| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | bradmurf 11:23 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - Lisa 11:01 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| You're a brave girl, Lisa. I find her technically flawless. And she was one of the two things about the otherwise pedestrian "live" telecast Thursday that gave it purpose. But I agree with you about her as an actress in just about everything else. Save for an intuitive performance in "Law and Order: SVU", she does not exude a great deal of warmth. "Smug" is a bit much. I would classify it as "chilly." | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | tpdc 12:10 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - bradmurf 11:23 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| If her performance the other night was chilly, then we have a different interpretation of that word. And you must have missed her in 110 in the Shade and Wit if you find her work lacking warmth. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | Page 03:35 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - tpdc 12:10 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| Loved her performance as Lizzie in 110 in the Shade. One of my favorite shows & scores. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 11:59 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - bradmurf 11:23 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| One thing you might not be aware of, Lisa. Audra really sings to some extent in a technical manner somewhat more suited to opera, even though she does have the Broadway style down too. I've no problem with her diction for the most part. But usually casting directors get scared nowadays when someone sings with a very big voice and with vibrato. Until more recent years when he'll allow questionable actors, didn't Sondheim go on record as not liking to cast very operatic voices? So Audra sang Beggar Woman in "Sweeney"; I bet she was great. Of course, she's a big star and no one is going to mess with what is clearly working for her. But when I hear Audra singing very full-bodied, I find it interesting that most other singers out there have either been coached or directed to tone down the vibrato. There are some big voices out there that can sing opera and musical theater. Judy Kaye springs to mind - though I think Kaye is even more flexible in use of stylistically sometimes not using as much vibrato. I think Kaye has even done stuff like "Jesus Christ Superstar" where a more straight tone would be appropriate. Marin Mazzie also has a big, sumptuous voice - she was fantastic in "Ragtime" along with Audra - but Mazzie can also belt like the Dickens when required, like in "I Hate Men" in "Kiss Me, Kate". I sometimes hear some Broadway voices that sound like Carrie Underwood - smallish, almost Minnie Mouse-ish as someone else called it here on this board, certainly as she approached the higher part of her range, very belty otherwise. A nice belt-mix like Mary Martin or more head voice like Julie Andrews would have been ideal. With Patricia Neway, an opera singer who created Mother Abbess, Audra's performance was very definitely the right style for her performance. She was quite good on the tv "A Raisin in the Sun", one of her Tony winning performances, though I felt Sanna Lathan really deserved as much acclaim. I'm not sure if Audra is smug; it just seems confident. | |
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| oops, "Sanaa Lathan", that is. nm | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 12:04 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - PlayWiz 11:59 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| nm | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | lowwriter 12:03 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - PlayWiz 11:59 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| I'll take Audra's singing over some of the American Idol type belting in a lot of other Broadway shows any day. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 12:09 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - lowwriter 12:03 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| It is one of the ironies that one of the ultimate insults of Simon Cowell on "American Idol" was to call someone "too Broadway", or "too cabaret". So where have some of those people ended up? On Broadway, though usually in pop or rock shows. I don't think anyone there has ended up in a traditional Broadway book show as of yet -- Mostly "Hair", "Jeckyl and Hyde" or "Rock of Ages" or "Grease", until Carrie Underwood's "Sound of Music". I'd actually love to see Melinda Doolittle or Elliot Yamin do something with some Broadway jazz - with Gershwin or Rodgers and Hart for example. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | lowwriter 12:12 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - PlayWiz 12:09 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| Fantasia in The Color Purple. I was actually looking forward to seeing Bo Bice in Pump Boys and Dinettes because he doesn't belt! It's too bad Doolittle isn't more well known because she could fit in After Midnight. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | ryhog 11:48 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - bradmurf 11:23 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| Since we here cannot even agree on what constitutes "good acting" (and why should be be able to?), it's not surprising that some find Audra McDonald's good and some find it bad. Ditto for her singing. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 11:34 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - bradmurf 11:23 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| The quality I would say borders on "haughty." She reminds me, in a very mild way, of Phylicia Rashad, in that she sometimes seems to be projecting "I'm too good for this room." This is not to say I think McDonald is actually haughty or unpleasant, but for whatever reason she gives off this vibe. Her massive eye-roll when Maria returns to the Abbey is an example of that effect. I expected the Abbess to snap, "Oh, hell no!" | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | robbyho 12:13 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - LegitOnce 11:34 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| Smug? Haughty? Too good for this room? Applied to one actress of color who you then compare to another actress of color? I'm not calling you a bigot. Truly, I'm not. I don't believe you are. But this syntax is dangerous: It seems to me to be "uppity" in sheep's clothing. I have to point out the this kind of language often gets attached to actors of color by white people, especially when actresses of color don't conform to your presuppositions about what they should be or whether they belong in the room. Because you didn't really expect the Abbess to snap "Oh, hell no, " did you? You expected a black woman in a nun's outfit to do that. Again, not calling you a bigot. But this "who does she think she is/who is she trying to be" thing has attached itself to Rashad ever since her Tony acceptance speech and it does seem to get pinned on black people a disproportionate amount of time. We could all stand to be a bit more vigilant about it, I think. