Sally Bowles Portrayals — Page 2

Jane Horrocks is actually a very talented singer, known largely for having starred in the film 'Little Voice'. She made the choice to scream her way through the abortion-metaphor-heavy-Life is a cabaret at the Donmar Warehouse, perhaps a little too brash, but altogether thrilling.

Yes, she is, as anyone who has seen LITTLE VOICE can attest. But personally I have no interest in letting my ears bleed for two hours in the name of petty realism.

Sally Bowles is much more interesting when portrayed by someone like Liza Minnelli: she's a very talented singer who's stuck in a dump because of her own actions, not a simple curse of fate like being tone deaf. (Yes, I get the poignance of a talentless Sally waiting for her "big break", but that moves me for about 3 minutes.)

If we're going to extend the Prince/Mendes dictum about Sally's lousy singing, then shouldn't the four solos in FOLLIES' Loveland sequence also be sung badly? After all, Ben, Phyllis, Sally and Buddy aren't really Follies stars; they are ordinary people pretending to put on a show. Does anyone want to hear "Losing My Mind" screamed like bad Brecht/Weill?

And what about Pal Joey? Small time at best. Anybody want to see a PAL JOEY where Joey can't sing or dance?

We could go on and on in this vein. Hell, even FUNNY GIRL has songs that Fannie Brice could not have sung if her life depended on it!

I have a couple examples of Joely Fisher on benefit albums. I'm sure she made a fine Sally; she certainly has the musical chops.

Updated On: 6/25/13 at 09:01 PM

"shouldn't the four solos in FOLLIES' Loveland sequence also be sung badly?"

Wait... so Alexis Smith's singing in 'Follies' wasn't a character choice?

In all seriousness, I would like a well sung (in convential terms) Sally this time around, especially if this production gets recorded. However, I sincerely hope they don't go for a Disney/contemporary MT mezzo/soprano-type. I'd like someone in the classic Sally mould voice-wise, i.e. a darker, smokey sound.
Maybe This Time

In regards to the Follies sequence, aren't the characters in that moment in a sort of dream land? They themselves are not putting on a show in real life and real time, so I don't get the comparison there.

That being said, I think Sally can really be played by anyone who can at least carry a tune. While it's interesting if she's not really a singer, having a great voice doesn't take away from the sadness of the character in my mind. She's still a wreck, even if she can sing well. And what matters is if the actress can play that, not if her voice is perfect or not.

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I saw Joely Fisher, Mr. Midwest. She was marvelous. I still liked Natasha better, but Fisher was no slouch in the role.

Updated On: 6/25/13 at 09:22 PM

In regards to the Follies sequence, aren't the characters in that moment in a sort of dream land? They themselves are not putting on a show in real life and real time, so I don't get the comparison there.

Yes, of course. It's not a perfect analogy. (Pal Joey was better.)

But my point was the literalism of the Prince/Mendes view, which to me misses the point of musical theater.

^^^^ I'm sure you're right, darq, and I'm probably wrong to conflate Prince's and Mendes' views. I was merely addressing the literalism of Prince's oft-quoted remark that if Sally had any talent, she wouldn't be stuck in that dive.

I guess I just don't want to hear 2 hours of Kander and Ebb (or anybody else) sung badly.

I think the film Sally is an entirely different beast than stage Sally. Liza makes a fantastic Sally, but it is such a different conception of the character, and a very different conception of the material.
On stage I want an untrained sounding voice. Not a bad voice, just untrained. I think it lends to the stage production a bit better.

By "Cabaret" Sally has left reality and descended into her dream world (that is how Hal described the original production). By that logic, Sally should be able to belt out with talent and training as what we are seeing is no longer real.

^ this. We who saw her were incredibly lucky to experience that performance. A transformative match of role and actor.

Just saw a mind blowing, awesome college production of Cabaret and it made me think about this. Is it true that Hal Prince cast Jill Haworth because she was not a strong singer? She sounds pitchy to me and I can only determine that's because it was intentional.

I guess I'm really split on it. In theory I'm not against Sally being played by a "bad singer", but it's hard, because I believe that the songs help tell the story in this case and it seems wrong to me that "Maybe This Time" be sung by a bad singer. I mean, I guess it depends--what is "bad" exactly? Cuz I think it's one thing for Sally to be pitchy, another for her to be straight up Florence Foster Jenkins status.

Has there ever been a production where it's a specific choice that when Sally sings in the club its noticeably "bad" and the songs that serve as plot devices in the story she sings "well"? I only saw it onstage for the first time last night, since the movie so I'm not well versed in either Broadway/high profile productions outside of clips from Youtube, which again, rarely show the whole thing.

For anyone to compare Natasha Richardson's performance to Liza's, it's a huge insult. Liza is legendary for playing that role so well, the fact that she is an amazing singer and dancer made it even better. She is not supposed to be untalented, no one would give a spot to anyone at a cabaret show if she had no talent. 

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It doesn't make sense to compare Liza with anyone else.


I know that Minelli's performance is perfection and legendary, also the most accessible one but both Fosse and Kander/Ebb re-wrote the role especifically for her because she was Liza Minelli.


That's the reason her Sally is different, as the movie itself its far different from the stage production, because it's basically a ''new version'' of Bowles.


The stage productions stays the same, you don't have to be a great singer, actually you can be bad. I believe both Williams and Stone talked about this when played the roles. Richardson, Horrocks, well, you can be bad. It's almost like Roxie.


Of course some productions can be influenced by the movie version, but its ''not right'' to do it so.