Re the original production: I would not say Sarah Rice was shrill, if you mean vocally. I wouldn't say she was shrill in any way. On the tour video, Betsy Joslyn sounds shrill a lot of the time, but that is because "Green Finch" is in a higher key and she was reportedly quite sick with the flu when it was shot. I don't think she sounded vocally shrill when she replaced Rice on Broadway. Whether it was because she was sick or for other reasons, her performance on the tour video is broader than I remember it being on Broadway, although she did always go more comic with "KIss Me" than Rice did, which I thought was fine.
As Chromolume says, Anthony is a baritone role, although tenors have sung it, along with baritenors. Having said that, Victor Garber's voice was more Broadway than operetta, and perhaps not as impressive as many later Anthony's voices, including Cris Groenendaal, Groenendaal is really more a baritenor or a low tenor than a baritone. (He discussed this once in a Times piece.) "Johanna" was raised for him on the tour.
Anyway, we can, of course, disagree on this. Just wanted to offer some alternate opinions. |
