Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman for no more musicals, please

[best12bars]

But see Hollywood IS a community theatre. It just pays really well.

[PalJoey]

If Hugh Jackman played the King in The King and I, would he have to shave his chest?

[Rudy2]

I too agree that Rachel McAdams has a greater range than Anne Hathaway. Her career choices, especially from a critical point of view, have not been as smart.

[CarlosAlberto]

...But really, back to Hugh Jackman's chest...

[best12bars]

I think Hugh Jackman's chest should play Bali Ha'i.

Or the title role in The Sound of Music.

[chewy5000]

He could do Sunset Boulevard again - as Mr. Sheldrake.

[After Eight]

Dame Judi Dench - Olivier Award, A Little Night Music

Antonio Banderas - Fine performance, Tony nomination, Nine revival.

[sally1112]

Good example of this board at its worst.

[tazber]

Awards do not good singers make.

[After Eight]

Great performances in musicals don't always require great singers:

Rex Harrison, Yul Brynner, Richard Burton, Lauren Bacall...

[finebydesign]

What about Nicole Kidman!?

[best12bars]

Honestly, I think Hugh deserved his Oscar nomination, and I think Anne deserves to win and probably will.

I don't consider either one of them great singers, but I don't consider Carol Channing, Yul Brynner, Rex Harrison, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, Zero Mostel, or Gene Wilder great singers either. There are many cases in musical theatre and in musical films where it's entirely beside the point.

[Jordan Catalano]

Right but back in the 50s/60s, the same 3 people weren't used and suggested for EVERY.SINGLE. MUSICAL., probably because of people like Marni Nixon.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Um...I think Anne Hathaway is actually a pretty good singer. Do you think singing the role of Lili successfully, even if only for 6 or so performances, is easy? I had a friend who is very well train hemorrhage in the middle of a performance of CARNIVAL. Hathaway's not Audra, but I think she's pretty good.

And I second After Eight in removing Dame Judy Dench and Banderas from the no-sing list. Dench is considered the definitive Sally Bowles by many, and her Desiree is renowned. Banderas was startling good in NINE, and he was pretty terrific in that bore of a film, EVITA.

[newintown]

" I had a friend who is very well train hemorrhage in the middle of a performance of CARNIVAL."

Where's the You Tube link?

[SonofRobbieJ]

God I wish! This was in the days before such technology! And it wasn't like SCANNERS! It was towards the end of the show, and she just tasted blood in the back of her throat. She took a bit of a rest thereafter.

[newintown]

Drat. I was hoping for blood-drenched puppets and children screaming. Like Bil Baird meets Carrie.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Well...my Marco the Magnificent was badly danced, so there was that!

[tazber]

I guess it's hit and miss with me and non-singers.

Yul Brynner and Lauren Bacall are both fantastic and I love them on their respective recordings.

Rex Harrison however annoys me to no end. Obviously he's revered and gave amazing performances but I just can't stand that talk-sing thing he does.

I put Dench on the list based strictly on her warbling in Nine.

She may have been awesome when she was younger in Cabaret, but what she did in Nine was really just awful. And I love her to pieces as an actress.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Oh come now, taz. Does anyone really need to be singled out for NINE??? That was perhaps the biggest cinematic disaster I've encountered in a very long time.

[doodlenyc]

Unless they plan on making a film adaptation of the Disney Snow White, Seyfried needs to shut the f**k up.

[PalJoey]

...Dame Judy Dench...

It's Judi with an "i" not Judy with a "y" cause Judy with a "y" goes "The night is bitter, the stars have lost their glitter..."

[SonofRobbieJ]

I KNEW it was! And I knew it when I typed it. And then got distracted at work and hit post. Ugh.

Fucking lawyers.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Props to PJ for showing it's possible to correct someone, be clever, and still not be a d*ck.

[best12bars]

Do you think singing the role of Lili successfully, even if only for 6 or so performances, is easy?

Not at all. I also think Anne is well trained and so is Hugh. I don't care for either of them as singers, though. It's taste, not capability. I'm not a fan of their voices, but I still think both are good "musical" actors.

Russell Crowe can be a better actor than both of them in non-singing roles, but apparently the minute he opens his mouth to sing, he completely forgets how to act.

Hugh and Anne are good musical actors, Russell is not.

But I wouldn't listen to any of them warbling on the radio, nor do I long for a recording of Zero Mostel or Bert Lahr singing "White Christmas."

(Well, okay, maybe Bert Lahr.)

[SonofRobbieJ]

^ Well..that's fine. I have friends who HATE Audra McDonald's voice an cannot understand how I have a Pandora channel dedicated to her.