I think heaven will be full of angels singing like Marin Mazzie. I have a feeling they won’t be singing “I Hate Men” (or I hope they won’t), but they’ll probably sound something like her.
Kiss Me, Kate was my second show on Broadway, and Marin Mazzie blew me away. First of all, let’s just be frank, she looks amazing. She doesn’t even have to sing to take your breath away.
But then when she does sing, she’s so powerful and has such a beautiful quality. I think it’s a testament to the amazing quality in her voice that she can sing “I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple,” and you can ignore the sentiment of the lyrics and get swept away by the beauty of the language and the melody.
Plus she’s so versatile. In Kiss Me, Kate, she was a comedic tour de force, coupled with genuine romantic appeal. But then in Ragtime, which I viewed at the Lincoln Center archives, she gave an entirely different type of performance, a moving dramatic portrayal filled with nuance. Her rendition of “Back to Before” is one of my favorite Broadway songs ever. I’ve often been known to skip to that track and blast it in my car, allowing Mazzie’s huge voice and passion to fill me. How I wish I could have seen that performance live!
Fortunately, I’ve also been able to see Marin Mazzie in the DVD of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion, another beautifully sung and brilliantly acted performance we should all be thankful was preserved for repeated viewing.
I can’t mention Marin Mazzie without remembering the performances preserved for the two My Favorite Broadway DVDs. She sings four times on the two DVDs, each an awesome performance, but my particular favorites are getting to see her sing “So In Love” on The Love Songs and “Unexpected Song” from the Lloyd Webber Love Trio on The Leading Ladies, brilliantly performed solo and then with Audra McDonald and Judy Kuhn. You can’t die without hearing that performance.
Website: http://www.marinmazzie.com/
the Broadway Mouth
August 20, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment