OK everyone so back in 2001 I started
this concert series with the Actors Fund and Tim Pinckney and Katherine Cook
basically putting this big concerts on Broadway we began with Dreamgirls and we did probably six of them and Actors Fund is now letting me
use the videos to deconstruct so this is the third concert that we did it was
Funny Girl and I had I had always like dreamed of doing Funny Girl with women
that wouldn't normally be cast in the part but that would be like amazing in
the part so we have a you know Jane Krakowski and LaChanze and Kristin Chenoweth this is one of the most brilliant performances that's ever been on Broadway unfortunately was only on Broadway for a night Lillias White, Tony Award Winner, not someone you'd necessarily cast as Fanny Brice but this performance is crazy and a couple things I want to say before
we begin A) she was supposed to sing a different song in the show, I can't remember, I think it was "People" but then we didn't have anyone to sing "Don't Rain on My Parade" so we wound up giving Julia Murney "People" which was amazing I think Deb Janke was choreographing and was like "'what about Lillias for 'Don't Rain on My Parade'" I was like, I don't know it's an up-tempo number, she's not gonna be able to show off her amazing voice I ran into her when I was walking my dogs and I was like they want you to sing "Don't Rain on My Parade" she's like it's literally my audition song I was like, it is? She's like, yeah I love singing it I was like, alright it's amazing performance, here's the thing it's such a signature Barbra Streisand song that's
like anyone else is gonna sound like a clonk on it she so makes it her own but
not an annoying you know something people make it their own I'm like I get
it you're slowing it down making it a folk song and sounding horrible, no she
makes it her own in the most brilliant way okay so let me start from the
beginning okay the first thing you have to know is this it's a vamp and the cue
is she goes don't tell me don't and then it's kind of up to me to go and by the
way normally your vamping you're in front of the singer you go bump don't
tell but in these concerts were in back of the singer and it was like kind of
before we had video monitors so it's very stressful, like I couldn't cue her, so
she went don't tell me don't and I was like I'm gonna go right into it she's
gonna love it so I was like don't tell me don't
and I thought she starts singing and it she didn't so I gave the down beat for the
orchestra so they start going which it goes like this don't tell me not to live just sit and putter, life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter like all the chords were wrong so I want
you to just hear that it's really subtle but the band, half the band goes right, half the band goes wrong It's really my fault for bringing the cue too early but
still it's a clunk fest okay here we go So she totally got me back The next year we did Hair, I'll show you a quick clip of that the introduction Aquarius was crazily
extended I think all these things were happening on stage and at it was
literally like I don't like 30 bars of introduction for Aquarius and all these
things were gonna happen and then finally Lillias was gonna come out, well
she kind of came out a little bit early but it didn't matter because I told you
in rehearsal I will cue you when you're supposed to go cuz I could actually see
her so I said I'm gonna cue you and you just see her she just plants it sassily
and begins singing okay so just first let's just listen and then I'll show you
something out so let's just listen to what happens great trumpets Sassy, she's like I'm gonna begin and not look at Seth What I want you to see is literally my crazy panicking turning like it was like three pages early earning a thousand pages and I just
start playing the piano cuz I'm trying to cover for the orchestra so just want you watch it one more time because I'm obsessed with that here we go, so she comes up on stage plants it just watch me, terrified turning the pages Turning, turning, and playing! Second Verse, this is where Lillias starts making her own, "If someone takes a spill it's me and not you" she adds this little riff and then instead of "who
told you you're allowed" she does a little riff now here's the thing
I don't want American Idol riffs just like what's the melody dear it's
just enough riffing to make it her own but still stay within the melody and
that's at the point where the audience is like oh my god, they flipped
out and they start applauding you know that they realize this
is gonna be amazing, it's just so crazy to get applause within a song, but she
gets it because she changes the melody just enough to make it phenomenal what I love is these concerts, part of the licensing is that you have to hold the script for I
don't know 70% of the show, it has to do with like how much you pay for the
licensing, so you have to hold scripts but by the time you get to songs we
don't want to have scripts you always have to have like kind of fun ways to
get rid of them so Peter Flynn was directing it so you see like she's annoyed at Eddie Ryan, Eddie Ryan is the one who says "Don't tell me, don't" who says, "Take my advice, don't" so she sort of gives him the script like I've had it with you so it's great way to get rid of the script
then she has a ticket to go on this train and she decides not to go so she
gets rid of the ticket by giving it to her assistant Adrian Lennox, by the way, Adrian Lennox, Tony Winner totally believes in the Actors Fund and like did
this really look not a big role in Funny Girl speaking of the Actors Fund, its not just for actors it's for anyone in the business,
singers, dancers, ushers, filmmakers, crew, IOTSE anybody can get help from the Actors Fund, so it's a misnomer calling it the Actors fund she gives the book to Jon Shira playing Eddie Ryan and then she gives a ticket to Adrian Lennox but it's so much more pointed because she
literally takes your hand puts it in the hand I'm just obsessed with the
blocking for that moment She does this little tiny riff I want you to hear Did you hear, "Your turn at bat" it's this tiny little she's really a jazz singer in a lot of ways, Lillias, it's this tiny little jazz riff that I love on the word "at" it's subtle but it's so within the song that
