Funny Girl

Just sayin' . . . 

link

LOL

Lovely to see Natasha recognised in the west end frame understudy of the year nominations for alternate Fanny 👌🏻

I've been dying for someone to throw her name into the mix! She was who I instantly thought of.

Feel free to knock me down on this, but if she actually turns up and does the shows, I dont feel that its a ridiculous casting choice? Maybe sharing the role with someone else for half the tour? I don't know.

It's not you, it's her. 

Matthew is back on as Nick tonight!

Enjoy!!! It's amazing (I thought it was anyway!). Sheridan is a star too! Report back!

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You should perhaps visit again on a Monday

The notes that the composer intended to be sung are set out in the score, along with some directions as to dynamics and expression, such as when to pause or rallentando, for example.

But are you really telling me that the score directs singers or musicians in the one and only one way they are able to or are permitted to interpret it? I hope not, because as a matter of basic musicality that just doesn't fly. If that were true, every single recording of a particular piece of music would sound exactly the same, but they don't, do they? You can't tell me that Barbra Streisand and Lea Michele, for example, sound exactly the same when they sing Don't Rain on My Parade (for example), because they don't - they're singing the same notes (for the most part - there's nothing to stop a singer switching a few notes if they want to, there's no law against it!), but their voices are different and their choices as to how they use their voices are different. Neither is right, neither is wrong, it's a matter of personal preference.

And of course Christines, Elphabas etc. are all different - why else would there be such debate over which does the best Think of Me or Defying Gravity? Belt or no belt? Recorded top E or live? It's the same score in each case, but each performer interprets it differently - that's what music is all about, and it's only one element of what a musical theatre performance is all about.

You keep going on about how things "should" be sung, but that's a concept that simply doesn't exist outside the realm of opinion. The score is the backbone, part of the tools of the trade, but it's up to the performer and their musical director how they utilise it to help shape the overall performance.

Take the score of My Fair Lady, for example. Rex Harrison was nowhere near what Fritz Loewe wrote. Does that make the original the way to do it or are the composer's actual notes and phrasing to be used? The answer, as always, is that there is no answer, writers write and performers/directors interpret.

I always liked Streisand's singing but she doesn't play characters through song, she just sings as herself, and that's why (I believe) she quickly withdrew from musical theatre, same with Minnelli, they are better in a cabaret setting. Take someone like Gwen Verdon and she was never a 'great voice' but she was a great performer of songs in character (Someone like Rivera hovers inbetween).

Singing ability and interpretation are not two discrete concepts. It's perfectly possible for a good singer to sing within themselves if that's what they think a particular song requires. They're never going to give the top end of their ability all the time because their voice would be wrecked if they did.

I'm not saying Sheridan is a singing superstar, we all know she's not in the top league of musical theatre singers on vocals alone, but it's simply not correct to assume that every note she sings is at the top of her ability and that's it. It's more complicated than that and it is inextricably linked to the choices she has made in how to portray the character.

That's all I'm going to say on the subject because we'll just be going around in circles otherwise - clearly we both have very different concepts of what makes a musical theatre performance, or in fact any musical performance at all, so we'll just have to agree to disagree.