#1
Posted: 8/21/03 at 9:40am
The greatest voice of her generation..and most of you don’t even know it…
So…about halfway through the Christina Aguilera's set at the Meadowlands last night, I wondered to myself, how I could bring up this topic…bring up a name used as a punch line by most Broadway people and tie the whole thing in with the state of Musical theater today..
My chance came when a simply dressed Aguilera announced she would sing a standard…made famous by her idol, Etta James…
With that, Christina Aguilera launched into the most searing, the most gorgeous and the most accomplished version of Harry Warren’s “At Last”, that I am ever likely to hear in my lifetime....It also appeared to be the only time during her set where Miss. Aguilera was really having a good time..
This is a talent…a major one....With perhaps the most gorgeous timbre and most unbelievable dexterity of any singer of her generation, she took a song sung by almost everyone in the past 60 years and made it her own …So hear we have this girl (I mean, what is she, 20?) with this very large, very gorgeous, pitch-perfect voice and solid musicianship…Singing a standard…
But not on Broadway…
In fact, one can only imagine the cries of outrage if Miss. Aguilera decided to do a show…the insults, the rancor, the abuse…by people who feel they know better…Even before she sang a note on any stage anywhere in the theatre district…
AS the film “camp” would indicate, Broadway and Musical Theater training itself, has become a refuge for people who feel like outsiders. Who are outsiders! If you’re a boy and you dress like a girl at your prom, even in the most tolerant places, someone is going to kick the crap out of you. At a very early age, it seems that worshiping Sondheim, worshiping musical theater, and mocking the likes of Britney Spears, is a way for people who don’t fit the norm to feel better about them. It makes them feel special.
Unfortunately, it also keeps performers and audiences away from musical theater…Broadway is seen as a joke by many…not a viable art form that a Christina Aguilera would want to participate in…or an art form she would choose to create a life in…
Sure Broadway does well…. makes money…but it could do even better.....it could be like it was in the 30’s…an art form people could relate to…an art form that any person could be informed by...all people..not just “special” ones…
Also, we are left with competent, talented and efficient theatre performers…most are scrupulously trained in all areas…yet what’s missing……Star quality…overwhelming star quality…the stuff of legends…the ability to command a 20,000 seat hall without any effort…the ability to have large numbers of people, the common people, enjoy your work…the ability to take a standard written by a man long dead and sing it like it was written today.... just for you…
It’s a waste and a shame..
So…about halfway through the Christina Aguilera's set at the Meadowlands last night, I wondered to myself, how I could bring up this topic…bring up a name used as a punch line by most Broadway people and tie the whole thing in with the state of Musical theater today..
My chance came when a simply dressed Aguilera announced she would sing a standard…made famous by her idol, Etta James…
With that, Christina Aguilera launched into the most searing, the most gorgeous and the most accomplished version of Harry Warren’s “At Last”, that I am ever likely to hear in my lifetime....It also appeared to be the only time during her set where Miss. Aguilera was really having a good time..
This is a talent…a major one....With perhaps the most gorgeous timbre and most unbelievable dexterity of any singer of her generation, she took a song sung by almost everyone in the past 60 years and made it her own …So hear we have this girl (I mean, what is she, 20?) with this very large, very gorgeous, pitch-perfect voice and solid musicianship…Singing a standard…
But not on Broadway…
In fact, one can only imagine the cries of outrage if Miss. Aguilera decided to do a show…the insults, the rancor, the abuse…by people who feel they know better…Even before she sang a note on any stage anywhere in the theatre district…
AS the film “camp” would indicate, Broadway and Musical Theater training itself, has become a refuge for people who feel like outsiders. Who are outsiders! If you’re a boy and you dress like a girl at your prom, even in the most tolerant places, someone is going to kick the crap out of you. At a very early age, it seems that worshiping Sondheim, worshiping musical theater, and mocking the likes of Britney Spears, is a way for people who don’t fit the norm to feel better about them. It makes them feel special.
Unfortunately, it also keeps performers and audiences away from musical theater…Broadway is seen as a joke by many…not a viable art form that a Christina Aguilera would want to participate in…or an art form she would choose to create a life in…
Sure Broadway does well…. makes money…but it could do even better.....it could be like it was in the 30’s…an art form people could relate to…an art form that any person could be informed by...all people..not just “special” ones…
Also, we are left with competent, talented and efficient theatre performers…most are scrupulously trained in all areas…yet what’s missing……Star quality…overwhelming star quality…the stuff of legends…the ability to command a 20,000 seat hall without any effort…the ability to have large numbers of people, the common people, enjoy your work…the ability to take a standard written by a man long dead and sing it like it was written today.... just for you…
It’s a waste and a shame..
Updated On: 8/21/03 at 09:40 AM
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