it doesn't stick out but it's delicious on the word "I" What's so fun about doing these videos is that I can also comment on the amazing staging so I want to just first see the sassy sassafras head then the "ooh love is juicy" crazy full body Phil black jazz class from the 80s then when she's like gimme gimme love so just those three most sassy head
Phil black or Luigi, anybody Luigi? then hands, okay here we go she adds the most of it this
is the first time she's like I'm going all out riff wise at the end of this phrase, here we go, listen there has to be a reason, it becomes a solo song so you can't have those two annoying people standing on the side like judging her Her assistant, Ryan, so they have to
leave for a reason so this is when Eddie Ryan has to leave, played with my
friend, John Scherer, but I decided he's also leaving because he's had with her
riffing because you see him like totally judge her riff, he's like you know what, no,
you have to sing the song exactly as ink or as I'm leaving this spot I decided
that's the subtext why Eddie Ryan leaves cuz he's had it with the riffing okay then right here, I want you to hear
yet again, the tiniest subtle changes to the melody which by the way, is what
Barbra Streisand did, so you can't go like how dare she, Barbra Streisand's constantly
changing melodies in a matter of fact I was interviewing the great Marvin
Hamlisch and Barbra changed the melody to Sadie Sadie, which is amazing, and Marvin either he wrote the vocal arrangements, all I know is that he was the rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl but I think he wrote the vocal arrangements so he came back to her dressing room and
he was like Barbra, he said the melody how you're changing the melody is actually clashing with the vocal arrangements and she was basically like are they coming to hear the vocal arrangements or to hear me enough said It wasn't being obnoxious but she
really would come up and she changed the melody
but she actually makes it better so my point is Lillias is not like rude to
change melody because it's in the style of Barbra Streisand, Barbara always
made little adjustments it's an American Idol style where you're
like I don't know what you're singing okay here it's so subtle and it's so
within the style now by the way that that "bam" I decided
is in the style of Norm Lewis and Julia Murney because you're warming up for your final notes so if you ever saw Porgy and Bess you know "I've Got Plenty of Nothing" Norm would go "no use complaining" he'd always go "no use complaining" it was this crazy high placement and I totally bust him on that, I was like you're warming up for your last note in the song he's like mhm, "no use complaining" so it's A) Norm Lewis B) Julia Murney Whenever Julia Murney's at a benefit, watch her because she'll be in the audience cheering, but it's not cheering she's literally warming up she'll go "whoo" so that's what her "bam" is, it's literally warming up for the last note I mean how good is that she's like you know what, I actually have more breath control than you thought I did I'm gonna hold it longer so exciting, and the the focus of the voice
is so delicious, here listen they're annoying, I'm sorry, I
appreciate that you're applauding but the problem is you can't applaud right before a D their applause actually overlaps with her amazing D, now luckily, the way this is filmed you can hear it, but I remember the night of the
concert I was like shut up because I was conducting so just spot I love that they're applauding, but you're not before D you have to know where the riffs are in advance and really time your applause to lets the riffs land now spot this amazing riff, I actually
would stop the orchestra for this and probably I should have just kept it
going because we actually almost wanted missing half a beat but I knew that she
riffed us so sassily that I didn't want to bring the orchestra in, so just spot the riff coming up which I love Sassy! for someone that didn't make it we've
got a lot of aggression about it spot it one more time because it's so good, it's such a good riff Yet again, change of melody "I've simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer" you'll hear the new melody and then
"nobody no-nobody" and that's the thing, too she riffs on the appropriate words it's like it's not "nobody no-nobody" she's riffing on the
rhythmic riff, ignore that Ben Platt, please don't listen, she actually takes the word "no" which is so appropriate to riff on so let's just listen to that for a second, and here we go now before we hear the amazing last note, I just want to tell you what she does tip of the hat to what
she does in Dreamgirls I just have to find the actual clip, hold
on, this is the end of this is the first concert I did with her, when she was Effie the whole entire reason actually makes me of course, tear up, the whole reason I started this series because I heard Lillias sing at a
benefit that I did for the synagogue she sang Effie with just
like a little tiny band and I was like I have to do an entire concert with you
as Effie on Broadway with a full orchestra so the whole reason why I did
that concert was to actually feature Lillias as Effie so because she's brilliant, so
this is the end of "I Am Changing" normally goes "nothing's gonna stop me
now" that's the melody yet again this is the song that she totally made
her own in the Dreamgirls Concert you know the audience was like oh my god
I never heard the song sound this way and she's making her own making her own
make it her own and then right on the last note she adds this it's basically a
family a mordant but it's a turn and that's when the audience was like, wait, that's an amazing way to end it it's sort of her signature turn, listen, this
is her Dreamgirls The audience is freaking out Isn't that amazing? I was so happy for her! Still cheering So her signature is and she does it at the end of "Don't Rain on My Parade" and it's so crazily exciting I want to just get the build up to it, its so good A) you have to hear it again B) the breath control normally it is so impossible to hold this note until the end of the phrase because it's so much music, she holds it all the way to the end it's so exciting cuz you're seeing the video
like right before the current stress coming down right before the the whole
note ends you see the audience right, standing oh my god it's so exciting
how great it is, she sustains it forever and then she gets the standing ovation oh my god is it thrilling, one more time,
here we go right oh my god she's so good
