I think the term "legit" as applied to singers refers more to a singer's ability to sing a song with little or no microphone enhancement, as was done in musical theater for decades prior to the 1950's (I believe that the original 1949 production of South Pacific was the first Broadway show to use microphones but it was only a couple of stage mikes to help carry the sound in the somewhat larger than normal theater where the show was performed.) Body mikes did not come into use with regularity until the 1970's although Carol Channing used one as early as 1963 in Hello Dolly.
Before the 1970's musical theater singers were trained to project their voices naturally, pretty much the same as opera singers, but without sounding like an opera singer. A few of today's theater singers have also trained this way (James Barbour, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christine Ebersole, for example). In the musicals through the early 1970's, the leading roles were more often than not written for such singers, including songs by the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, Lerner & Loewe, Jule Styne, Sondheim and especially the complex melodies of Jerome Kern. But at the same time the songs of these composers were introduced to a much wider audience in the 1930's & 40's and to a lesser extent in the 1950's & 60's, via recordings and radio by pop singers such as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson, Alice Faye, Nelson Eddy, Jane Froman, Tony Martin etc., all of whom sang through a microphone in live performance but usually in smaller venues. However, most of these singers were much more instinctive interpreters of the pop music of this period (which included the majority of musical theater songs) than any of today's singers, mainly because they lived during a time when this music was fresh and new to the public. Most of these singers also appeared in film musicals as well but among them only Eddy, Froman, perhaps Garland & Martin had voices strong enough to project in a large auditorium without the use of a mike. Even 1950's singers of the pop & pre-rock era had strong voices that did not require excessive miking or in smaller venues none at all to be heard, for instance, Vic Damone, Elvis Presley, Pat Boone, Barbra Streisand and especially Gordon MacRae.
Carousel was one of the last totally acoustic Broadway musicals and the Soliloquy is one of the toughest solos any singer could encounter, not only because of its 7 minute length but also because of its near operatic demands on the singer. John Raitt, the original Billy Bigelow, could sing this beautifully, piercing effortlessly through the brass heavy pit orchestra while maintaining the subtle dramatic moments of the piece, with no microphone enhancement whatsoever. By contrast, Michael Hayden, in the 1994 revival, even with a body mike, could barely manage the Soliloquy without straining on passages that even an average opera singer of today could navigate with ease, even though he is probably the finest actor to ever play Billy Bigelow on the stage.
The premise that body mikes allow a singer to perform with more subtlety is completely false. Larry Kert & Carol Lawrence, the original Tony & Maria in West Side Story, with minimal miking, conveyed drama, intimacy and beauty in their performances that Matt Cavenaugh & Josephina Scaglione in the current revival, cannot even imagine, much less duplicate.
Although several fine contemporary composers are writing music that could benefit greatly from a more legit sound, this is unfortunately not going to happen in a musical theater climate such as today where the sound designer is considered more important than the singer.
"I long-ago realized that this country is a nation of
morons, when it comes to knowledge of anything outside, or beyond, pop culture." Steve Slezak
Updated On: 7/5/09 at 07:06 PM
