Rue McClanahan in Wicked.

Terrible and awful. She sure made the role unforgettable, but for all the wrong reasons.

TERRIBLE!!!
She has no vocal vareity. When she tries to sing, she barks, screaches, howls, and never is on the right note at the right time. It is actually painful.

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I laugh my ass off when people get mad Rue didn't really sing the part.

Morrible has like 20 seconds to sing in 2 songs. SHE IS NOT A SINGING ROLE. Get the hell over it. Kane on the tour barely sings the role either. Get over it. Morrible dosen't have to sing, It's can easily be done as a speak-sing role when she has to sing.

the non singing wasn't the point. the problem was that the role had no presence, borred me to tears and that the attempt at singing made me cringe.

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Well.. maybe she will grow into it.

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I saw her on an episode of Hope and Faith the other day, and she was very odd. I do love me some Rue though.

I believe the love dispersed when she started performing.

I saw her last week and thought she was okay, I suppose. The singing--eh, moving on. She plays Morrible as nothing more than a drunkard the whole show through.

I would have been fine with her walking on stage and farting, but instead she came on stage and decided to attack my ears.

Another one of her problems is that she constantly drops her lines. The second half of all her sentences are inaudible, while everything she says is just plain unintelligible.

She'll start her lines very quietly, but her mic is turned up so that it is a normal volume, and then she accencts random syllables, to the point that it is literally painful to the ears. The sound is immediately turned down, and then she gets quiet again. I feel bad for the sound guys.

And then her "singing." Just SPEAK, don't try to sing. Ugh....


Maybe I saw her on an off night, but from everything else I've heard, this seems to be common.

Updated On: 6/22/05 at 02:44 PM

I too find it interesting that people get so upset about Morrible's few lines. It is not a singing role and Carole admits that she is not even a singer, and only "learned" to sing when she took over for (I think) Carol Channing in...something. She said she started out as a ballerina using a "ballerina" voice. Later, however, she was advised to be herself, using her true voice.

That, I think, is what people are so disturbed about, because I am one of them. It is not her singing that I liked. I liked the power, the control, and the snarl that she brings to that role. I do not like the new drunk..."thing", which is also in the tour. When she's sober, we realize she is doing those bad things b/c she wants to, not b/c she is impaired. Each action is deliberate and calculated. She planned it; she planned everything and that makes her evil...along w/ a voice like Carole's.

I don't think Rue will stay with the show longer then a couple of months. I've heard that she is a trouper but that she's not really working out in the role. She's also supposedly pretty frail. All heresay, but coming from a legit source.

I agree. I can't see Rue doing this show all that long. She pulled out of "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" a few seasons back because she couldn't handle the strain of doing eight shows a week, right? Or was there some other reason that they brought in Polly Bergen?

Just because we didn't care for her in Wicked doesn't mean we don't like Rue in general. I loved her work on GG and still regularly watch her when I am able to. She just was the product of stunt casting, that's all.