Can’t watch the show live (temporarily no tv) but I’m watching #Wicked15 clips on NBC. And I love it, of course, but...it also gets to the heart of why I never really enjoy pop covers of Broadway songs. Sorry, Idina, but your performance of Defying Gravity left me cold. (1)
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Songs in the context of a show have stakes. There’s something going on that has to be resolved. Defying Gravity is an anthem of desperation and self-discovery (not to mention the Big Act I Finale
) and in the show, it’s a big, cathartic, amazing moment. (2)1 reply 0 retweets 1 likeShow this thread -
Idina standing there in a pretty sparkly dress mumbling the words (oh yeah, in the show you have to have diction, too!) doesn’t raise any stakes. Literally the only dramatic tension in the room is “Is she gonna hit the high note?” I felt the same way when they did it on Glee. (3)
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I’m not exactly against taking songs out of context—I play pop/rock songs on the Celtic harp, FFS—but when you take a song that represents a huge dramatic moment and turn it into just another pop song, I’m underwhelmed. I still want there to be STAKES. (4? I’ve lost track.
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I totally get why: to make it relatable to a wider audience. But the context is deeply embedded in my love for the song. Another example: the Hamilton Mixtape’s lovely “It’s Quiet Uptown” doesn’t make me ugly-cry, whereas the cast version does. It’s the story that moves me. (Fin)
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Replying to @harpmolly
It's an amazing song, one of the very best of all time, and works out of context. I can't blame Idina, that arrangement tonight was an appalling travesty. It was 80s synth, chimes, and the musical tension was torn out.
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Replying to @colmmacc @harpmolly
The original has so many timing changes, and amazing cadences and silences with those light drums that just pull on you. All gone tonight. Done right that song is 80% foreplay, and that's what makes the climax so moving and climactic. Instead we got awkward kissing at best.
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Replying to @colmmacc
I wonder if Alex Lacamoire did the arrangements? He’s usually so much more sensitive than that.
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I'd be surprised if it was. The arrangement forgot that less is more. This is a much much better one, while not the show version, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MslDnwerQRA … . Whole note pauses! And those backbeats!
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