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| re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 09:25 pm EST 12/01/20 | |
| In reply to: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" - theatrelover1980 07:45 pm EST 12/01/20 | |
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| I believe Suskin rather mischaracterizes Angela Lansbury as "a London-born B-list contract player at MGM." London-born she was, but "B-list contract player at MGM" implies either that she made B movies, that she wasn't very good in them, that she was obscure, or all three of those things. None of the three is true. She was a star of stage and screen by 1964. (Moreover, it has never seemed to my ear that there is anything very wrong with anybody's singing on the OBC of Anyone Can Whistle.) | |
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| re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 01:32 pm EST 12/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" - keikekaze 09:25 pm EST 12/01/20 | |
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| I don't think anyone listens to the OBC of Anyone Can Whistle for great singing. Lansbury was acceptable but had some serious voice lessons before Mame which improved her singing, Remick was never known as a musical theater gal, and Harry Guardino makes me want to hear an a list baritone in the part. All three roles were more strongly sung in the concert version but I simply can't wait to hear the Jay recording, hoping it really knocks it out of the park. None of this is meant to imply the performances on the OBC are not for the ages, but neither are the roles strongly sung. | |
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| re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" | |
| Posted by: sf 01:36 pm EST 12/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" - Snowysdad 01:32 pm EST 12/02/20 | |
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| Somewhere on Youtube, there is - or at least used to be - an interview with Lansbury where she says she'd have very quickly been in big trouble if Whistle had run much longer, because she was pushing her voice in ways that weren't healthy for her. I love her performance on the OBC, actually - but I also love Julia McKenzie on the JAY recording. |
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| re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" | |
| Last Edit: young-walsingham 03:01 pm EST 12/02/20 | |
| Posted by: young-walsingham 03:01 pm EST 12/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" - sf 01:36 pm EST 12/02/20 | |
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| Perhaps it's the same clip but where Angela says that Herbert Greene held her and Lee with his fist by the throat in a way that damaged their confidence (at the very least). PS I have the new recording and love it. | |
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| re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 03:09 pm EST 12/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" - young-walsingham 03:01 pm EST 12/02/20 | |
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| I almost just posted more or less that about Herbert Greene a few minutes ago and then didn't. The whole thing seems to have been weird. Sondheim apparently wanted Lehman Engel to be hired. Kermit Bloomgarden probably wanted Greene, who had been the musical director on all the musicals that Bloomgarden had previously produced. Greene was brought in to work with Lansbury and Remick, and they apparently said that they had to have Greene, despite his weird technique of trying to relieve throat tension. Then it seems that he was hateful to Sondheim, and it was, if anything, a miracle that Lansbury and Remick were able to sing at all. | |
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| re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" | |
| Posted by: JLagow (JLagow@aol.com) 01:05 pm EST 12/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" - keikekaze 09:25 pm EST 12/01/20 | |
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| I was so struck by that characterization that I almost sent him an email. I didn’t because I realized what he probably meant. However, it reads as not kind. |
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| re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" | |
| Posted by: jurinac 07:57 am EST 12/02/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Steven Suskin's review on Jay Records "Anyone Can Whistle" - keikekaze 09:25 pm EST 12/01/20 | |
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| Knowledgeable though he is (to say the least), I knew not to put much stock in Steven Suskin's reviews of singing per se after he referred to Sergio Franchi's "booming bass voice" in DO I HEAR A WALTZ?, or when he said he couldn't tell whether Leontyne Price sang all the different roles on RCA's disc of PORGY AND BESS scenes. In this case, it looks to me as if what he was trying to say was that no one going into ANYONE CAN WHISTLE thought of Lansbury as a singer at all. And as wonderful as she seems to have been in WHISTLE, it still took some maneuvering (particularly by Jerry Herman himself) to get the original producers to cast her in MAME. But if I'm right, that's not immediately obvious from Suskin's review as printed. |
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