Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.

Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 12:29pm

Ever heard a performer singing on a cast recording, then saw what they looked like and were surprised that they didn't look like you imagined? It seems to happen to me all the time.

When I first heard James Barbour singing, I imagined him MUCH older, and bigger, with grey hair, a mustache, and a really pointy nose. I didn't see Michael Ball looking as boyish and... dimply and smiley...as he does. I imagined him with much squarer features and a sterner-looking face, more like Michael Maguire.

I saw Patti LuPone with a rounder face and very, very tightly curly grey hair. In my mind, Susan Egan looked a lot curvier with long curly blonde hair. I always invisioned Idina Menzel as being really small and skinny with chin-length hair.

But the weirdest one? For years and years, I was convinced that Terrence Mann was a really, really, really lanky bald black guy with a feminine-looking face.

In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 12:35pm

My former housemate had some very unflattering things to say about Norbert Leo Butz first time she saw a picture of him. She'd grown used to the 'Wicked' cast recording playing through her wall (at appropriate times of day and respectful volumes), and was quite taken with Fiyero's voice. Her response to show photographs was "I thought that was Chistery!!!". -_-;; She couldn't quite... reconcile the voice and the face.

I'm sure I must have some of my own, but I'll have to get back to you. Nothing as outlandish as some of yours, Schmergy!

Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 12:36pm

James Barbour shocked me. I saw him then he sang, I thought he was dubbed.

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 12:44pm

Did you imagine him with a mustache, too? I think he has a very mustachey sort of voice.

In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 12:49pm

I saw him before he sung. I expected him to have a high voice.

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 1:12pm

That's like how when I first saw Tituss Burgess, I thought he'd have a deep voice. Then he started wailing out these ridiculously high notes and I started looking around to make sure that some woman onstage wasn't singing.

I know that when I first saw Michael Crawford, he didn't look like I expected, but I can't remember how I thought he'd look.

In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 1:17pm

Matt Borgart

not a broadway performer... but when she released her first CD years ago, i always thought Pink was a black woman

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 3:48pm

This isn;t broadway, but Kimya Dawson has such a youthful voice, I pictured her as a small young woman. Boy was I wrong

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 3:52pm

Me. 5'9 and have the voice of kristin chenoweth.

#10

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 4:16pm

I can't think of any performers, but I sound a lot tinier than I am.

#11

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 4:24pm

And I sound a lot bigger than I am.

#12

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 4:24pm

I used to think that Shoshana Bean was a large black woman

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...I'm the good cop, he's the bad cop.

#13

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 4:36pm

I know she's not a broadway performer, but I don't think Amy Winehouse looks anything like her voice.

As for Broadway specifically, I'd have to say Josh Strickland - he sounds a lot like an afro-american contralto woman. It's not a high voice, just a feminine one.

#14

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 5:02pm

.....and wilson jermaine heredia! in ill cover you i just pictured him as this tiny tan blonde guy for some reason.

#15

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 6:29pm

Farah Alvin sounds so much more attractive than she is.

And not Broadway...but I was shocked when I found out Sean Paul isn't black.

#16

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 7:10pm

Not Broadway--but Nikka Costa takes the cake in this department.

"If it walks like a Parks, if it wobbles like a Parks, then it's definitely fat and nobody loves it." --MA

#17

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 7:13pm

The first one that comes to mind is Eden Espinosa.

She's this tiny little thing, and then this immense, incredibly powerful voice comes out of her!

I can't believe she has that inside her little body.

"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)

#18

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 7:16pm

Tobias-- Yeah! There's something frail about Idina Menzel's voice, for some reason. I always saw her as this tiny, skinny little birdlike thing.

Also, when I first heard Rob Evan, I imagined him to be skinny with really big circles under his eyes and extremely curly hair. I don't know why.

In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy

#19

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/21/08 at 7:44pm

Josh Young
J. Robert Spencer
Carolee Carmello (her vibrato)

#20

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/22/08 at 3:39am

Susan Egan, definitely

And then there's always Rick Astley :)

Dancing through life... For the next ten minutes

#21

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/22/08 at 4:05am

Julie Reiber. This first time I heard her sing I thought she was still in her teens and that was last year...LOL. Onstage as Elphaba she is so angry then when she sings out comes this high pitched girly voice.

Don't believe everything that you hear! Only the peeps involved know the truth!

#22

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/22/08 at 4:14pm

Hahahah, YES. Rick Astley. Did anyone NOT think he was black?

In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy

#23

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/22/08 at 4:15pm

Sondheim_Geek, agreed about Josh Young. And also I can't believe you actually know who he is haha.
I'd also have to say Norbert Leo Butz. He sounds wayyy prettier than he looks. It's a shame.

www.tinydancer5.tumblr.com

#24

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/22/08 at 5:08pm

Rosalind Russell sounds a lot like Lisa Kirk... ;^) - pace Roz, I love ya.

For real, I guess I'd say Mandy Patinkin. It doesn't matter what recording it is, I'm always surprised at that high clear head voice.

And I guess Harvey Fierstein for the first time...

#25

re: Performers Who Don't Look Like Their Voices

Posted: 9/30/08 at 2:30am

Farah Alvin looks just like she sounds, at least to me. Completely gorgeous!

Also, I agree with the Shoshana comment. I thought the SAME thing about her being a big black lady!

← Back to Message Board

View all Videos

Tickets From $59

Tickets From $71

Tickets From $95