#92: Have you seen— ? How was it— ? You’re not serious!
Tuesday 11/5/24
As you know I saw Ragtime Sunday night. I LOVE Ragtime. It’s one of those formative shows for me and one I’ve been in 2x as Emma Goldman (one of them i was the understudy for Mother). So, if someone went down at City Center I could’ve been in the show immediately. That’s how well I know it. I also got to perform at the Easter Bonnet Competition at the Minskoff with my cast - we sang Union Square so I got to solo. It was wild. You know, every broadway person was there and heard me sing “masturbate” for the whole audience lol. Nothing like singing on broadway for the first time and having THAT be your moment! But honestly I wouldn’t have it any other way!
All the performances were great - Joshua Henry just leaves everything he has on the stage. Nichelle sang in Audra’s keys and I thought she was amazing. Her voice is flawless. Brandon Uranowitz found so much humor and his Tateh was gentle and funny and warm.
However, I found some actors really struggled with the lower notes required in their songs. These characters sing a RANGE. I remember the notes written for Emma Goldman are like a high B or Bb down to like an E or Eb. Mother is similar. Even Mothers Younger Brother has some bottom notes too. And so many of the actors couldn’t sing the bottom notes of their character with strength. Either they were airy and spoken, or they sang totally different notes. MYB has a line in new music “his fingers stroke those keys and every note say please and every chord says turn my WAY” and WAY is LOW. They changed the note to be an octave above how it is written. I found Shaina Taub to lack power in her voice as Emma and Caissie didn’t really honor the legit side of her voice. She sang quite contemporary the entire time - scooping, mixing, belting - way earlier than Back to Before. Now, B2B is always going to hit because it’s amazing. But I think the entire role is about finding her true voice. If she sings the same way the whole score… what storytelling is achieved vocally?
All this to say - WORK ON YOUR LOW NOTES! WORK ON CONTROLLING STYLE! WORK ON ADDING VOLUME AND POWER TO THE NOTES ON THE STAFF! WHERE HAS CHEST VOICE GONE?
I’m usually pretty positive so I don’t want this to come off as overly critical - they all did well. But I do think it is symptomatic of contemporary training that lacks chest voice and how to sing under middle C (for the ladies) and C3 (for the guys).
Happy singing! Oh, and I voted last week for Kamala Harris! Hope you did too!
Dreams Don’t Die
Julie