Patti LuPone singing 'Being Alive' — Page 2

"I bought her recording of the song via iTunes. Tis very faboo. I perfer it over Dean Jones'. No offense, but his voice drives me crazy. I am not very fond of his 'Being Alive'."

I understand - I'm only judging it on the performance as the character rather than someone performing a standard. I think both women are fine at emoting the song.

I love the "Forbidden Broadway" spoof of Patti singing "Beling Alive", which is turned into "Being Lupone"... Christine Pedi does a killer impression...

"No body writes me a show
No body asks me to sing
And so I hired a staff
And do my own thing
Like Edith Piaf
And tour all alone
And sing with a groan
Making you moan
Being Lupone!"

i love patti, and her wall-to-wall version was great but i remember thinking on the carnegie hall concert that for me she sang as if she were about to kill someone. it was just too too for me, overkill. she just hit it way too hard. the performace of the night for me was betty buckley with a very out of tune boys choir of harlem doing CHILDREN WILL LISTEN. goose bump city, especially as betty had been out of the limelight for a while and was a last minute replacement for the show.

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I would have to somewhat agree with Garland Grrrl. Being Alive is one of my favorite musical theatre songs, and on my Carnegie DVD Patti's power is great, but it does seem a little like overkill. Maybe it's just her passion and love of Sondheim and theatre mixed into a wonderful song. God knows I love Patti, but it's not my favorite version.

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Patti nails the song and Bernadette is exciting and Dean Jones created it, but nothing, NOTHING will ever compare to the experience of seeing the late Larry Kert sing it. I saw the original 5 times--once with Dean Jones and 4 times with Larry Kert.

Kert opened a vein when he sang it, with a ferocity no one knew he had. The way he sang the song seemed so personal that the song seemed shocking...like when a friend confesses to a deep dark secret.

You can hear Larry Kert sing it as one of the extras on the most recent Company CD or on the Sondheim tribute CD with the Scrabble cover.

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