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jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 10/18/2006 at 5:43:16 PM ET
The emails to her friends (and pestering her mum to get an account) were a nice update. However, one line is annoying in one of her email bits. It's the one in which she's describing her apartment-"it's not like Friends or Frasier." Frasier was set in Seattle, not New York.
I think the "Speed Dating" music is dreadful (lyrics not as bad, but with that ridiculous nonmelody, it doesn't matter) The Taylor song is not as dreadful, but lame. "Haven in the Sky"-lyrics are not the problem. It's that terrible music.
I thought the lyrics to the final song were a bit trite, but it's a softer ending.
I think Denise van Outen did a fine job with the material she was given. It's a very different "Unexpected Song"-she turns it into an introspective number. She's cute on the email bits without being annoying. She's very believable (character is no longer named from what I see on the RUG website).
Jenn
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/18/2006 at 6:39:41 PM ET
As I said, I don't think the new music is all that great. Let's face it, there are four really wonderful songs in that show and Bernadette had them all!
I do think that it is a rather smashing theatrical experience though and a great role for a really good actress. Oh yes, it also helps if she has a great voice.
I think you are misunderstanding the point about FRIENDS and FRAISER. We Britons ,(at least the ones who view such programmes), all know that FRASIER is set in Seattle and not New York ... but the point is that the British public would probably not really know any US comedy shows other than those two. I think those TV shows were mentioned purely because they were the only two that Emma's Mum and friends would possibly view on TV. Other US comedy shows are shown here of course but they are not as memorable or as succesful as FRIENDS or FRASIER.
The character will always be "Emma" to me. 
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 10/18/2006 at 7:38:19 PM ET
Frasier was more successful and well known in the UK than Seinfeld? That's interesting if so.
Sorry. I still think it's a bad reference. If there are no other New York centric sitcoms with which Britons are familiar than Friends, then cut the TV reference. It still doesn't make sense, since many scenes in Frasier took place at the radio station. The brothers' apartment never garnered much attention, unlike the Friends apartment (and every other lovely apartment featured on a New York centric show inhabited by young New Yorker characters).
Jenn
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/18/2006 at 7:49:25 PM ET
Totally.
Seinfeld was shown in a very, very late night slot on BBC's "arts" channel of the time, BBC2, with notoriously low viewing figures. Frasier, however, was Prime Time on Channel 4's Friday night comedy hour - just half an hour after Friends. Just do the maths!
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 10/18/2006 at 7:55:48 PM ET
Gotcha. I still stand that it's a weak reference. If the lyricist couldn't find another familiar New York centric show, the reference should have been dropped. We'll just have to agree to disagree.
(Frasier was moved from different timeslots in the US several times-once it left NBC's Thursday lineup, which it shared with Seinfeld, I don't know if it ever made it back into the top 10 Nielsen ratings, though it hovered close to it. Thursday night used to be NBC's powerhouse night from the 80s-late 90s...maybe into the first few years of the new century. Won scores of Emmys, though, and had a hardcore set of fans.)
Jenn
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/18/2006 at 8:17:39 PM ET
OK, but perhaps not such a weak reference if they were merely establishing the character's reference points to her people in the UK? The fact is "Seinfeld" would have meant nothing to her friends and family. And, by the way, what a singularly dreary looking apartment old Jerry S. had. British people would not have been impressed.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 10/18/2006 at 8:49:09 PM ET
I'm not saying that Jerry's apartment was The Dakota or anything like that, but what was so memorable about the brothers' apartment? Sure, they were metrosexuals before the word was even coined, and I'm sure it was tasteful (yes, Jerry didn't have a knack for interior design, but he had a nice sized apartment...is London not cramped for apartment space, especially for what a young single girl would have?), but other than that? When I think of Frasier, I think of the radio station, Dad and his chair, and Eddie the Jack Russell terrier. Oh, well. It's been a while since I've watched it.