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 12:57 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - robbyho 12:13 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| The shoe fits both ways: if I possibly have certain expectations about actresses of color (and I don't deny that I might, unconsciously at least), then I think all performers need to have some awareness of how they come across. If I didn't care for the way McDonald played that one scene, my displeasure I think comes from the fact that it felt too modern, out of period. It seems incongruous to me that the Abbess of a cloistered convent in 1930s Austria should roll her eyes in mock exasperation. It's essentially a camp gesture because it is inappropriate. Part of that inappropriateness is that it emphasizes the convention of casting an African-American actress as a European character and therefore violates that convention for just a moment, pulling the viewer out of the story. We don't see the Mother Abbess at that moment; we see McDonald as the Mother Abbess. I think this is a danger when any convention is invoked, which these days means when anyone attempts anything that is not typecasting. If, for example, you are going to have a 40 year old actor play King Lear, he needs to be very conscious of staying strictly in style, because any breach in that style is going to remind the audience that this is, in fact, just an actor playing a part, not King Lear himself. Or, I could say, if an openly gay actor is playing a straight character: he needs to be meticulous about avoiding any sort of gesture that reads stereotypically "gay," because that is going to remind the audience of the convention in place. Obviously this all applies only if you are working in a fairly naturalistic style, which this Sound of Music was doing. I should emphasize this was the only "out of the moment" bit in McDonald's acting performance I could see, but it was grating. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | robbyho 12:09 am EST 12/08/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - LegitOnce 12:57 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| I think if you get into a place where you say that black actors shouldn't do anything too "black" in typically white roles and gay actors shouldn't do anything too "gay" lest they remind people they're gay, what you're saying is that straight white people get to set the norms and that people outside of that category have to put a little extra effort into concealing their difference. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your response, but I couldn't disagree with you more. Because those rules allow white/straight actors a degree of interpretive range that would then be denied to other people. And aside from everything else, I don't think audiences care that much. If anyone was staring at Audra McDonald and was stuck on the fact that there couldn't have been a black Mother Superior in Austria and policing her performance for telltale blackness, that is a failure of imagination on their part for which she is not responsible. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | davei2000 01:32 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - LegitOnce 12:57 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| The big problem with this is that, rewatching the scene, I think you've caricatured a natural expressiveness as a "massive eye-roll." I see thoughtfulness, not haughtiness...Personally I think she's grappling with an unplayable moment. I don't believe a nun with responsibility for this young woman would advise her to throw herself at her employer of a few weeks... I will say she takes an unfortunate pause at, "If you love this man it does not mean you love God...any less." | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | davei2000 01:46 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - davei2000 01:32 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| I will also say that the climax of "Climb Every Mountain," with McDonald hitting that note and Underwood's eyes shining with tears, is the most successful moment of the whole telecast. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 01:51 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - davei2000 01:46 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| I think it is Underwood just listening and reacting like "This is how you do it! What a voice!". But I agree, it was a lovely moment. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 12:21 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - robbyho 12:13 pm EST 12/07/13 |
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| I've heard people call Patti LuPone a bit smug too. Among lots of other things - many positive and many not. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | TheOtherOne 11:37 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - LegitOnce 11:34 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| That was funny! She interjected humor very effectively, and showed that the Mother Abbess was knowing and down to earth when she needed to be. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | TheOtherOne 11:30 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - bradmurf 11:23 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| She was also not very impressive on an episode of "The Good Wife" a few seasons back. I think she is meant for the stage, where I do not find her chilly at all. (She was quite good in the televised versions of both "A Raisin In The Sun" and "The Sound of Music".) I like her very much, but you are not alone. I have two friends who can not stand her. Won't see her in anything anymore. I tried to talk them into seeing "Porgy and Bess" and they looked at me as though I were crazy. I don't fall all over her the way many people do, but I don't do that with anybody. | |
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| re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? | |
| Posted by: | MikeR 12:52 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - TheOtherOne 11:30 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| I will admit, as someone who has been a dedicated fan of hers for almost 20 years, that I found her exceedingly chilly on Private Practice. But I chalk that up to the role, mostly. But I adore her, unreservedly. If other people don't, that's fine, even if I can't understand why. | |
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