someone is singing in their "chest voice" as opposed to what non-opera people like me call "head voice." It's a result of how the sound is actually produced by the vocal chords (everybody has both a head and chest voice).

A singer can choose to sing in head voice or chest on most lower notes; as you go higher, it becomes harder and harder to sing in chest (belt) and most singers reach a "break"; above their break they can't belt anymore and can only sing in head voice. Classically trained women singers and particularly opera singers usually sing ONLY in "head voice" or "legit," while a lot of broadway ladies, r&b, and pop singers (like the American Idol ladies, yup) sing mostly in their chest voice. The pet peeve of people who love belting is when a singer wimps out and goes into head voice on a high note that is supposed to be belted. Looots of singers do this... and it is always very disappointing. Alice Ripley, for example, usually a huge belter (Side Show) did a production of "Song and Dance" in Washington D.C. a year or two ago, in which she sang almost everything in head voice. God knows what possessed her. It was the most disappointing show I think I've ever seen.

Chest voice is a sound a lot more like a regular speaking, or shouting(!) voice, more throaty or nasal; head voice is that clearer, often higher, less earthy tone of opera singers and say, Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music. In Wicked, for example, Kristin Chenoweth, who is classically trained, usually sings in her head voice; Idina on the other hand almost always "belts" her big notes in chest voice. (In part of their duet on the Tony's, though, both of them belt in chest voice!) Or think Les Mis: Eponine and Fantine belt in their big songs; the adult Cosette sings only in head voice.

The confusing part comes when women "belt" higher than maybe a B or C (or really high belters, above a D or E!)... because then the voice placement changes, and the sound really resonates more in the head--so I don't know if it's really "chest voice," but it continues the same belty sound and it's definitely not head voice. Some singers also "mix"; they sing in head voice with sort of a focused, belty sound, or they somehow do a kind of combination and it's hard to tell if it's chest or head voice. Liz Callaway and Ann Runolfsson are experts at mixing.

Re Guys belting, as I understand it the belt/head voice distinction is pretty much identical to a guys regular voice/falsetto distinction. Head voice= falsetto. It's just that guys don't normally develop their falsetto into a full singing voice.

Wow, sorry to write so much.... Hope that helps?

[MusicaleDiva]

Posted: 6/15/04 at 10:11am

I'd say Elaine Paige deserves a lot more than just an honorable mention... she's amazing... so is Idina, as has already been established.