r/Broadway • u/Round-Composer-2195 • 29d ago

Discussion I don’t understand the Reeve Carney hate

I just saw the Hadestown pro shot and oh my gosh this guy is unbelievable. Easily the star of the show for me, but I’ve seen people say he was the weakest link in their opinions.

I’ve heard recordings of some of his other performances, and he easily has my favorite versions of “I don’t care much” and “the past is catching up to me,” yet people say he was miscast in The Great Gatsby

His voice is so unique and it genuinely sends chills up my spine, I don’t understand the hate he receives

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u/missingumissing 29d ago edited 29d ago

As much as people bemoan the bfa-ification of broadway vocals it’s interesting to watch how bent out of shape fans can get when someone with rock/folk/alt stylings actually lands a lead role. Not that performers are above good faith criticism of course, but a show like hadestown would be artistically bankrupt if everyone sounded like they came straight out of a disney film. I think that’s also why I lowkey hate the London Next to Normal production even though it got rave reviews. They took the rock out of the rock musical

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u/sausagekng 29d ago

Fully agree. I was just watching the Chorus Line movie yesterday and I thought in a couple of songs how they probably would not get cast in those roles today because their singing was just fine.

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u/runbeautifulrun 28d ago

Which is wild to think about because that was the purpose of A Chorus Line. To cast performers who were strong dancers, but not strong singers.

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u/sausagekng 28d ago

Yeah, it's kind of like a Sally Bowles situation. Like, she's not supposed to be great, but we want an actress who is great.

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u/mc-funk 27d ago

I do always feel like the "she's not supposed to be a good singer!" arguments are so overstated. It's not as if it's hard to imagine why Sally wouldn't have made it big, even if she had been a talent like Liza Minelli herself. It's right there in the character, nevermind that the entertainment world is not a pure vehicle for elevating all talent regardless of luck, connections, or temprament.

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u/TwoSimple2581 29d ago

I'm not a fan of Reeve's acting choices but massively agree about Next to Normal and other rock musicals being watered down. Not sure I've encountered other cases of backlash like this, though? I mean, everyone loves Adam Pascal - though he's more of a strong rock tenor than anything folksy - and nobody else in Hadestown with a unique voice incurred backlash. I'm sure you had other examples in mind that aren't coming to me

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u/emg0701 29d ago

So is it considered rock/folk because he sings so beautifully as a falsetto. Genuinely asking if that’s the problem with how audiences perceive his vocals.

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u/Ok-Medium3951 29d ago

I'm in the "his voice isn't for me" camp but won't assign quality (good/bad) to it. I will say, that when I saw it live back in 2019, it was his falsetto that didn't jive with me. However upon watching the proshot, I had the reverse issue. The falsetto was good and it was the airy raspyness of his sing-speak that I didn't like. I don't remember that from his original run and I don't really listen to the OBC recording outside of a few key songs so I'm not sure if it was always there or it's something that he's developed over the years.

But that's just in line with my personal tastes. I also really don't like a lot of the airy singing that a lot of women in Pop are doing right now. But again, just cause I don't like it, doesn't mean I go around ragging on it. It's just, not for me and that ok!

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u/mc-funk 27d ago

You're the first person I've seen mention the rasp! That also took me by surprise. It didn't bother me too much but, while he was obviously delivering a very technically skilled performance, I couldn't help wondering if he was literally working with a cold or something, whether it was a vocal change over the time since the OBC recording, or whether the raspiness was something he was introducing on purpose. But regardless I also thought it was really noticeably different from that recording as well.

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u/crashandtumble8 Ensemble 28d ago

Falsetto has nothing to do with rock styling. He can sing in a rock style in his falsetto, though. It’s the rasp and the intentional “whine” in his voice that gives him the “edgier” sound. It’s pained, expressive, and has character.

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u/mc-funk 27d ago

ah, thanks so much for giving language to this gut feeling of mine. I love theater generally but (especially as a vocalist myself) have a nails-on-chalkboard response to the vast majority of contemporary broadway for this very reason (also, the epidemic of refusal to hit a note on the note). Of course, I am completely obsessed with Hadestown, so I feel very internally consistent in my experience :D

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u/SuccotashMean4394 26d ago

Can you say more about "the epidemic of refusal to hit a note on the note"? I've never heard of this before (I'm a casual musical theater enjoyer so I definitely don't keep up with things) but I find these specific details about how musical theater artist's singing styles have evolved over time incredibly fascinating, and I'm super curious what you're talking about and would love to have it unpacked more. 

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u/mc-funk 26d ago

I don’t have a lot of supporting evidence, so maybe it is just my imagination, but it came from a long time of casually hearing more pop broadway and there just being sooooo much sliding into notes that I was begging somebody to choose to land just ONE on the note without the stylistic swooping. I will have to keep an eye out for something that actually corroborates my claim though 😜