If I'm understanding correctly, the only thing the Frasier reference has going for it is that it is the only other American television show, other than Friends, which would be recognized readily by most British people. If that's that, then that's that. I'm not concerned with the audience's understanding, it's the craft of the lyrics. I'm not really disagreeing with you-I get what you're saying-I'm disagreeing more with the lyricist's choice of reference. I really can't put it any way other than that, and it jarred me when I heard the lyric. But it's not like I smashed the CD in protest or wrote Don Black hate mail. These posts make me sound more invested in this one little lyric than what I really am.
(Isn't it almost 2 AM in London?)
Here's another thing-Emma/The Character Formerly Known As Emma used to be the only character in the show. Where are the disemodied voices in "Haven in the Sky" coming from? I'm guessing a recording. I'd like to see pictures of the scene. Does it look weird that she's doing the blood clot prevention exercises all by her lonesome? Or is this part of the suspension of disbelief deal?
(And does she ever have Internet connection problems when she's emailing, as I am having today?)
Jenn
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/20/2006 at 5:53:20 AM ET
Oops, must have dozed off for a couple of days, but thanks for the time check!
All that Haven in the Sky stuff is very much tongue in cheek - witness the very camp voice of the air steward - voiced by Julian Clary, a wickedly funny and very handsome comedian ( one of Gt Britain's "very finest homosexualists" - to quote the man himself). I couldn't tell you about the staging as I didn't go to see Denise in the show - I just have the CD. I'm afraid I'm not well off enough to see all that the London Theatre scene has to offer and am pretty selective these days. Marti Webb (the original Emma/Character) took this updated version on a national tour - now, that would have been very interesting!
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 10/20/2006 at 8:23:56 AM ET
To see Marti Webb in the show would have been very interesting!
Wasn't there a video of Sarah Brightman (way back) doing the Tell Me on a Sunday section? From what I remember of the Michael Walsh biography, it was made and shown around the time she and ALW married. I've heard her "Unexpected Song" on one of her recordings, but that's the only song I've heard her sing (I'm not a fan, so I don't have all her recordings.).
Jenn
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/20/2006 at 9:41:38 AM ET
Not at all sure about the Brightman video. I'm not a huge fan of her voice though her concerts are pretty spectacular. Marti Webb appeared in a complete BBC television presentation of Tell Me On A Sunday way back in the late 70's or early 80's.
Just harping back to the recording quality of the Bernadette S&D compact disc ..... I notice there is cuurently a cassette version of Bernadette's Song and Dance up for auction on ebay. I was wondering if anyone would know if it might be a better mastered recording than the CD? I would just so love to hear those beautiful BP top notes without that dreadful distortion.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 10/20/2006 at 3:36:04 PM ET
I saw Sarah Brightman in concert years ago in New Orleans (sister was a fan). This was when the majority of her concert was still ALW songs (this was several years after they divorced). Now that her style has changed-more new age, I guess?-I'm sure her concerts are much different.
I don't have that Walsh biography anymore. From what I remember, there was some talk about her singing "Married Man" so soon after his breakup/divorce from Sarah Hugill. If there was a video, it was shown once and never seen again, I think.
I have no idea about the cassette, sorry.
Jenn
|  moljul
Registered User
Registered:
4/2/2001
From:
New York
Fav. BP CD: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Fav. BP Song: Dublin Lady
| posted: 10/20/2006 at 3:54:05 PM ET
I've seen the video on some sort of ALW program though I saw it years ago - mid to late 80s. Somewhere in my vast video collection, it probably still exists but I wouldn't have a clue how to find it quickly.
"I'm one star away from Dolly Parton ... and Raymond Massey is between us. I hope we don't suffocate him." Bernadette Peters receiving her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, April 24, 1987
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/24/2006 at 9:33:52 AM ET
Having just read the afore-mentioned Stephen Holden review of the Song and Dance recording - I can answer my own question - no, he doesn't mention the sound quality of the recording as it is only the vinyl and the cassette recordings he is reviewing. It's amusing to read the entire review and see the way Mr Holden bestows a begrudged semi-compliment upon ALW's music one minute only to hurl enthusiastic abuse the next. "Mr Lloyd-Webber's strongest melodies boast a Puccini-like granduer and chromaticism without Puccini's sense of melting emotional surrender."
