DIVA TALK: The Joys of Divas
By Andrew Gans
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THE JOY OF LIVE RECORDINGS My discman broke a few weeks ago. Since I never got around to buying a new one before my trip home for the holidays, I dug out my old walkman, which gave me the chance to listen to some live recordings I hadn’t heard in awhile. What is it about live recordings that make them so enjoyable and a must for the true Broadway collector? Why do we need to have a copy of every Norma Desmond or every woman who played
Evita ? And, why do we need not one copy of
Elaine Paige in
Sunset Boulevard but two or three (for the record, I never heard Paige hold the world “home” in “As If We Never Said Goodbye” as long as she did during her first six-week run in the London production)? Perhaps there’s no clear answer to this madness, but true fans know that performances change from night to night, and what’s sung in head voice one evening, might be thrillingly belted the next. And, not only do performances change slightly from night to night, but an actor’s take on a role can change dramatically from the beginning of the run to the end. The three tapes I brought with me for my bus ride home were a live recording of
Betty Buckley ’s first London concert, performed during her West End run in
Sunset Boulevard ; a recording of
Bernadette Peters in the Broadway production of
Song and Dance (a fairly new acquisition, as my first copy broke from over use); and an evening with the late
Nancy LaMott at the Algonquin Hotel.
I hadn’t heard Buckley’s concert in awhile, and was thrilled by her song selections and her singing: intense versions of “Pirate Jenny” and “Surabaya Johnny”; gender switched, belty takes on “Marry Me a Little” and “Finishing the Hat” plus many others. The live tape, which was actually a BBC radio broadcast, also included a few tunes that didn’t make it to the Sterling Records release: a Gershwin medley that included “How Long Has This Been Going On?,” “Embraceable You” and “Fascinatin’ Rhythm,”; the Maltby-Shire tune, “What About Today?”; Amanda McBroom’s “Dreamin’”; and
Peter Pan ’s “Never Never Land.” It was also fun to revisit Bernadette Peters’ dynamic performance in
Song and Dance , which wasn’t captured quite well enough in the show’s RCA Victor cast recording. That show depended so much on Peters’ interaction with the audience, and a studio recording could never capture the stage magic she exhibited in her Tony-winning role as Emma, the English hat designer. The humor she brought to the letters home to her mother as well as the vocal flourishes she added during the show’s run were not captured on the cast recording. The few Nancy LaMott tapes I have are some of my most treasured, and it’s hard to believe that this month marks six years since LaMott’s untimely death from cancer. The recording I listened to, a gift from another LaMott fan, was one of her last acts,
Something Cool , which featured exquisite renditions of “Cool,” “Up on the Roof,” “Shoes,” “So Many Stars,” “Lazy Afternoon,” “Ordinary Miracles” and perhaps my favorite version of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “The Waters of March.”
THE JOY OF JULIE ANDREWS My Fair Lady and Camelot included Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, Rebecca Luker, Patrick Wilson, Jeremy Irons and Robert Goulet . As I listened to the glorious voices of Chenoweth, McDonald and Luker, I wondered what Andrews must have been thinking, knowing that she is no longer able, like these women, to create the sounds that make an audience cheer. Thankfully, however, Andrews was always a wonderful actress as well and has continued to act in films and on television. I also realized that the majority of the new generation of female Broadway stars -- Chenoweth, McDonald, Luker, not to mention Laura Benanti and Melissa Errico -- are sopranos rather than belters. I must admit, for me, that it’s still the belters (Bernadette Peters, Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone, Elaine Paige, Judy Kuhn, Lea Salonga, et. al) who possess the voices I find the most exciting. . . Andrews was also the subject of an interview in last Sunday’s New York Times . Writer Craig Wolff spoke to Andrews about her career, her voice and the operation that has left her unable to sing. “Over all, I don’t dwell on it,” Andrews said, adding, “I haven’t given up, and I’m grateful for what I’ve had, grateful this happened now, not sooner.” Ms. Andrews, forever our Mary Poppins and Maria von Trapp, remains a class act.
OTHER JOYS: Tony winner Donna McKechnie will return to Arci’s Place in N.Y.C. with ten performances of her acclaimed act, “An Evening with Donna McKechnie: My Musical Comedy Life.” McKechnie will perform January 3-12 at Arci’s, and tickets to the show are $30 with a $15 food/drink minimum. Call (212) 532-4370 for reservations . . . On this Sunday’s (Dec. 30) broadcast of Everything Old Is New Again (9-11 PM on WBAI 99.5 FM or go to http://www.2600.com/offthehook/hot2.ram*), you can expect to hear four renditions of “In Passing Years,” including those by Nancy LaMott, Lee Lessack, Frank Dain and Rick Jensen , the song’s composer. The radio program will also spotlight the new CD “Liza Minnelli Ultimate Collection,” and two lucky listeners will win a free copy of Minnelli’s new release . . .
REMINDERS :
BETTY BUCKLEY
January 4 & 5, 2002 at the Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford, CT
BARBARA COOK
PATTI LuPONE
February 9, 2002 at the Tilles Center with the Long Island Philharmonic (“Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda”)
February 28 at Carnegie Hall in New York, NY (“Coulda Woulda Shoulda”)
BERNADETTE PETERS
Well, that’s all for now. Happy diva-watching!
