Many of the leading roles for male singers in musical theater from the 1920's to the 1970's were written for a unique kind of baritone, known in the world of opera as a "bari-tenor", a lyric baritone with an extended high end giving such a singer the ability to also sing comfortably in the tenor range.
The European operetta, which was the template for early musical theater, utilized this type of singer regularly. John Raitt, the original Billy Bigelow in Carousel, was a bari-tenor as was Gordon MacRae, who played Billy in the 1956 film version; so was Harve Presnell and among today's singers, James Anest. Alfred Drake, Howard Keel, Robert Goulet, James Barbour, Paolo Szot & Natnan Gunn are baritones. Ezio Pinza was a bass baritone. Larry Kert, the original Tony in West Side Story & Robert Rousenville, the original Candide, are tenors.
The role of Ravenal in Show Boat was originally written for a tenor but in the 1946 revival through the present the role was changed to a bari-tenor or baritone. Many bari-tenors differ from baritones in another significant way: they usually have much more powerful voices than a baritone but this is not always the case.
The leading role in Pal Joey sounds much better with a bari-tenor, although the original Joey was Gene Kelly, a light lyric tenor. Most of the male roles in recent American musical theater are written for an untrained pop vocal style which relies almost completely on heavy miking for volume and falsetto for high notes.
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