Rein it in, Elaine Paige!- Page 3

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 7:56am

Have all the people who complain about Ms. Paige's backphrasing (which, at the performances I've attended, hasn't been that bad) never heard Dolores Gray sing the song??
Dolores Gray - I'm Still Here

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 8:54am

"The best of actors give COMPLETELY different (but very good) performances night to night."

I have to strongly disagree. The best actors give the SAME performance every night, but make it seem brand new and fresh.

^ I agree with the disagreement. The first example is an amateurish way of achieving freshness. Learn to act, quit treating performances like rehearsals or previews, and maybe you won't have to change it up every night to keep yourself engaged and (seemingly) spontaneous.

As for that Paige laugh, she gives Cesar Romero a run for his money.

Updated On: 9/12/11 at 08:54 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 11:07am

Apparently that TV version of Dolores Gray's "I'm Still Here" was done at an unusually slow tempo

Some kind fan provided this video, which shows how Dolores performed the song in the show:

http://youtu.be/QPA0UhnKQkk

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 11:13am

Thanks for that link, PJ. I'd heard Grey's version on the cast recording years ago and didn't remember excessive back-phrasing, but in that clip I've provided it seems like she and the conductor are on two different wavelengths. I've seen this current production in the theatre three times now and Paige's alleged back-phrasing has been very minimal (she did it on a couple of phrases, not throughout the whole song). But she was consistently with the music, which makes me think a lot of the people who have accused her of back-phrasing either don't properly know what the term means or caught her at a weird performance.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 12:53pm

At about 4:40 in on this you can hear a bit of Paige's "angry" version of "I'm Still Here":
Follies clip

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 1:03pm

Is it becoming some kind of tradition to not sing this song as written? Jeez.

Anyway, I must've seen Paige at a "weird performance" on Broadway. She backphrased almost the entire song, and in some pretty odd ways. It seemed like she was trying out acting choices, but, as a result, some of the words were getting lost as she smushed them together (see my example earlier in this thread). I hope that she is fixing this a bit and it's not as noticeable anymore. While I was watching it, I knew I was seeing a solid rendition of the song, but the backphrasing was so plentiful that it was beginning to ruin it.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 2:05pm

I promise you one thing; Sondheim might let her back phrase in the performance, but he won't when they go in to do the recording.

[newintown]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 2:08pm

This weekend, the queens went mad for Paige at the end of the song. Absolutely mad.

But I still think it's a tacky little performance. Better than DC, but tacky.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 2:15pm

I guess "backphrase" is the trendy new buzzword in musical theatre. Ironically, backphrasing songs is nothing new at all. It's been a style choice for decades. Love it or hate it, it's almost always deployed for one of two reasons:

1) An attempt at a new interpretation of a familiar song or a previosuly iconic performance.

I can usually overlook this when a song has been performed ad nauseum by everyone from Hollywood stars to drunken patrons of a piano bar.

2) A way to cover up a memory lapse in the lyrics

Let's not pretend it doesn't happen to the best of performers.

And in a cabaret setting, it's practically expected in order to have a following.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 2:59pm

I think Paige is giving a better performance in NY than DC, at least she is trying to act instead of smiling through the whole thing, but I still have lots of problems with her interpretation of the song. She "backphrased" quite a bit both times I've seen her. In a song like this with has a strong narrative, that bothered me quite a lot. But she just doesn't take the journey. Sure Carlotta is a survivor but there have been many ups and downs and that doesn't resonate in her performance. The song is SO good that when she starts bangin' it out at the end the crowd did go wild for her. One guy was standing and cheering at the song's end (he must have been a Brit).
Updated On: 9/12/11 at 02:59 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 3:02pm

"This weekend, the queens went mad for Paige"

Nobody told me Elizabeth and Kate took a holiday together.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 3:07pm

It's all Chita Rivera's fault. She backphrased her way all the way through "My Own Best Friend". She introduced backphrasing to Broadway.

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 3:22pm

The best performers do not stay the same every night, nor do they give a completely different performance every night. The best performers have married the two. They live within the framework of their direction, but carry themselves on a fresh journey within that framework, bringing their current voice to the work. These actors create a tension between the predictability of the production's set ways, and the thrill of today. Douglas Hodge comes to mind... He gave a consistent performance in La Cage but it was never exactly the same... he lived within his framework, because he allowed there to be a sharing between him in the audience... it was always specific to that day.

Just my two cents on the matter. Because, to me, there is zero reason to hire people on a year contract to recite a performance. You might as well film it, because making something seem engaged and new and visceral is not truly live, so why would I waste my time and money to see something pretending to be truly live?! We live in a world that is funny, and super disengaged, so why waste theatre into being false? The actors that are bringing today's voice to the work in a consistent way are the artists who truly lend themselves, and thrill us. Boring people who coast on a planned evening are forgotten quickly. And on the flip side, tactless, reckless actors who putz around with vision and specificity by being completely different every night are likely not providing a consistent voice to the piece they are playing in.

