Tonya Pinkins as Caroline

[What Happened To Straight Thea]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:36pm

So, I'm sitting here listening to "Lot's Wife" from Caroline or Change. And I can't figure out why so many people thought she was so bad in this show (and on the Tony's-- i thought her performance FAR surpassed Idina's). I saw it in June and I thought she was absolutely brilliant and I LOVED "Lot's Wife" in the show, and even on the recording. You can feel her pain and heartache, and just from listening you can tell how connected she is. I think it sounds wonderfully passionate and Tonya Pinkins' Caroline is one of the most beautiful things to hit broadway in a long time.

[Justice]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:38pm

Tonya gave a great performnce...but, in truth, vocally, she could not handle it. Her voice cracked...a lot. Even on the Tony's. She had a hard time sustaining the note. But, even still, she did the show night after night. Don't get me wrong, Tonya was brilliant - But a friend of mine saw Adrienne Lenox, and said she was amazing. I love Adrienne, and wish that I could have seen her perform this role, because she is one talented lady.

[focusingonmoviesmatt]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:33pm

I thought her voice cracking help in the part. I saw her in one of her last performances and thought she was great.

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:34pm

Being a HUGE Caroline fan, I thought the cracking worked well in the show. It definitely did not work on the Tonys. You could tell she was sick, and quite flat. I think she missed the next few shows after the Tonys due to some type of throat problem. It's a shame that is what people saw of her. She was immensely better in the show itself.

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 11:23pm

After seeing the Tony performance, I almost commit suicide.

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 11:47pm

Too bad you didn't follow through..I felt the same way watching the JCS revival on Tonys.

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 11:56pm

what is this about judging people based on their icons?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 11:59pm

Even though Tonya was certainly (obviously) not up to par at the Tony's, Idina was much worse. Tonya cracked, but she was on pitch. Idina belted her ass off, but the entire second half of "Defying Gravity" was off-pitch. They both gave better performances in the actual show, obviously, but I would have to agree with the original poster - she gave one of the most beautiful and solidly moving performances that Broadway almost never sees these days. I feel that she should have won the Tony over Idina, not because I don't like Idina but because absolutely nothing compared to Tonya Pinkins performance that year, and it set a level of brilliance so high on Broadway that I doubt anything will live up to her for a very long time - hopefully I'm wrong. She broke my heart.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:03am

I loved Tonya Pinkins in the show... she gave an incredible, heart- wrenching performance. But her voice absolutely couldn't hold up. It sounded like she was in pain. It didn't ruin the show or anything though...

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:05am

Her voice did have a thread of tension in it, but I thought it made her character that much more heartbreaking. When I saw the show for the first time, it was in previews and she had no vocal issues.

[TonyaFanatic]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 10:21am

lets look at this woman, this Caroline; she has been through HELL. Her voice is not gonna be coluratura. sorry. her son is in vietnam, she's afraid her daughter's gonna die in a race riot somewhere, she had to beat her husband half to death and now he's gone her young sons need new clothes and dental work. cant enjoy goin out and havin fun and buyin stuff like other kids. they have NOTHING. she has to work for a woman who means well but is one of those people that thinks she can "save" her.
her heart is in a knot. a ball. her emotions are stuffed so deep in her soul that she cant even cry internally. her voice better not be pretty, or else i wont believe it, and if you understand acting, youll understand that it's the EMOTION that matters. i dont think anyone on this thread who's seen this performance didnt feel that pain when she sings LOT'S WIFE.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 10:23am

I saw the show in August and her voice was in fabulous shape. Guess I was lucky.

[Justice]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 10:26am

"she had to beat her husband half to death and now he's gone"

I was under the impression that she killed him. Therefore, didn't she beat him to death?

[TonyaFanatic]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 10:28am

No she didnt kill him, she beat him up, and then he left her.

[Justice]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 10:31am

So then what's all that six feet under ground stuff throughout the show? I thought Lot's Wife explained that.

[Jamie Hat]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 10:35am

Her acting enabled me to ignore the notes she didn't have.
All the critics knew that she deserved the Tony.

[TonyaFanatic]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 10:36am

she's six feet under the ground in that basement. it's a theme repeated throughout the show of being under ground, being repressed. and they also say "sixteen feet below sea level" because the state of Louisiana is sixteen ft. below sea level.

[Justice]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 10:38am

Hmmm...
I liked the idea that she killed him, and had to escape that guilt.
I'm not sure if I liked the show anymore.

[TonyaFanatic]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 10:39am

okay.....

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 11:24am

Justice - that doesn't even make sense because it's not six feet, it's sixteen feet and obviously no one is buried that deep. 16 feet beneath the sea is Caroline's basement - her place of employment, the place that is so damn hot and lonely. But it's also her like her one little apartment in this house. The metaphors are endless. Think about that, and then listen to "Underwater" near the end of Disc 2 when Noah asks Caroline what it's like underwater (meaning the basement). Heartwrenching indeed.

p.s. the song "1963" describes Tonya's relationship with her husband.

[Justice]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 11:50am

Sorry, I guess I was too into Anika to pay attention to what was going on with Caroline...

(or maybe, the fact that Tonya was cracking so much had me tune out her words...)

Updated On: 2/3/05 at 11:50 AM

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 11:54am

Good one

[Tom1071]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:29pm

Actually Leo, the song is 1943 that describes her relationship with her husband. The show is set in 1963. :)

I thought that Tonya gave one of the most amazing performances ever seen on a Broadway stage. Her vocal distress totally worked for her and showed the dispare that Caroline was in. It's not always about being note and pitch perfect. She never waivered in her acting intensity.

[IveGottaBeME]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:30pm

ahh i love tonya she's incredible. she got a standing ovation when iw as there, im sure she did every night. she did deserve that Tony, but who cares. they both were very different roles

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 3:13pm

I loved the show and her vocals were fine the evening I saw it on Broadway last April. She was a bit raspy during lot's wife but it was ok. Her not so great performance on the Tony's was due to her being under the weather. According to something I read, she had asked not to go on as she was worried about how the performance would turn out. My understanding is that Wolfe and, I think Kushner convinced her to go on. Most likely because they could not do another number. I wish I can remember where I read this. But it was a day or two after the Tonys.

As for Idina's performance...I will only say that she was much better when I saw the show a month before the Tony's. Her Tony performance made me and my friends cringe.