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Phil Willmott

Random, Gratuitous and Gorgeous – 3 Male Covers of Female Show Tunes

By Saturday, August 1 2020, 23:46 - News -

Jeremy Jordan sings "Let It Go" from Frozen In straight theatre there’s a criminal lack of extraordinary female roles. In musicals it’s a different story and women regularly get some show stopping songs that any male performer would covet.

In straight theatre there’s a criminal lack of extraordinary female roles. In musicals it’s a different story and women regularly get some show stopping songs that any male performer would covet.

Having reviewed the Disney cruise ship musical TANGLED, c/o YouTube I found myself sucked into the site’s vortex which kept sending me to some extraordinary, unexpected and quite unnecessary performances of women’s musical theatre songs from male vocalists.

Here are my top three. I can’t justify this indulgence by tying it into any current theatre news except, for some reason, today I really miss my pre-covid profession and being in a room with wonderful singers and having the chance to direct them.

First up here’s the wonderful Jeremy Jordan singing the hell out of "Let It Go" from Frozen. He is of course preposterously handsome but on this occasion he really gets an “ordinary Joe, lost in the show, suddenly bursting with emotion vibe” Although perhaps he loses the sincerity a little as he get’s cocky towards the end.



There’s a uprising amount of videos of guys giving stirring performances of “Defying Gravity” from WICKED because you need a hell of a vocal range to pull it off. I’ve chosen a version from a talented guy called Caleb Hyles to share with you. He doesn’t have the looks to be cast as a conventional romantic lead on Broadway but he seems to be doing very well anyway, making money on-line with a whole back catalogue of interesting performances to check out. (a heavy metal “Never Has A friend Like Me” anyone?) This is a fairly conventional orchestration of the triumphant Act 1 closer from everyone’s favourite which witch musical.



Saving the best till last, also from WICKED, here’s the “For Good” duet as re-imagined by Jacob Daniel Cummings & Peter Gibbons, both displaying a heart melting mastery of falsetto singing that held me spell bound (even if the video does make things look as if they’re about to film a washing powder commercial in an industrial park on the outskirts of Milton Keynes)