Song & Dance

I love Bernadette, but what is with the recording of Song & Dance. She sounds congested through the entire recording and her final notes on Unexpected Song and the Finale are just poor at best. How and why was this released with the poor quality of her performance.

Updated On: 6/17/05 at 11:30 AM

She was sick at the time of the recording. I'm sure costs restricted what they could do. I love the majority of her singing on that album though.

And I believe the entire recording was done in either one or two back to back days which is a brutal thing to ask anyone in the midst of singing that role 8 times a week, even when they are not sick. I also find the overall quality of the recording quite bad. The sound levels are all over the place.

That is true. Though I usually like the performance that is captured when everyone has settled into their roles a bit more. But in the case of something like Song and Dance, a recording before opening might have been a better choice.

You have to love Bernadette for staying in character. At one Gypsy performance, Baby Louise came out for the Let Me Entertain You Number in her Uncle Sam costume only the jacket didn't seem to get entirely on during the quick costume change. One sleeve was hanging down free. Louise was busy dancing but you could tell she was getting worried about what to do as she was not going to be able to jump rope with one of her jacket sleeves hanging down. Rose (Bernadette) was busy in "the wings" with June, helping her to get dressed but she glanced behind her shoulder onto "the stage" and saw the problem. She gave Louise a few moments to fix it herself but when she clearly wasn't able to, Bernadette walked out from the fake wings onto the fake stage and did her big smile and wave of her hand like she does when one of the farmboys drops their hat and Rose has to go on stage to retrieve it. She ended up pulling Louise's jacket completely off because they just didn't have time to get it on and Louise performed in her shirt. After Bernadette got the jacket off, she acknowleged the audience again before she went "off stage" to help June where she appeared to us to be back at the business of behind the scenes work. It was a very interesting and obviously spontaneous choice of an actress who was clearly completely in character.