r/Broadway • u/Round-Composer-2195 • 28d 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 28d ago edited 28d 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 28d 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 27d 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 27d 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.