I was raised on Celine Dion; her work inspires a special mixture of reverence and disdain. I think her most questionable move was to release a song called "I'm Alive" shortly after the devastation of 9/11. If this was meant as a tribute to victims of 9/11, it was difficult not to hear an *implied* title: "I'm Alive---and You Are Not."
I did not see Marla Mindelle in "Titanique"--I saw Dee Roscioli in the off-Broadway version. This was a special night for me; some kind of Kansas City Chiefs game was occurring, and I did not have to watch. I sat among many other gay people--also, oddly, the Broadway performer Eva Noblezada--and I enjoyed seeing a heavyset man in the role of Frances Fisher (mother of "Rose" on the Titanic). This man flirted with me and tried to sit on my lap.
Marla Mindelle has all of my love. I watch her clips regularly. Among her many gifts is her incisive reading of Celine Dion's "crowd talk." Because Dion is not fully comfortable with English, her monologues are sometimes puzzling. ("You doing great? Well, we doing awesome. And we BEEN doing awesome.") Sometimes, at a loss for words, Mindelle simply WOOTs. Finally, if you spent your childhood with Celine Dion, you know the special Dion twist at the end of a song: unable to improvise, Dion simply chooses a nasally "bah bah" sound. Bah bah BAH bah bah bah bah! Mindelle reproduces this sound with ease.
It would make me so happy if Mindelle emerges as a Tony Award winner. But just to have her nominated is a blessing. Something *correct* has happened in this world.
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