alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

#1

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 6:56pm

listening to the Martin Guerre OLC and it's Rebecca Lock singing Betrande and not Juliette Caton... i've seen vids of Juliette singing the part and she wasn't all that bad... on par with her co-star Iain Glen as Arnaud... i remember hearing that the producers wanted her alt. to be on the recording instead of her... which kinda sucks.. because her voice was nice

anyway... how often does that happen? when a star doesn't get to be on a recording but rather the alternate?

#2

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 6:58pm

The kid who sings Colin on the OBC recording of The Secret Garden was either the alternate or the one who took over (or maybe it's the same kid) because by the time they recorded it, the actual OBC Colin's voice has changed and he was no longer a boy soprano.

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"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt

#3

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:00pm

Joan Jett was not able to record the Rocky Horror Show revival recording so Kristen Lee Kelly sings in her place.

Updated On: 5/13/12 at 07:00 PM

#4

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:01pm

Judy Kuhn is not featured in the revival recording of She Loves Me.

#5

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:22pm

"Joan Jett was not able to record the Rocky Horror Show revival recording so Kristen Lee Kelly sings in her place."

Not quite true. Replace the words "was not able" with the words "refused to", and that statement will be closer to accurate. Ms Jett wanted a great deal more money than others in the cast to do the recording, because she felt her name and rock star image would sell more of the OBC than if she were not on it. She wanted more money. They could not come to an agreement. She was able - she just wasn't willing.

#6

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:27pm

This is long ago now, but on the OBC recording of "1776," Rex Everhart portrayed Ben Franklin because Howard da Silva was ill.

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#7

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:38pm

Because of her contractual obligations to Decca, Ethel Merman was not allowed to appear on RCA's "original cast recording" of Call Me Madam. Dinah Shore replaced her on that recording.

#8

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:39pm

"she felt her name and rock star image would sell more of the OBC than if she were not on it."

Joan Jett was probably right about this.

#9

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:42pm

Of course the sad fact that Brent Barrett had to replace David Caroll ion the Grand Hotel recording springs to mind.

#10

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:45pm

Because of her contractual obligations to Decca, Ethel Merman was not allowed to appear on RCA's "original cast recording" of Call Me Madam. Dinah Shore replaced her on that recording.

And, as After Eight knows, Ethel Merman then recorded her own version of the score for Decca, with subs in the other roles. My local library had the Merman version when I was a kid and I very nearly wore it out.

Do you know the Dinah Shore version, After Eight? I've never heard it, but I've always thought Dinah Shore the oddest choice. Don't get me wrong: I love Shore, but she was a crooner and not someone who comes to mind when I think of replacing Merman.

#11

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:47pm

The Wardrobe on the BATB recording.

#12

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:50pm

Teresa Stratas did not appear on the Rags recording as the lead. Julia Migenes sang the part of Rebecca on the Recording.

#13

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:57pm

"she felt her name and rock star image would sell more of the OBC than if she were not on it."

"Joan Jett was probably right about this."

Possible, as no doubt Joan Jett fans with no interest in Broadway would have bought the OBCR just for her - but are there really that many? She also wanted to exercise creative control and produce the recording. The producers wanted her to stick to the role of cast member.

She also never had an Equity card. I'm still not quite sure how - or why - that happened. Don't want to join Equity? Don't perform on Broadway.

#14

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 7:57pm

How do you know that I know Merman recorded her own version? Gee, the presumption of some people...

I do have the Dinah Shore version. She sings the songs well, but doesn't really seem to inhabit the character, which is entirely understandable.

#15

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 8:03pm

Norm Lewis recorded the role of Roger on the original cast recording of A New Brain, although Chris Innvar played the role in the production.

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"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#16

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 8:11pm

"She also never had an Equity card. I'm still not quite sure how - or why - that happened. Don't want to join Equity? Don't perform on Broadway."

From what I have heard this had to deal with the fact that her contract was never truly finalized with the production, and thus never actually filed with Equity.

#17

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 8:17pm

How do you know that I know Merman recorded her own version? Gee, the presumption of some people...

Are you saying you didn't know that, After Eight? If so, I am honestly surprised.

You know perfectly well that if I hadn't qualified my post, it would have appeared that I was condescending to lecture you on a part of the story you had missed. You have demonstrated sufficient knowledge of musical theater history to deserve better treatment. That was my only aim.

Thank you for your impressions of the Dinah Shore version. Maybe I can find some of it on You Tube.

Updated On: 5/13/12 at 08:17 PM

#18

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 8:32pm

Yes, I knew it. But one shouldn't presume anything about another's knowledge, or lack thereof.

And now, I feel I must broach another, more painful matter. I find it astounding that you or others here could ask questions of a person you have insulted, reviled, and derided on a public forum.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people with no conception of propriety would behave in such a way.

And yet, foolishly, I am.

#19

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 8:49pm

You have said on here in the past that you would ignore Gaveston from now on (despite the fact that he's one of the more considerate and fair minded posters on here), as you have myself and probably others. Yet it seems impossible for you to even handle that, but that's when the fault lays in your own foolishness if it bothers you so much, as you admit. If you would like to be treated with no derision, then you have to treat others that way too and stop acting like you're a victim of some sort of cruel bullying, when it's been your defensiveness that has instigated all fo it.

Oh and I agree that Dinah Shore feels detached from her material on the recording--she very much treats it as a series of pop songs she has only some experience with.

#20

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 8:53pm

I think the Dinah Shore CALL ME MADAM is currently available on one of the British labels such as Sepia or Jasmine or such. You can't underestimate her popularity across the nation at that time. She may also have been under contract to RCA, as Merman was to Decca, and RCA already had the contract to make the album.

If you read the liner notes for the most current release of the OBC of CAMELOT, it notes that the understudy for Nimue appears on the album in place of the actual (and indisposed) actress playing the role. Both names momentarily escape me.

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Well-well-well-what-do-you-think-of-that-I-have-nothing-here-to-pay-my-train-fare-with-only-large-bills-fives-and-sevens....

Updated On: 5/13/12 at 08:53 PM

#21

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 8:53pm

This is going to get entertaining.

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"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#22

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 9:01pm

The Shorre one is on Flare UK--one of those public domain (I believe?) labels that have done cheap cast album reissues. The sound is very disappointing even given the circumstances like many of those recordings, so I wouldn't pay full price for it, though it is nice to have.

#23

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 9:14pm

If you listen to the dialogue in "You Did It" on the OBC of MY FAIR LADY, Mrs Pearce's lines are spoken by a man, probably one of the male servants, which leads me to believe that her vocals in "I Could Have Danced All Night" might have been recorded by one of the female servants. Perhaps Goddard Lieberson couldn't see paying Phillipa Beavans a week's salary for such a small contribution to the album.

And, lest we forget- Stephen Sondheim's small contribution to the GYPSY album and Harold Arlen's vocal of "Man For Sale" on the BLOOMER GIRL album.

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Well-well-well-what-do-you-think-of-that-I-have-nothing-here-to-pay-my-train-fare-with-only-large-bills-fives-and-sevens....

Updated On: 5/13/12 at 09:14 PM

#24

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 9:35pm

It's "when the fault lies," but that's the least of your problems, both with respect to grammar and comportment.

Perhaps I can somehow break through your incoherent ramblings with the simplest of declarations, addressed to you, to him, and to all others to whom it might apply:

Don't ask me any questions.

#25

alternates on recordings instead of the main actor

Posted: 5/13/12 at 9:35pm

I do not know if this qualifies but Larry Kert in Company.The role was originated by Dean Jones but Kert is on the OBC album

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