Music Monday: Showstoppers
Dec 5, 2004 Music
A few years back Brett got me the CD from My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies. The last two songs on that CD are spectacular. First, Jennifer Holliday reprises her stunning “And I Am Telling You, I’m Not Going” and the audience goes absolutely wild when she hangs onto this note at the end before soaring up to the ending. And you can hear that people are on their feet, that they are completely blown away by her and just as the applause just slightly lull, Elaine Stritch comes up to sing “The Ladies Who Lunch” and you can hear them go absolutely freakin’ nuts. It’s two major show stoppers right in a row and I think if I had been in the audience, I would have died right then and there.
Our first showstopper isn’t nearly as stunning as those two, I’m sorry to say. But I’m choosing it because it’s got a great showbiz story behind it.
Sutton Foster was in the ensemble cast of the musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie, a stage-version of the movie that starred Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore. The show was in pre-Broadway try-out and the producers were having trouble with the star. In a case of life imitating hokey Hollywood musicals, they asked Ms. Foster to step up and take-over the lead, despite her being a complete unknown. So what does she do? She stops the show every night with “Gimme Gimme” and then wins a Tony. The show deservedly got mixed reviews (although it won the Tony over critical darling — and much more fun — Urinetown) but hey, you gotta love that Ms. Foster leaped from the chorus and became a star.
–Gimme Gimme
Can’t get enough of ingenue makes good? I’ve got another one for you and it’s got a better song to go with it. Jennifer Holliday was just 17 when she went to Broadway to become a star. At 21 she landed the role as Effie “Melody†White in Dreamgirls. The show was inspired by the Supremes and is about a trio of Black girl-singers in the 60s heading for fame and fortune. Effie is the one who gets left-behind because she doesn’t fit the look (she’s too fat). Her 11 o’clock number is “And I Am Telling You…” and you need to understand something. This was 1982 so it’s not like American Idol was on then with a bunch of youngsters leaping octaves like little bunnies jumping over grassy hillocks. Whitney Houston wasn’t yet a top-40 has-been. No, Jennifer Holliday delivered this song with a gospel-inspired passion that truly took Broadway by storm. I myself did a Very Bad Thing and swiped the cassette of the show from the people I babysat for because I needed to play this song obsessively. And it still has that impact on me. I know this because I was listening to it on my iPod while I was working out tonight and when the song gets to just past the 2 minute and 24 second mark (you’ll hear it), my hearbeats per minute jumped up by about twenty. (If you’ve got headphones, put ‘em on and crank the volume up.)
–And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going
Finally, a true grand dame of Broadway, Elaine Stritch herself singing “The Ladies who Lunch” from Sondheim’s Company. This is a woman used to stopping the show in classics like Pal Joey and making Sondheim standards like “Broadway Baby” and “I’m Still Here” her very, very own. I like her as an example because unlike the other two songs, it demonstrates that you can star in a musical — hell, you can DEFINE a musical — even with a voice that isn’t technically that great. (I cling to this dream because frankly, I can’t sing worth a damn but I like to pretend that my delivery is absolutely swell.) Ms. Stritch may have, in the words of many, a voice like a buzz-saw but it doesn’t matter because the woman can act. If you want to see something absolutely riveting, check out the DVD of the original cast recording session for Company. You’ll get to see Stritch at 3am trying to nail “The Ladies Who Lunch” and failing. (Don’t worry — it has a happy ending as this mp3 demonstrates.)
–The Ladies Who Lunch
December 6th, 2004 at 4:43 am
Hey there, I’m sure you’ll have others to tell you but the links for And I’m Telling You and The Ladies Who Lunch are mucked up.
: )
December 6th, 2004 at 10:44 pm
Well, I don’t need the links because I have this cd of my very own, and these are my two favorite songs on it!
The first time I ever experienced Elaine Stritch was when I was in 9th grade or thereabouts - a musical nut even then - and I borrowed the video of the concert version of Follies from the library. Elaine Stritch sang Broadway Baby, with her usual energy and insanely perfect delivery, and I got goosebumps! I watched it over and over again - she was my kind of performer.
I still have hopes of being a performer in musical theater myself, someday . . . once I can play those great character roles.
December 7th, 2004 at 10:51 pm
I don’t have a time marker on my player, but I’ll guess the 2 minutes, 24 seconds spot was when I broke out in goosebumps.