Waitress - Adelphi Theatre / U.K. Tour / Cinema

I know that some people look down on riffing. My mother in particular always says that people who riff "couldn't hold a note in a bucket". But you really do need to be damn good at singing to be able to carry it off with any aplomb. You don't have to enjoy listening to it, but there's no need to incorrectly put down performers who do it by haughtily implying they're unskilled.

I don't think anyone has implied any of the aforementioned performers are unskilled. Calm down.

*Raises hand* I did!

Sorry but who are you? Are you running a dictatorship? Do you have some kind of control issues? I haven't done anything wrong. Merely expressed my opinion and been shot down for it. This place is toxic because of people like you trying to control everything. Thought this was a nice, free speech forum. I've been a lurker for months now, and have seen so many people been banned or ostracized for having a differing opinion.

Every response I have received has been condescending and I don't know what you want to achieve. All of this, just because I said Lucie and Layton riff too much. Jesus wept.

Manners cost nothing, and as far as I can see you haven't shown any in this thread so far, so it's unsurprising people are reacting to you. But really you are the one getting defensive here, if you cooled down and gave your opinion in a respectful and measured manner rather than a rude one then people might not actually object, or at least have a reasoned debate.

Having different opinions and discussing them is of course the whole point of a forum but that goes hand in hand with expressing them politely and respecting that others might disagree with you. It's also reasonable to expect that people might get mildly irritated if it's something that has already been debated to death earlier in the thread - threads that just go round in circles are not fun (see the Wicked thread).

It is a bit brazen of you to join a forum where many people have posted generally fairly harmoniously for years and start trying to dictate the tone. It doesn't work like that.

I confess I thought of this thread when I saw that one of the trending hashtags on Twitter at the moment is #AshleyOut (no idea what it actually refers to)!

This kind of sums up the priorities of the stagey community doesn’t it. ‘Average PCD is only ok in west end debut so fans call for her removal on the socials’ shocker! 😂😂😂😂

Yup, I'm afraid the old adage of "can't hold a note" is plain incorrect.  Holding a note in fact is the relatively easy bit, unless you've got really poor breath control and support... riffing is the tough part if you want to do it right!  You need to hold basically anything else in the set-up of your vocal instrument you use for your first note in the run - embouchure, tongue position, false folds retraction, vowel shape, placement in the resonator(s) - unchanged, whilst varying pitch alone.  As this requires for your vocal folds to be lengthened/shortened by tilting forward/backwards your larynx, or for a change in vocal fold mass or a change in larynx height or for some combination of all the above, and as all the components of your vocal tract are physically connected... well, riffing properly is actually an indication of very solid vocal technique.  

Of course there are contexts where - if overdone - it doesn't bring any added value in terms of storytelling and communication and it becomes plain annoying.  I have never been a fan of over-riffing Elphabas, to be honest, as I don't think that the character requires that.  By contrast, if used at the right time and in the right amount, it seems to me that it can become another valuable "option" in the singer's toolbox, just as a different brush can allow a painter to obtain a different effect in a portrait.  

As far as 'She used to be mine' is concerned, there are effectively riffs written in the score , and they are not accidentally on the two long "mine" which correspond to the maximum emotional release for Jenna.  Not even Sara Bareilles herself sings them exactly the same every time, either in concert settings or in the context of the show, which tells us that the vocal line is indeed open to a certain free execution in those few bars. 
If the actress playing Jenna sticks to the vocal line as written in the score substantially all the rest of the time, as Lucie Jones does, then by giving herself permission to go "off script" precisely there, she stresses how that is the moment when Jenna positively reclaims and makes peace with "that girl that [she] knew" and she starts to break free from the dysfunctional relationship she's been living in.  

Riff my Queen! RIFF!!!!!

A recently recorded video of part of 'A soft Place to land' has been released.
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