I find the different reviews of Bernadette's performance very interesting - especially as she was probably not then regarded the "First Lady of American Musical Theatre" as she is these days. In another review of the show .... "Miss Peters is an unimpeachable peach of a performer who does so much for the top half of this bill as to warrant its immediate rechristening as Song of Bernadette. She not only sings, acts, and (in the bottom half) dances to perfection, she also, superlatively,is" (John Simon, New York, Sept 30, 1985)
" The "Time" and "New Yorker" reviews also love Bernadette's performance , if not the show itself. I suppose some of you will be familiar with all the reviews but for those who are not - you may be like to read a few other (glowing) comments on Bernadette's "Emma" .... "After her performance in "Sunday In The Park With George" last season, which won her a Tony Nomination , Peters this time should get her velvety mitts on the Tony itself. Peters is so marvellous in Song and Dance that she threatens to make the show a hit all by herself." (Jack Kroll, Newsweek Sept 30, 1985)
And this one ..... "But this new Andrew Lloyd Webber product aspires mainly to add a new Broadway Kitten to the clever hit breeder's Cats. And if you succeed in ignoring the threadbare story line, thanks to Bernadette Peters, Song and Dance does in fact emerge as a brilliant one-woman performance complemented by a shorter, independent modern street ballet." "Three or four of the songs are very good: all twenty are beautifully executed by Peters." ( New Leader, Nov 4-18, 1985)
But this one has to be my favourite. The critic here compares BP to - well, just about everybody ...."Miss Peters narrates her fast-changing fortunes in New York City and Los Angeles with Madonna-like insouciance and bravado. She can combine deadpan with gusto when she sings, creating funny moments that are a cross between Bea Lille and Bette Midler. She can also belt a sad song without affecting tremulous airs, so that Webber's passion pieces, instead of sounding like dropouts from the somber moments of 'Cats' or 'Jesus Christ Superstar' are saved by a delivery that recalls Edith Piaf." (Paul J. McCarren, America, Nov 2, 1985)
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 11/8/2006 at 5:23:27 PM ET
I know no-one is probably interested but here I go anyway...
In my endless pursuit of Bernadette audio excellence, in particular the annoying, distorted sound quality of the CD version of Song And Dance ... I tracked down a cassette copy on ebay and was amazed/delighted to receive a factory sealed RCA tape. I then transferred it to CD via my Sony CD recorder and thereafter ran it through the Adobe Audition programme on my PC to clean it up even more.
Result? I am now enjoying a beautiful copy of Bernadette's Song And Dance on my iPod without all that dreadful distortion on her fabulous high notes. Sometimes analogue is heaps better than digital - especially when we have a singer like Bernadette who hits notes that defy and challenge that early digital process.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
|  leebee
Registered User
Registered:
1/19/2004
Fav. BP Song: Being Alive
Fav. BP Show: Sunday In The Park With George
| posted: 11/8/2006 at 5:42:21 PM ET
Interesting. Analog cassette players have a fairly limited frequency range (exceptions being very high end Nakamichi decks and the like) and bulk replicated cassettes tend to use mid-grade ferric oxide tape, which comes nowhere near the range and clarity that a CD will have. Yet that old Song And Dance CD sounds bad enough that it doesn't really suprise me that a production cassette could trump it!
I should do a vinyl to CD transfer sometime.
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 11/8/2006 at 6:05:58 PM ET
You might make some sense of this - on the insert notes of the cassette version of Bernadette's Song and Dance it says : "This album was recorded on a 3M 32-track digital tape machine and subsequently mixed down to a Mitsubushi 2-track digital master, using the NECAM console.
As I said, those wonderful Bernadette Peters top notes are now totally distortion-free on the copy that I've made - the only audio flaw that I can hear, now that it is on my iPod, is what I would call a "pre-echo" sometimes in the small silent gaps in the performance. But, I hear that on any amount of CD's anyway.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
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