Scores lowered to fit certain actors?

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 12:54am

Do you know of any performances you've seen understudies of or replacements and the score was lowered to suit the actor?

*side question: was the score for TCP lowered for Kenita Miller?

[bwayrocks_ca]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 1:08am

The two that I can think of are Sunset Blvd. and Glenn Close and (not broadway) but the movie version of Evita and Madonna. (both of which I dislike very much, IMHO).

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 1:09am

I think but I might totally be wrong that La Cage Aux Folles for Robert Goulet

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 1:10am

Toni Braxton in Aida.

Melanie Griffith in Chicago.

Mel B in Rent.

[MAC]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 1:14am

The keys for Celie in TCP are the same for LaChanze and Kentia Miller. Ms. Miller does a great job as Celie.

[hortonhearsasam]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 1:16am

I'm pretty sure Sid's songs in The Pajama Game have been lowered for Harry Connick Jr.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 1:16am

Not a replacement, but they lowered the keys for Angela Lansbury when she did Rose in GYPSY.

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 1:19am

Angela Lansbury was rose in gypsy?!!

*thanks MAC! just curious! Kenita's voice sounds a lot lower..lol guess i hallucinated that

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 1:27am

Lansbury won the third of her four Tonys for her classic performance as Rose back in 1974 (she did it originally in London and then brought it to New York for three months). Some consider hers the finest Rose ever, especially from an acting perspective. The cast album of that production is readily available.

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 1:30am

*runs to Borders*

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 3:28am

Keys have been changed in plenty of revivals. Occasionally, they're changed for replacements in original productions, sometimes upward, for example when Maureen McGovern replaced Karen Akers in Nine. And wasn't at least the title song transposed up a bit for Vanessa Williams in Spider Woman?

Sometimes songs are lowered for the same performer later in a career, as with Lenya and Jenny in Threepenny Opera. And I'm guessing that the same down-an-octave choice is being taken by Lauper in the current production. And in the famous Theatre de Lys production, Lucy's music was also taken down an octave, at least when Bea Arthur played it.

When Patti LuPone played the title role in Regina in concert at the Kennedy Center, I think that almost all of her solo music was taken down.

There are, I'm sure, tons of examples. Surely the keys were lowered when Liza Minnelli played Luisa in The Fantasticks and Lili in Carnival! in stock.

[IssaMe]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 7:28am

Wasn't the role of "Fabrizio" in "Piazza" lowered for N.Y. run? Burnham can sing it in the original key in which it was written.

There was some jiggering to adjust to the cast when the show came in.

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 7:40am

The keys for A LOT of the songs in Spider Woman were changed for the Vanessa Williams cast. Vanessa sang most things (if not all) in a higher key and Howard McGillins keys were all higher. Some of the transitions from song to song or within songs are strange because of the key differences. In "Where You Are" the intro is in one key, but when it moves into the body of the song it's a completely different key. I guess I'm just used to the Chita keys and transitions, but I think some of the transitions sound strange.

[just_me1981]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 7:53am

I know that when Shoshana Bean and Joey McIntyre were on in Wicked 'As Long As Your Mine' was lower and they had different harmonies to the OBC. And from memory I also think that Vanessa Williams' stuff in Into The Woods was taken down.

[JBSinger]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 8:26am

Some current key changes:
South Pacific concert actually raised the key for Bali hai for Lillias.
Sweeney Todd lowered some of Patti's numbers (though I can't imagine why since she clearly can sing them in the original keys)
They lowered Marian's music in the Music Man revival (and on TV) in order to make it more "conversational." Again, stupid bc both Luker and Chenoweth could sing it.
If memory serves me, I think some of Tracy's music in Hairspray has been adjusted from time to time. At least the cast I saw with Marissa's first replacement, some of her stuff sounded lower.
Pajama Game is Totally lowering "Hey There" for Harry.
Flower Drum Song was totally reimagined so most of the keys in that show were messed around with - "Love Look Away" becoming a power ballad.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 8:52am

I second just_me1981 on the WICKED key and muscle23ftl on Toni Braxton in AIDA.

Although many women have played Christine in ALWs POTO to rave reviews, they have actually lowered and changed the cadenzas and keys for some of them... at least to my ear. I have heard many Christines in my day

[musicaltheater1]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 9:54am

Not a replacement, but they lowered the keys for Lea Salonga in a song (chorus of Love Look Away) in the Flower Drum Song revival.

[Kitzarina]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:02am

I would imagine that they also lowered Toni Braxton's keys when she was in Beauty and the Beast. All I know is that the original key for "Change in Me" was so low that they had to transpose it up for my mezzo/belter book.

[starletta8]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:06am

Forgive the Wicked example, but this one stands out in my mind: the lowering of "As Long As You're Mine" for Taye Diggs.

And it seemed like it was still a bit high for natural range after it was lowered.

[west end artist1]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:12am

When i was doing Fame in london and it was time that the producers brought in a new girl to play serena ALL of her songs were lowered even the duet she has with nick (and i can tell you first hand he wassnt very happy)

xx

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:15am

This is actually a very common practice. Most songs are written in a key and, when the original cast is assembled, they will alter the keys to best fit the vocal range of the actors. We come to think of songs as being in "show key" because of their cast albums and the fact that the licensed, rental versions have those original keys.
Don't some shows offer multiple keys? I'm thinking Hello Dolly gives you Carol's original set along with (is it Pearl Bailey, perhaps) slightly higher versions.

[west end artist1]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:23am

yeah from what ive heard it happens a lot
As i said it happened through the london production of fame i did and also when i did Oh what a Night it happened there A LOT.

[Calvin]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:26am

I've seen productions of Miss Saigon in which the Engineer's two main songs were played in a lower key (odd, because they're not really that high to begin with).

[Jon]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:34am

I'm pretty sure that all subseqent GYPSY revivals - Daly, Peters, the Midler movie, have used the lower keys (Lansbury's).

The rental materials for SWEENEY TODD include "Epiphany" in the original key, and a step higher, since the low sections ("All right - you sir - how about a shave?...") can realy scrabe the bootom register if you are a high baritone rather than a bass-baritone.

[matiboi]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:35am

Toni Braxton and Andrea McArdle had lowered keys in "Beauty and the Beast". I'm fairly positive that Howard McGillin had highered keys in "The Secret Garden". Marylouise Burke's keys were lowered in the "Woods" revival.