Norbert's voice

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 6/17/11 at 2:19pm

I think I remember reading on here years ago that Norbert sustained a severe vocal injury in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. After seeing Catch Me, I thought Norbert was very good, but was most struck by how different his voice sounded (from Last 5 Yrs, Wicked- my only recordings of him). Does he have some permanent vocal damage- at the performance I saw, he seemed to speak/yell a lot of his singing lines, and I wasn't sure if it was a character choice or because he couldn't sing them. He's great in the role, but I do think he had one of the most beautiful male voices I'd ever heard, so am just curious if anyone knows anything about this.

[TheKandyLife]

Posted: 6/17/11 at 9:38pm

I didn't know about the vocal injury he had, but i thought roughly the same thing...he sounded different.

The conclusion I came to was that live in the theatre he is dancing, which gets him out of breath, so shouts/does recitative (spelling?) in his songs.

In the cast recording of Catch Me If You Can, he does sing a whole lot more, because he was standing still singing... That's why I came to that conclusion. =)

[mc1227]

Posted: 6/17/11 at 9:51pm

I just rewatched the Tony Awards and confirmed what I saw when I saw CMIYC in person. Norbert's voice is certainly different than in DRS. Perhaps he did have to alter his voice due to strain but all the yelling he does in dont' break the rules, can't be too good for that either. Or maybe it's just part of aging (not that he's old) but people's voices do change.

Updated On: 6/17/11 at 09:51 PM