Performers Who Sound Alike

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 5:48pm

Ever, say, listened to a cast recording and was convinced you were hearing a certain performer before realizing it was someone entirely different?

For the longest time, I thought that the Pimp's line in "Look Down" in Les Miserables ("Leave the poor old cow, move it, Madeleine") was actually oen of Javert's lines because the performer on the OBC sounds so much like Terrence Mann.

Also, I thought that the original Boq from Wicked (Is this Christopher Fitzgerald? I'm sorry, I really don't know much about "Wicked") was the same person as the original Armand in "The Scarlet Pimpernel," but that turned out to be Giles Chiasson.
And I was convinced that Ugly from the original Wichita recording of "Honk" was a younger, less polished Sean Palmer, but it was Arthur Marks. And Damien Perkins on the OBC of AIDA sounds exactly like Derrick Baskin to me, but I guess that makes sense, because I thiiiiink Derrick Baskin also played Mereb at some point?

Anyone else have any examples of performers who sound alike, or am I the only one dumb enough to confuse people's voices?

Updated On: 12/28/08 at 05:48 PM

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 5:52pm

On the 2006 Company OBCR, during Another Hundred People, Angel Desai sounds an awful lot like Patti LuPone.

[jane915]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 5:56pm

i always thought sherie rene scott and felicia finley sounded similar. then again they both played amneris in aida.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 5:58pm

My little sister sometimes thinks Heather Headley sounds a bit like Patti LuPone. The poor thing already has enough trouble differentiating AIDA and Evita-- she'll hear Heather Headley or Patti LuPone singing and say, "Which one of those... two musicals is this?" I don't really hear the similarity, except I guess sometimes their enunciation sounds alike.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 5:59pm

Diana Kaarina and Jennifer Paz.

(Though not from a cast recording.)

Updated On: 12/28/08 at 05:59 PM

[javertim]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 6:12pm

The woman who sings "she's got a kid, sends her all that she can" during "Lovely Ladies" on the Complete Symphonic Recording of Les Miserables sounds exactly like Sarah Brightman to me.

[thejcm]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 6:44pm

Kerry Ellis and Stephanie J. Block.

Listen to the final "Ahh" on "Defying Gravity" on Kerry's CD, and compare it to the press video of Steph doing it. It's almost identical, at least to me.

[legally_popular]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 7:00pm

^Kerry Ellis and Stephanie J. Block? Maybe their “Ahhh” sounds alike from the two things you mentioned (I don’t have them both on me this second to compare), but otherwise I think they sound nothing alike. Kerry’s voice is very high and no offense but kind of whiney to me, unlike Steph’s lower, rich voice.

But anyway… not so much in two people sounding alike, but sort of related… in the “Bend and Snap” on the Legally Blonde OBCR, when Andy Karl gives out that screech/scream at the end (when Paulette hits him), my sister had no idea that was Andy making that sound, haha. She thought it was Orfeh or at least one of the other girls.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 8:30pm

Yeah, I've mistaken male singers for women on many occasions... and vice versa. I was convinced that Eddie Korbich as Scuttle in "The Little Mermaid" was actually a girl.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 9:06pm

Whomever sings the solo "Not a Day Goes By" on the 94 York Merrily recording sounds an awful lot like Bernadette to me.

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 9:08pm

Liz Callaway and Lea Salonga sound alot alike to me.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 9:12pm

my older sister thinks that Patti LuPone and Ethel Merman sound alike. I was listening to Les Mouches and my sister said "Oh, is this The Merm?"

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 9:13pm

Personally I think everyone who has sung the role of Elphaba sound alike and are basically interchangeable.

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 9:25pm

"Personally I think everyone who has sung the role of Elphaba sound alike and are basically interchangeable."

You really think that Julia Murney and Julie Reiber sound alike?

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 10:24pm

^ I think Kerry Ellis and Idina Menzel do. And I think Eden and Marcie Dodd have similarities. And Shoshana and screaming cats sound similar.

[blaxx]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 10:28pm

Didn't Pascal-Butz-Esparza all tried to sound the same when attempting to sing Larson's songs?

[xbri0432x]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 10:51pm

i was watching Chicago last night and i realized that when Renee Zellweger sings 'Roxie', she sounds somewhat like Ashlee Simpson during her time playing Roxie in the West End production. and Laura Osnes sounds similar to someone, but i just can't remember. i think the person she sounds like might have played G(a)linda for a bit.

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 11:07pm

"And Shoshana and screaming cats sound similar."

That made me LOL.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 11:57pm

Raul Esparza sometimes sounds kind of like Keith Michell.

I think Maria Friedman sometimes (though not always) sounds a bit like LuPone.

And Susan Watson sometimes (for example, on the Ben Franklin in Paris OBCR) sounds a bit like Barbara Cook sometimes, as does Rebecca Luker from time to time on some recordings.

And a bunch of people in the late '50s-early '60s all had a somewhat similar sound, that deep contralto belt: Dolores Grey, Susan Johnson, Joan Fagan, Helon Blount. Not indistinguishable by any means, though on the OBCR of Donnybrook it does almost sound like Joan Fagan was a singing student of Susan Johnson's.

Nowadays, it seems to me that a lot of the current women sound very alike. It's the Liz Callaway school of singing. I like Liz Callaway, but I don't want everyone to sound like her. For someone who hasn't done a lot of Broadway shows, Liz Callaway has been a strangely influential performer. Maybe it's just that she so exemplifies the contemporary belt-mix sound that everyone seems to want. I do think there's a bit of facelessness about the sounds we hear from a lot of performers nowadays.

But it does sometimes seem as if either a certain style is in vogue (like all those late '50s-early '60s women I mentioned) or a certain singer becomes very influential for a time. William Johnson played Alfred Drake's roles in Kiss Me, Kate and Kismet and it's not surprising: they sounded rather similar.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 12:16am

I thought Carol Channing and Raul Esparza were the same person for a very long time.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 12:22am

"I thought Carol Channing and Raul Esparza were the same person for a very long time."

But his voice is higher.

Funny but I'm listening right now to the OLCR of Promises, Promises right now and Betty Buckley sounds so much like Jill O'Hara. A more vocally secure Jill O'Hara. She really doesn't sound quite like this on any other recording.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 1:49am

nobodyhome, I agree. Everything about Liz Callaway's voice is right in that like awesome mask. It's so well placed that I think a lot of people are taught to imitate it.

My friend and I once had a debate over if Sherie Rene Scott and Liz Callaway sound similar. I think they have a pretty similar vocal quality.

[dayao]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 2:19am

Matthew Morrison & Cheyenne Jackson's singing voices sound the same as practically any boy band singer from the 1990's.

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 2:44am

Blaxx I agree with you about Norbert and Pascal sounding alike however I think it goes beyond Larson's Songs. I feel they are always very similar. And while I dont think they sound like esparza I have always found it intresting how they have all done similar work (all the emcee in Cabaret, Two did Rent one Tick Tick Boom. Norbert now stepping into Speed The Plow) I just find all 3 of them to be very similar actors.

Also I have always found Sherie Rene Scott and Julia Murney similar. Besides the fact that I usually listen to both of them singing cathy back to back whenever I listen to my two last five years recordings but I have always felt their belt is one and the same. I however like Murney a bit more.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 9:20am

nobodyhome-
See, Buckley still sounds too distinguished for me to mix her and O'Hara up on that album. Granted, I think she sounds far too reedy on it, but that's me.