"Ladies Who Lunch" sung by a guy?- Page 2

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 12:43pm

Word.

[TheCharleston]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 1:33pm

I love when gays bicker.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 2:13pm

Dame Edna has been doing it for the last 20 odd years.

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 2:48pm

Ok, this is a little bit of a thread jack. And I hope its not too much of a stupid question. But could someone be kind enough to explain what "The Ladies Who Lunch" is about. I mean, I get it, I think. But I feel like I never got the full impact so I'm wondering if somone could explain it in a way for me to gather a little more understanding. Thanks for any help.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 2:54pm

Joanne is making observations about all these women who think they're, for lack of a better phrase, "all that and a bag of chips." Women who organize brunches to honor themselves, women who take classes at college to feel cultured, women who see "sophisticated theatre" like Pinter so that they can speak intellectually. She sees herself as above it all, but she's really talking about women just like herself.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 3:03pm

I'll drink to that.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 6:02pm

David Kernan has recorded the song.

A friend of mine who's a very good pianist sometimes gives "singing parties," where a bunch of his friends, most of whom are very good singers, get together and . . . sing. Sometimes we rehearse, sometimes we don't; sometimes we invite people who aren't going to perform but who are just there as audience (he has friends who like to be audience at these parties), sometimes we don't.

I'm not much of a singer, I'm more an actor, but I get the chance to sing at these get-togethers and I do. I usually choose songs that are more acting songs than ones that depend on great singing.

I've done "The Ladies Who Lunch" a couple of times (I'm a guy) and I get requested to do it again. Obviously, I feel it's fine for a guy to sing it.

The way I approach it is that I'm singing it, basically, as me. Not pretending to be a woman or the character Joanne.

Yes, at the end of the song Joanne sings about herself as being, in her own way, one of those women. But to me the essence of the things that Joanne is singing about is not exclusive to women. Quite the opposite. To me, she's singing about the things we do to distract ourselves from focusing on the fact that we're all gonna die. This is pretty universal.

So I don't think only women can sing it. It perhaps makes the song even more universal if a man sings it. (Yes, I know, from the specific comes the universal.) After all, the song ends up saying, "Don't think of yourself as superior to these women. You're really not so different." So why can't a man sing it? It certainly gets across that idea.

And for whatever it's worth, in the classical world, women sometimes sing songs (even whole song cycles, like Die Winterreise) intended for men and sometimes men sing songs intended for women.

That's my 2 cents. (And I've also discussed what I feel the song is about, in answer to sing_dance_love.)

If anything, I'd say it may be more important to be over a certain age to sing the song than to be either sex. But you go to drama school to stretch and grow, among other things, so why not?

[Scripps2]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 6:10pm

"Dame Edna has been doing it for the last 20 odd years."

So she has:

"I'm sorry Possums - I have slightly rewritten this lyric...

So here's to that dear Sondheim chap,
Isn't he the oddest?
Think of him tonight, when you cheer him and clap,
Pretending to be modest.
But at least he's contrived to achieve
More dollars than you'll ever believe.
Let's here it for my little friend Steve,
Everybody rise."
Updated On: 3/10/09 at 06:10 PM

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 7:21pm

The dame did it the first time at the Shaftesbury theatre in 1988 in a special tribute to Mr Sondhiem which included the cast of 'Follies', Bea Arthur and Angela Lansbury.
An unforgettable night!

[bob8rich]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 7:57pm

In the original production of Side By Side By Sondheim, David Kernan sang "Could I Leave You?" which gave a female song a twist, so I don't see any problem with something similar being done with The Ladies Who Lunch. If a song is sung in a concert, the character aspect is not sacrosanct.

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 3/11/09 at 2:29am

Thanks for your input, Colorthehours, and nobodyhome.

I get the song so much better now.

Thanks again.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/11/09 at 2:56am

Mandy Patinkin recorded this song (on Dress Casual, I think) He also performed it in concert.


He TOTALLY pwnd it.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 3/11/09 at 3:29am

"Mandy Patinkin recorded this song (on Dress Casual, I think) He also performed it in concert."

He may have performed in concert, but it's not on Dress Casual and I'm finding no evidence of any commercial recording of the song by Patinkin.

I do think he's the only man to have made a commercial recording of "Liaisons."
Updated On: 3/11/09 at 03:29 AM

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 3/11/09 at 4:27pm

I have no problem with a man singing it. I've wanted to myself.

BUT, the gay choir with which I sing is doing a Sondheim tribute for our PrideFest this summer.

And, it's not so much that they have a man (not me) singing it, but they originally had a TWENTY-FOUR year old man singing it!!!!!

Not that the TWENTY-FOUR yeal old man is not very talented and very nice (he's a dancer), but he's TWENTY-FOUR years old!

No twenty-four year old has the life experience to be able to do a song like that any sort of justice.

I guess that the fact that they gave "Ladies Who Lunch" to a twenty-four year old dancer to sing shows that the men who put it together are either smoking crack, or want to smoke the twenty-four year old dancer's crack...

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/11/09 at 6:32pm

I'll have to check through my CD's...I think it was combined with another song on the recording.

Hmmm...curious.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 3/11/09 at 7:28pm

"I'll have to check through my CD's...I think it was combined with another song on the recording."

On the Broadway Album, Streisand combined it with "Pretty Women." Is it possible that's what you're thinking of?

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/11/09 at 10:51pm

I remember hearing rumors that Frank Sinatra would sing it sometimes. I don't think it's true, but imagine his take on it. His brilliant, classy, masterfully interpreted, completely vile and sexist but wonderful performance? Lol those rat-packers.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/11/09 at 11:55pm

No, I'm afraid Frank Sinatra never sang "The Ladies Who Lunch."

He sang "The Ladies Who Are Tramps."