Why I did'nt buy Bernadette!

Personally, I thought she was great.

Alright first of all I don't agree with you on anything you said. She understood that character to a tee. That is what matters.

She was hoarse- BULL

She was nervous- didn't see that at ALL...but if she was she was understandably. Singing the hardest role ever written and the hardest song, with 3 women before you who people say were all better. I think there was a lot on her shoulders.

She had problem with notes that Merman could sing in her sleep- once again Merman could sing it but as Arthur Laurents said she couldn't act it!

There were phrases that were weakly sung or finessed- She was acting- that is what was important. Not the notes and how toned or finessed they are. She was acting it, not worrying about the notes and that is what makes her BRILLIANT AND ELECTRIFYING!

She lacked any kind of real vocal weight to make the number her own!-Are you deaf- did you hear her sing the first "Everything's coming up Roses!"

She modified vowel sounds to produce a tone.- It's Bernadette Peters- she can modify whatever the f*** she wants.

She over –emoted to make up for severe vocal limitations. The emotion didn’t seem genuine rather, pasted on.- Not true at all

And if you have taken so many music classes you would know that Marissa "was out of f----- tune" the whole time!

Bernadette Peters has a distinct sound. That's what makes her wonderful. Voiceanth calls it modifying I call it Bernadette's voice. And her voice is one in a million. And she didn't modify the show. Voiceanth is talking about vowel sounds. It's her voice and she can do what she wants with it. She was still very respectful to Styne's music.

Updated On: 6/9/03 at 10:40 AM

How would you know her overall performance? How many times have you seen it?

She modified vowel sounds to produce a tone.- It's Bernadette Peters- she can modify whatever the f*** she wants.

Voiceanth: Not even if you’re Maria Callas, whom Ms. Peters is most definitely not.....

As Callas once said: A singer is there to serve the COMPOSER..... not the other way around.

I don't know what to tell you except that I completely disagree with you. A singer who doesn't act a song is a dud on stage. I don't want to watch and I think most people wouldn't. The music isn't going to just go to work on it's own. That would be like just reading Shakespeare outloud with no emotion. Music and words don't speak for themselves. They have to be performed with emotions. Otherwise they belong on a shelf. And if the emotions get in the way of the voice, so be it. It's more interesting to watch someone who truly understands the meaning of the song than it is to watch someone who is just singing the right notes. If Bernadette or anyone for that matter stood dead still center stage and sang that song with no emotion or feeling they would be booed of the stage. Steven Sondheim happened to hate Merman in the role, he called her a pain to work with who didn't understand his lyrics at all. It's not just Laurents. I'm sure if you told Sondheim what you just told me he would laugh in your face. It's a theaterical song, it is meant to be acted. It's not a museum piece. And your references to all these operatic pieces have nothing to do with musical theater. Of course in opera the singer serves the composer, in an opera the most important part is the music. Not the case in musical theater and anyone who thinks so shouldn't be involved in the art form. In musical theater no one serves anyone. The actor doesn't serve the composer and the composer doesn't serve the actor. They work together.
For as Harold Clurman once said "a script cannot do all the 'work' as a play; it does not play itslef" (same goes for the music)

Updated On: 6/9/03 at 11:16 AM

I don't know what to tell you except that I completely disagree with you. A singer who doesn't act a song is a dud on stage. I don't want to watch and I think most people wouldn't.

VOICEANTH: What I was trying to say is that Merman acted with her VOICE! Listen to the OBC. It's powerful as hell.

Steven Sondheim happened to hate Merman in the role, he called her a pain to work with who didn't understand his lyrics at all. It's not just Laurents.

VOICEANTH: WHERE did Sondheim say that? Her performance is still considered one of the seminal ones in the history of the American Musical Theatre. I am sure at the time Sondheim kissed the ground she walked on as he was an up and coming songwriter and she was one of the biggest legends in the theatre.


I'm sure if you told Sondheim what you just told me he would laugh in your face. It's a theaterical song, it is meant to be acted.

VOICEANTH: With the Voice! If you can't sing it, Ya can't act it!Gestures and painted on emotion mean nothing if you can't sing the song.

I'm sorry but I don't find the OBC with Ethel powerful at all. I find the Angela Lansbury recording much more powerful. As for when Steven Sondheim said that it is in several books written by him and about him. And believe me Sondheim didn't kiss the ground she walked on. She refused to sing several of his lyrics saying that they would make the audience hate her and she refused to let him write any of the music because he was too new. There are several interviews with him as well where he says the same thing. And if her performance is SO seminal why did she lose to Mary Martin's that year? hmmm....The work is seminal and she is well known for having performed such a wonderful piece. Don't get me wrong. Ethel Merman is a theatrical icon. She could tear down the house with her voice but as an actress, well, she wasn't up to par. You keep saying if you can sing it, you can act it. That's simply not true. I saw Alice Ripley in a production this fall of Tell Me On a Sunday and while she sang the role beautifully she gave possibly the worst performance I have ever seen on a stage. And that is because all she did was sing the songs, she didn't act anything. When her big numbers came she simply stopped acting and she sang the songs.

Here are some things people said about Ethel:
Sondheim- He told a handful of anecdotes about Broadway grande dame Ethel Merman, a brassy, overpowering woman trained in the low comedy of old Broadway. "She was very straightforward; she was not terribly bright," said Sondheim, who worked with her on "Gypsy" in the late 1950s. During a recording session of Gypsy Ethel refused to say one of Sondheim's lyrics because she was afraid the audience would dislike her and her character. Sondheim was so mad by this that later when he was recruited to say 'YOU AIN'T GETTIN' 88 CENTS FROM ME ROSE' he used his anger and frustration with her as the motivation to say the line for the recording.
Laurents talks about her in his memoirs in review one said- "The great Merm’s fans may not be thrilled to read his assessment of the Gypsy star’s mental agility." In a recent USA today article Laurents adds that Ethel Merman, "who introduced the lead role in Gypsy and is still regarded by many as the quintessential Rose,'was, for all her glorious voice, scarcely a layered actress.'" His favourite Roses were the two he himself directed on Broadway - Tyne Daley and Angela Lansbury, he said in one interview before this years production.

And yes magruder Sondheim said exactly that. He was also furious after he played Roses Turn for her the first time and he asked her what she thought about it and she said, "hmm...where do the 'mommas' go; on the up or the downbeat." He told her it didn't matter, that she could do them when the moment felt right and she laughed at him and insisted on a "real" answer. Yeah she was really working for the composers wasn't she?

Updated On: 6/9/03 at 12:03 PM

I have to say that I completely agree with you bestofbroadway. Bernadette gave the best performance on the TONY awards in a long time. I have seen both Hairspray and Gypsy and I would have to say that Bernadette's work on Gypsy is far superior to anything Marissa has done. As for last night Bernadette was flawless, she acted the song so well. And after all that is what matters. If you want to hear flawless singing with every vowel correct get a CD, that is not the only thing that is important on stage.

She was incredible... Get over it...

She pulled it off very well!

Bernadette's character Mamma Rose is supposed to be choked-up during the song "Rose's Turn", so any sense of hoarsness or nervousness can be attributed to the way the character is feeling during that point in the show!!! I think she was great!!!

See Ya!!!

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