Double Duty: Actors Who Sing; Singers Who Act
The latest telling of A Star is Born was released this weekend, starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. Some actors surprise audiences with their singing chops, while some singers do the same with their acting abilities. Here are a few memorable examples (by no means the only examples):
Actors who sing: Amy Adams (“If I Didn’t Care” from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day; as Mary in The Muppets); Zooey Deschanel (lead singer of She & Him); Sissy Spacek and Beverly D’Angelo (as Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline respectively in Coal Miner’s Daughter); Antonio Banderas (Evita); Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables); Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls).
Singers who act: Diana Ross (Lady Sings the Blues); “Think” Aretha Franklin in The Blues Brothers; although Cher won an Academy Award for Moonstruck, her heartbreaking performance in Mask comes to mind; Madonna was born to play the lead in Evita and is impressive in the role, especially in The Lament scene; Will Smith, the rapper turned actor in Pursuit of Happyness (spoiler alert below, if you haven’t seen the film).
Lay The Medley Down: Cher: “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves” (The Farewell Tour)
You know you’ve been around a long time as a singer when you have to add a medley into your concerts. The back catalog so large, attendees would need to spend the night in their $200+ seat to hear you sing all the songs they’re really there to hear. The current stuff may be good, but it’s the promise of retro rewind somewhere in the set list that inspires fans to slap that $200+ onto a credit card. On either side of the mic, many would agree: A minute and half of a hit is better than no hit at all.
Cher is one of those singers with a staggering amount of material. In 2002, she launched The Farewell Tour. (And as we all know, the irony here is as big as one of her glittery headdresses.) She divided the entertaining show into sections, which highlighted, via montages, as well as wig and costume changes, her many impressive incarnations over the past “40 frickin’ years,” as she put it.
For the section devoted to the post-Sonny Bono ’60s and ‘70s, she sang snippets of “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves,” the epic retelling of a woman’s challenging life, once traveling from town to town with her mama and papa as they both tried to earn money doing odd, slightly dubious jobs. The title, a reference to the labels given to them by the various townspeople who loathe them, some of whom “temporarily” love them: “But every night all the men would come around/And lay their money down.”
Normally, the story of a girl “born in the wagon,” only to grow up to be “a gal in trouble” would be kind of a downer. However, with Cher’s guttural, unmistakably distinct vocal, it becomes a hoot of a sing along, another minute-and-a-half opportunity, in this accommodating thing known as the medley, to test your best Cher impression… You know you have one.