Name:
Location: Seattle, Washington, United States

What you have here is an old guy. In education for 30 years, started teaching elementary, ended as library and media director of community college. I've enjoyed mountain climbing, sports car rallying, was pipe major of a bagpipe band, played guitar and sang during the folk revival, walking and hiking later in life. Now fairly sedentary. Enjoy reading, esp. mysteries and fantasy, but my reading is pretty eclectic. Enjoy movies, giving Netflix a workout.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Broadway Singers

Anna and I had a small discussion about singers in Broadway musicals after we had watched the movie, State Fair (1945). It is a movie about another time and another place, but fun to watch for a couple of oldsters who first saw the movie as teenagers. State Fair was never on Broadway as far as I know. At least I don’t think so. It got us wondering about a couple of Broadway singers who were very popular in their time. Ethel Merman and Carol Channing came to mind. I never cared for either of their voices. The most popular of the recent singers would seem to be Roberta Peters. I do like her voice. If you haven’t seen Into the Woods please do so. It’s a musical based upon many fairy tales all jumbled together. And I’m always surprised that Mandy Patinkin, who was so good in Sunday in the Park with George (Seurat) also acted in The Princess Bride and is now a current television series. Anyway, can anyone tell me why Merman and Channing were so popular? Not with me, they weren’t.

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Well, Ethel Merman was loud. You have to give her that.

6:51 AM  
Blogger Frank Denton said...

Thanks, Devin, for correcting me. Now I've got to figure out how they taught a big boar to act. Oh, and not be naughty during his time on stage.

4:58 PM  
Blogger Cap'n Bob said...

I think Bill has it. Those two could blow the toupee off a man in the back row, and you need to project on stage. Also, looks aren't as important for stage performers as they are for movie actors.

10:44 AM  

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