Musicals where the lead doesn't or rarely sings- Page 2

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/13/11 at 1:26pm

Winston89,

I've never heard of any such requirement. As b12 noted, Thomas Mitchell won Best Actor for a non-singing role in 1953, Natalia Makarova in 1983, and Boyd Gaines and Karen Ziemba both won in 2000 for non-singing roles. I have read the Tony rules (linked below) and no such proviso is mentioned.
http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/about/Rules-2010-2011FINAL.pdf

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 11/13/11 at 1:28pm

Zach in A Chorus Line (would you call him a lead?)

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 11/13/11 at 1:56pm

Jerry Springer in 'Jerry Springer the Opera' doesn't sing a note. He only talks.

[Jon]

Posted: 11/13/11 at 2:45pm

Jeeves in ALW's "By Jeeves" has one verse of spoken patter. On the other hand Bertie Wooster, who is the real lead, is in EVERY song in the show except one love ballad.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 11/13/11 at 3:34pm

Two I can think of:

Finian barely sings in his own Rainbow.

I believe Oliver only sings one song (lamely) in his own show.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 11/13/11 at 3:39pm

Oliver actually sings in 4 songs.

[Patty3]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 1:07pm

Nathan Detroit in Guys & Dolls. He sings a few solo lines in Oldest Established with ensemble and then Sue Me as a duet with Adelaide. My nephew played Nathan in his high school production. He was thrilled to get such a great character part but not thrilled that he didn't have much to sing.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 1:20pm

Herbie in Gypsy doesn't have a lot of singing. I don't think he has any solos, it's all group singing.

[daredevil]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 1:27pm

In Destry Rides Again, the second male lead (the villain) has no songs. Originally, the role was played by Scott Brady, who probably was no singer, but two of his replacements during the Broadway run were Art Lund, and David Atkinson, both of whom had great voices. I think a lot depends on who the original performer was, if a performer did not have a great voice, not much music would be written for him, even if his book role was important.

[xxdrewboy85xx]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 1:50pm

Julian in 42nd Street only has 1 song and a reprise.

[Jon]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 2:31pm

Herbie in Gypsy sings six solo lines in You'll Never Get Away From Me and a few solos in Together.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 2:52pm

"Herbie in Gypsy sings six solo lines in You'll Never Get Away From Me and a few solos in Together."

I meant that there were no songs that were his character songs. All solo songs belong to either Rose or Louise

[shrekster224]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 2:54pm

Les Mis.





Haha

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 2:55pm

Yes, Herbie's song "Nice She Ain't" was cut because Jack Klugman was not a strong singer.

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 2:59pm

THE COLOR PURPLE is an interesting case: The lead (Celie) only has one solo ("I'm Here"), which comes at the very end of an almost three-hour musical, and one tiny little song ("Somebody Gonna Love You") at the beginning. She sings a lot in ensemble numbers and has a lot of stage time, but as compared to other leading roles (just for example: Momma Rose), she doesn't exactly have the amount of solo music you'd associate with a lead.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 11/14/11 at 6:27pm

How about Katharine Hepburn as Coco Chanel in "Coco"? The sounds coming out of her mouth in no way resembles actual singing. To me, Ms. Hepburn's "singing" voice is painful to hear...even worse than Lauren Bacall's. from RC in Austin, Texas