As said, Alice's voice is definitely not for everyone. Hell, it's undeniable that her voice slips under the pitch (mostly due to her vibrato) many times throughout the show, making her sound incredibly messy. But i will say that the first time i saw NTN, i was so soaked in to the character Ripley was, that i overlooked all of those imperfections with her voice.
I also agree with those that said that this particular cast doesn't have the "rock" voices for this score. I feel like for the most part, the NYMF cast REALLY had the "rock" voices needed to make the score even more incredible (strictly talking about singing voices here, not acting or anything else). Spanger/Rapp/Ashford/Cassidy really embodied the whole concept of singing a rock score the way it was meant to be sung. Now i LOVE the current cast of NtN, but it does make one wonder about other situations with good singers for "rock" musicals. I can't count how many times i've heard recordings/videos of singers that don't even remotely have the style of voice needed for singing from shows like NtN, RENT, bare, SA, etc. It's a tricky situation, because while you want a polished, trained singer in your show, putting that person into a pop opera, or a rock musical may just make them sound out of place.
Just my .02/rant.
Updated On: 3/21/09 at 05:07 PM