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Post by theatresellers on Jan 1, 2024 0:35:45 GMT
Has anyone seen a musical where the actors do not sing but rather a choir or band does all the singing? If so, what do the actors do while the choir or band is singing? Freeze in tableau? Dance? Something else?
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Post by toomasj on Jan 1, 2024 0:45:32 GMT
Dirty Dancing was like this, the two lead actors would dance and two vocalists either side of the stage sang the songs. It was… a strange choice in an already very poor show.
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Post by theatresellers on Jan 1, 2024 12:51:04 GMT
Dirty Dancing was a popular show. At least the actors were dancing while the vocalists were singing. In a thread (there are a few) about Dirty Dancing in the musicals section, only one person (that I noticed)mentioned this issue about the play.
After I asked the question, I thought about Greek tragedy, which I’ve never seen staged and never read in Greek. The chorus sings or speaks in poetry. I wonder what the actors do while the chorus is speaking/singing.
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Post by Sam on Jan 2, 2024 9:10:48 GMT
At least one of Vincent and Flavia's shows worked like this. Very much set up as a musical rather than the usual Strictly show with dancing and talking interspersed. It had a storyline and was acted/danced by Vincent and Flavia with other people actually singing the songs for them.
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656 posts
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Post by greeny11 on Jan 2, 2024 10:06:05 GMT
The London production of Strictly Ballroom had almost all the singing done by Wally, with the leads doing the smallest amount of singing, but doing a great deal of dancing.
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Post by Jan on Jan 2, 2024 10:56:36 GMT
After I asked the question, I thought about Greek tragedy, which I’ve never seen staged and never read in Greek. The chorus sings or speaks in poetry. I wonder what the actors do while the chorus is speaking/singing. They do what they do when another character is speaking, the chorus (which is interpreted in many different ways these days) is effectively just another character. It reminds me of an actor who was in a Harold Pinter play which was being directed by Pinter himself. He complained that Pinter was "only directing the actor who was speaking". Possibly a problem when a playwright directs his own text. Proper directors direct everyone on stage - in the case of Trevor Nunn he used to develop extensive backstories for all the supporting actors to support their reactions to what the main actors were doing and also give them bits of business to keep them occupied.
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1,582 posts
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Post by anita on Jan 2, 2024 11:12:42 GMT
The last "Saturday Night Fever" tour was like that. The band above the stage were lead by the supposed 3 Bee Gees who did all the singing.
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4,984 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 2, 2024 11:52:31 GMT
The last 45+ mins of Here we are has no singing
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Post by theatresellers on Jan 3, 2024 17:26:51 GMT
The last 45+ mins of Here we are has no singing Did it bother you that it had no singing for 45 minutes at the end or at least did it seem like something was missing?
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4,984 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 3, 2024 17:30:38 GMT
The last 45+ mins of Here we are has no singing Did it bother you that it had no singing for 45 minutes at the end or at least did it seem like something was missing? I would of preferred it to be sung, as I loved the score until it stopped singing. Some of the spoken moments really cry out for a Move On type song. Also, the book gets a bit repetitive so I struggled to love it overall.
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