Next to Normal, Alice Ripley question

[VMA118]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 3:04pm

Hi everyone,

I recently saw Next to Normal for the first time, and enjoyed everyone's voices overall. I was especially taken by Jennifer Damiano's (Natalie) performance - She's so charismatic on stage, and her voice of course is really great and appropriate for the character. I noticed, though, that in some of the songs sung by Alice Ripley (Diana) she seemed a little flat. As in, the notes themselves sounded flat to me (her acting was the opposite of flat).

I know there must be some N2N/Allice Ripley fans on here, so hopefully you won't take this the wrong way...but did anyone else notice this when they saw her?

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 3:07pm

How far was "recently?" You might have seen her when she came back from vacation and she might have just needed to get back into the swing of things.

[Felm_heart]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 3:23pm

It seems like that is a fairly typical complaint about her performance.

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 3:27pm

^ What Felm_heart said.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 3:29pm

She will have a facebook status about this thread soon!
Updated On: 4/2/10 at 03:29 PM

[VMA118]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 4:06pm

I saw it Mar.28th, Sunday Matinee

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 5:01pm

I actually thought she sounded better than usual on Sunday night.

[Trainwreck]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 5:12pm

My complaint with her (at least from some videos I've seen plus the cast recording), is that she sings with far too much vibrato in her voice. Yeah, she can be flat, but I can deal with that more than I can deal with her sounding like she's going down a bumpy road when she holds her whole notes.

That being said I like her acting a lot, and everyone else in the original cast has great singing chops.

I'll probably be in the minority here, as always.

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 7:01pm

I saw her 8 times and everytime she has been like that.

[frapperia]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 7:35pm

I saw her last September and she was off on pretty much most of the notes. Raspy, flat, over-worked, you name it, she was doing it. On the other hand, J Robert Spencer was a revelation as Dan, his voice was so gorgeous it totally captivated me.

[VMA118]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 1:46am

Well, in her defense, I hadn't listened to the Cast Album or was familiar with any of the music from the show other than "Superboy" before I saw it. So I thought it was possible that the songs were supposed to sound that way. Maybe even an artistic choice on the part of the actress to somehow evoke the turmoil of a mentally ill mother and wife (I know that's a stretch haha, but hey).

Anyway, interesting to hear I'm not the only one that noticed this...regardless of the reason for it.

[VMA118]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 1:50am

Trainwreck - I actually did notice that too, and don't tend to favor singers that over-do it on the vibrato. I think that's a stylistic preference though, so I personally don't fault her for that as much.