NY Times Arts Beat today - Are Musicals losing their voices?

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/theater-talkback-are-musicals-losing-their-voices/?smid=tw-nytimestheater

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I do not share Mr. Isherwood's anxiety.

This is just another example of "the sky is falling" mentality that seems to have plagued Broadway aficionados since the musical was created.

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How silly. Of all the musicals on Broadway right now, I can think of only one in which the lead is someone better known for being a star than having a good singing voice.

And absolutely, Phyllis. It's not like Charles Kimbrough, as marvelous as he is, was a golden-throated marvel.

It's a "vacuous" article (to use the word he uses to describe the Company concert).

While I had made the same point about Neil Patrick Harris Harris (whose performance I liked) and compared him to Matt Cavenaugh's disappointing voice in the West Side revival, I didn't say it was a TREND.

And then to disprove his own point, he pointed to past-nonsingers like Lauren Bacall and Rex Harrison and Katharine Hepburn.

And then, to further disprove his point, he pointed to contemporary powerhouse singers like Patti, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Kelli O’Hara, Raul Esparza and Brian Stokes Mitchell and needlessly worried if they were the last generation.

Fail.

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His examples here are, to me at least, pretty ludicrous. To say that this generation of musical theatre performers aren't good singers and to use Radcliffe, Zeta-Jones, etc (stars chosen to headline revivals) as examples is not a very good argument at all. Those are really exceptions to the rule.

I definitely agree that the opposite trend is true. It's said on here a lot that even the musical theatre performers who were "singers" back in the day wouldn't have been able to hold up with the scores that are written today.

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As a theatre student, I see many musical theatre students focusing more on how to belt their faces off and correctly hitting notes than actually filling the song with emotion. It's the acting of songs that seems to be falling by the wayside in younger performers, not the singing.

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Once again, Isherwood reveals his tiny brain.

in good musical theatre, actors-who-sing are always better than singers-who-act.

Singers-who-act are perfectly fine in dramatically inert or juvenile pieces like Phantom or Tale of Two Cities; but if you have a good book, you need actors who care more about the meaning of the moment than gorgeous tone production.

If the performer is as good a singer as actor, it's icing on the cake.

I must be too easy to please then I guess. because I think this article is pretty nasty and uncalled for.

I saw NPH in Company last week, and also saw Radcliffe in How to Succeed and Sean Hayes in Promises, Promises and I was thoroughly entertained by all three. I thought all 3 performances were really charming---they all have charisma of their own and the audiences responded to that.

Raul Esparza was an excellent Bobby, no question, and his singing is more powerful than Neil Patrick Harris'. But NPH brought a different spin to the part, he was a more wistful, vulnerable Bobby, and I loved that. I love his singing voice, just for the record.

I think the digs at Christina Hendricks and Stephen Colbert were wrong too---they both fit their roles perfectly (my opinion.) No "GREAT SINGING", but good voices, and funny, solid performances (everyone who was in the NYPhil Company should be getting tons of credit for putting on such a great show with such short and odd rehearsal times! I was in awe of them all, really.)

It definitely takes more to play a role well than having a pretty and/or powerful singing voice. Angela Lansbury would never be considered to have a "pretty" singing voice, but I saw her play Mrs. Lovett in the OBC of Sweeney Todd and I was blown away by her and finally understood why people like Ethel Merman and Carol Channing are stage legends; it takes more than just a "beautiful singing voice"!

I think it's curious he mentions Zeta-Jones in Night Music as an example. I mean, she worked as a musical theatre actress in the West End long before her fame, and she certainly sang quite well in Chicago. Plus, it isn't as if Desiree is a vocally challenging role to begin with- as brilliant as Glynis Johns must have been, no one could say she had a phenomenal voice.

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I also think what's missing in the conversation is how musicals have changed. The 1980s ushered in the mega-musicals which required stronger voices. Evita, Les Mis, Phantom, etc all required vocal powerhouses. So audiences lost the "character" voices of the book musicals.

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I'm listening the 365 online radio station that plays Broadway songs and it seems so timely to listen to a fairly screechy version of CAROUSEL while reading your posting. There wasn't always beautiful voices in musicals, there were "stars" and "character voices" but in this new musical genre there is this new "autotune" filter that that can be applied to every CD and soundtrack, even to the performers on TV's GLEE. In this next generation of performers, they don't necessarily need to be on pitch, in key or have the capacity to belt. I don't mean to pick on GLEE; the individual singers are talented and have proven themselves in shows like, SOUTH PACIFIC and SPRING AWAKENING but you can hear this strange flattening out tone happen when "autotune" comes on. And, as this screechy version of CAROUSEL online won't necessary make it to today's CD or itunes market, we'll have concert versions of "autotuned" singing instead. And talented performers like Nancy Anderson, Andrea Burns, Bobby Steggert, Robert Petkoff and Peter Benson will be passed over for leads on Broadway, and "stars" will get cast. I have a lot more names of talented Broadway triple threats, if producers want suggestions.

Holy smoke! Four straight posts in which I agree. It's all of that. And I feel that acting through a musical number is what makes great performers into stars. It's about personality and it always has been.

No one is asking me but I feel that in many cases musicals aren't losing their voices, they are simply losing their music.

Gwen Verdon.