Polar extremes are often stupid. The middle...the tension between the two, is where I believe we are seeing the real work of opinionated, specific, and brave contemporary artists.

Updated On: 9/12/11 at 03:22 PM

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 9/12/11 at 4:54pm

Very well-said, ThankstoPhantom, and obviously I'm in agreement. A really compelling actor who keeps to show interesting for themselves can't help but keep the performance current and fresh. In the moment, small choices can be made that are different than the previous night's, all while maintaining consistency.

Victoria Clark comes to mind. I never saw the same performance in Piazza twice, but the variations were so minor that only someone who saw the show repeatedly would pick up on them.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 7:16pm

OMG

A critic noticed.

Hm. "...Genghis Kahn on speed." Genghis was a horseman, doncha know. Oh, those Mongols. I gather Genghis wasn't reining it in. Hm, I don't think incinerating dragons exactly rein it in, either. Compared to this, I think my "notes" were downright chummy.

"...Schaeffer routinely misses that boat. Worse, he torpedoes perhaps the most important of them all, "I'm Still Here," by letting Paige steamroll through it like Genghis Khan on speed. Paige's character, Carlotta, is supposed to be a contemporary of the Main Four who refused to let the past own her the way they did: proof that life needn’t die with childhood dreams, not a dragon threatening to incinerate all in her path."

Mongols and dragons. Nice visuals.
Matthew Murray on Follies

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 7:47pm

^^^^

I hate to praise a critic but good point about why Carlotta is important to the show.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 9:21pm

Perhaps for this revival Carlotta should be renamed "Attila."

Whaddya think...Hun?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 9:43pm

Well, for me, nobody sings it like Yvonne DeCarlo. I think this may be the very best example of great writing for a specific voice. (And the fact that some of the details in the lyrics are drawn from DeCarlo's life doesn't hurt.)

And one of the nice things about DeCarlo's rendition is that she knew she had a great song, but she wasn't singing an "anthem".

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 10:19pm

And another critic notices the midpoint disaster:

"But while treasured British diva Elaine Page's "I'm Still Here" starts in a very effective conversational mode, halfway through she goes for full-on rage, with lots of eyeball rolling and harrumphing, an approach that doesn't do justice to the song's textures."
Musto on Follies

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/15/11 at 12:34am

And yet a third New York critic bemoans:

"Elaine Paige has made the damaging choice of ending "I'm Still Here," TV star Carlotta's paean to her hard-won survival, in a place of resentful anger."
Haagensen (Backstage) on Follies

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/15/11 at 12:58am

A fourth NY theatre critic chose to damn not by faint praise, but by entire omission from the review of discussion of the problematic performance, even of Elaine Paige's name, though giving mention to the leading quartet and many others:

"... The two main couples, whose wispy background has always been a principal problem with Goldman's book, come off as four disconnected entities, singing their hearts out in a vacuum; Burstein's Buddy carries the most conviction. ... For compensation, you get terrific turns by Jayne Houdyshell, Terri White, Rosalind Elias, Mary Beth Peil, Susan Watson, and Don Correia, plus an awful lot of top-drawer Sondheim. If Shaeffer doesn't create the cohesive work the authors strove for, neither did they. Like a giant seed pod spilling its gifts in every direction, Follies, as I said, is seminal, not pivotal."
Feingold on Follies

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/15/11 at 3:37am

And the most important critic of them all praised her performance, changing his opinion from the DC production.

In DC:
Ms. Paige undercuts what should be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser — the gritty anthem “I’m Still Here” — by delivering it with bizarre, flirty conversational emphases.

And now Broadway:
As Ms. Paige performs “I’m Still Here” — with a galvanizing fierceness that makes this much-performed song sound fresh and stinging — it’s not just an anthem of survival but also of rage against ravaging time.

And let's not forget that Polly Bergen took the angry approach for just about the entire song.
Updated On: 9/15/11 at 03:37 AM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/15/11 at 8:54am

Disagree. I loved Elaine, and found her unabashed, full-out, game on, go for it, "You're Still Here" a highlight of the revival and perfectly reasonable for Carlotta. I heard her phrasing was odd. Maybe in Washington it was. I didn't think it was here.

Also the set up, as staged, surrounded by a group of male groupies, like she was in a piano bar in Palm Springs, practically demanded her to do it exactly as she did.
Updated On: 9/15/11 at 08:54 AM

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/15/11 at 9:05am

Michael Musto isn't a theatre critic. He's a gossip columnist. Not that he's not entitled to his opinion, but...do your homework!

[newintown]

Posted: 9/15/11 at 9:43am

Every age has had a certain share of bad taste celebrities (Lillie Langtry, Evelyn Nesbit); but in an age when every public gal is walking her beaver on a leash like a Snooki or a Kardashian, aggressive bad taste is our status quo. Like I said earlier, at the press performance I attended, every queen was shrieking for Paige's circus act of garish vulgarity (including some recognizable arts writers). No big deal; tastes will change again. But personally, I found Paige's and Peters' performances to be ham-handed and burned to a smoky crisp.