Word: belter
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...full-body contortion of sorts by the final scene. Her singing is at times a high-pitched and quite realistic whine, and at others a growl worthy of the most horrible of lonely spinsters. According to the playbill, Struthers is the first to admit that she's a "belter from the Ethel Merman school"; as Miss Hannigan, this is a very effective combination. (Although at times it may have been a bit too effective, as a few little hands were seen sneaking up to cover some wide eyes as Struthers hit some of her most prolific notes.) The highlight...
...taken that popcorn-kernel-in-the-throat catch, married it to old-fashioned yodeling and become a crossover star. On the hit single Blue and on an Eddy Arnold duet of the venerable Cattle Call, her voice breaks with startling ease and, in a microsecond, pole-vaults from barroom belter in the low register to choir girl in the high. If there were no feeling behind it, this double-jointed vocalizing would be only a freak talent. But Rimes either knows the heartsickness behind country songs or can fake it brilliantly. There is a hint of girlishness in the choice...
...Swaggart is slammed for asserting that the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is limited "strictly to their being one in purpose, design and desire" and neglecting the traditional Christian teaching that the Trinity is also of one "substance." Sounding more like a Mormon than a Bible Belter, Swaggart also holds that God inhabits a "spirit body" with a specific location; orthodox Christianity insists that the deity is both omnipresent and nonmaterial...
...Porter really were to lend approval, it would be chiefly for Patti LuPone. As Nightclub Belter Reno Sweeney, she rivals the role's originator, Ethel Merman, in volume and clarity of voice, and far outdoes her in intelligence and heart. CoStar Howard McGillin has shirt-ad looks, puppyish charm and a lilting tenor. Other delights: Tony Walton's Art Deco ocean-liner set, Paul Gallo's seascape lighting and Michael Smuin's crisp choreography. The supporting cast is mostly ordinary, and Kathleen Mahony-Bennett's oomphless ingenue is not even that. The book, by P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton...
...story, as in the first version, are plaintive solos for disillusioned women: Broadway Baby, in which an old show girl (Margaret Courtenay) recalls youthful struggles in a tinkly, ironic forerunner of A Chorus Line's What I Did for Love; Who's That Woman?, a realization by a brassy belter (Lynda Baron) of how age has crept up on her; Could I Leave You?, an outpouring of vitriol from a neglected wife (Rigg); Losing My Mind, the pathetic admissions of a suppliant lover (Julia McKenzie). Sondheim's best lyric ever is I'm Still Here, an anthem of survival that...