Smoking?

After reading the Gypsy thread about smoking it got me thinking HOw many singers on broadway do smoke?? Anyone from the big shows right now?? WIcked, Boy from Oz, etc

Maybe Bernadette Peters smokes, that's why she always has vocal problems hmmm.....

I think Raul Esparza smokes. A lot of the Dancers at ABT also puff away.

Even La Streisand smokes.

Don't they realize how much...well...better they would be if they didn't smoke?

i saw Norbert LB smoking.

Since when did Rachel York start smoking?? She sure didn't when she was in SP!

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I saw Joe Camel, that bastard, he was out during the production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (he was the Ishmalites ride). I actually saw that camel bastard take a drag before he was on. Despicable.

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ABT= American Ballet Theatre

We kinda had this discussion be fore. Many "artistes" have a lot of anxiety . I mean think about it you are CONSTANTLY being judged and usually found wanting. This leads to stress anxiety" nerves" fear of failing etc. A lot of people get the same feeling when the body misses its "fix" of nicotine so. A cig calms the nicotine withdrawal which makes them feel less anxious but of course its a vicious cycle. With dancers the nicotine also helps kill appetite even if it does reduce their lung expansion/oxygenation. The psychological benefit feels more important. The thing is smoking is SO aging that only very young performers can get away with it before the effects really show in their face. (esp important in film)

I met Sean Bean(a chain smoker) a few years ago and had thought he was really "dishy" from the "Sharpe MOWs.
But now- he looks "like he was rode hard & put away wet!"
Too sad.

I have a LOT of great singer friends. and a LOT of them smoke. I hear all the time about if I had that voice i would never. well they do so that is their choice. I am a dancer and my dance teacher use to smoke in class!!! Ashtray on the piano. I do not have a qulam about any performer smoking. I do not think anyone should think less of them. they might smoke and people comment but I bet go home right after a show and chill and rest. No one chooses to comment if a performer is boozing til the break of dawn (which i have found way harder on the voice) Every show i have done, a night where the cast goes out and parties it UP, EVEN if you sleep in. Everyone voice was raspy and shot!! Had NOTHING to do with the smoking but maybe the shots and liquor.

I am just saying cause I have seen threads on this subject before. to me who cares, it is their life. I do not think any less of them. I think that is silly!! I enjoy finding out who smokes too cause it makes them a little more human to me.

I guess you and I have really different ideas of what "cool" looks like, Ruffian.

If inhaling the smolder fumes of a burning weed looks cool, so be it (to each his own)!

On the other hand, smoking harms some voices and doesn’t affect others. I know several operatic singers who smoke incessantly (sp?) and it has absolutely no (or little) effect on their singing voices (May lower them a bit).

However, and the big question in my mind is the health issue. Hello, and here is a new flash, smoking has been linked to lung cancer (Oh, say about 40 YEARS AGO!!!) How anyone can make a case FOR smoking as a hobby is beyond me. What's the next new hobby-sex without condoms (I understand this IS a new and alarming trend).

Anyway, it's just my opinion, I may be wrong.

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Updated On: 5/14/04 at 09:48 AM

I am not endorsing smoking, I dont smoke myself....I was being glib, didnt mean to ruffle feathers on the topic