Keira Knightley says she can’t sing, but why should that be a problem for a musical?
Variety is reporting that a remake of the classic musical My Fair Lady is in the works. Keira Knightley is in talks to star as Eliza Doolittle.
Based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady is about a professor, Henry Higgins, who makes a bet that he can take a poor Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, and teach her the proper speech, manners and comportment to pass as a duchess. The 1956 Broadway production was a huge hit and made Julie Andrews a star. The 1964 musical version starred Rex Harrison, reprising his role of Higgins from the stage, and Audrey Hepburn as Doolittle (the studio didn’t think that Andrews was a big enough name for the movie; instead she made Mary Poppins and won the 1964 Best Actress Oscar. Revenge is sweet.).
Producers Duncan Kenworthy (Love, Actually, Notting Hill) and Cameron Mackintosh, the theater director, are calling their planned version an “update” rather than a remake. They plan to retain the original’s 1912 setting and score, but want to shoot on location in London (the 1964 film was done in Hollywood) s and add material from the Shaw play. Kenworthy says:
“With 40 years of hindsight, we’re confident that by setting these wonderful characters and brilliant songs in a more realistic context, and by exploring Eliza’s emotional journey more fully, we will honor both Shaw and Lerner at the same time as engaging and entertaining contemporary audiences the world over.”
Wow, that’s really noble. Do you know what would really honor Lerner and the brilliant songs? Casting someone who can sing. No, I don’t know anything about Keira Knightley’s singing ability, but I’m guessing that if she had a first class soprano, as the score requires, word would have gotten out by now. In fact, she doesn’t even seem to think much of her own voice; in her upcoming film, The Edge of Love, she was called upon to sing and here’s what she had to say:
“I did some lessons with a voice coach because I can’t sing. It was live. There were 100 extras and John [Maybury, the director] was like, ‘Now you’re going to sing.’ I’ve never been so frightened in my entire life.”
Did you see that? She actually said, “I can’t sing.” Yet she is being considered for the lead in a musical.
I’m not saying she has to have Julie Andrews’ voice because Andrews had one of the great voices of our time and it’s impossible to duplicate that (most of Audrey Hepburn’s vocals were dubbed for the 1964 film); I’m just saying it sounds like she might not even have enough of a voice to get cast in a community theater production of My Fair Lady. Obviously, as I have stated many times, singing onstage is completely different than singing for a movie. Onstage you have to be able to project and really have a clear tone, and be able to hit every note precisely and not wander and waver all over the place. Oh, and you have to be able to project the emotions of the song while you’re singing. Of course for a movie, I guess unless she is completely tone deaf, they could have her whisper the songs in a wee, itty bitty little voice into a mike and then fill in the rest with production. But is this what anyone really wants to see happen to one of theater’s greatest scores? Is this what the value of music has been reduced to?
Look, as always, nothing is untouchable. The 1964 movie isn’t even that great; its too long and sometimes feels a little like an Audrey Hepburn fashion showcase. But if you’re going to make a musical, would it be so hard to cast someone who actually is, you know, musical? I’m not saying you have to get someone who’s only known to musical theater people, but are you really telling me that there isn’t anyone who is at least a decent enough star name to not scare off producers who also can sing? I’m guessing they’d prefer someone British, and I can’t give you any names there. But on the American side of things, I can at least say that Anne Hathaway has a real, solid soprano. I’m not a huge fan of hers (nor am I a hater, just neutral…and btw, I don’t hate Knightley, despite how this rant may sound), but Hathaway actually has a professional, trained voice that’s made for a show like My Fair Lady. Meanwhile, all Knightley seems to be able to offer in terms of giving a musical performance (and again, that’s not just how a voice sounds, but how a singer projects emotion) is that she would look very pretty in the costumes.
While reading this, I had a brilliant idea (though it sounds as though it’s already cast): Have Emmy Rossum be Eliza! She would be perfect, and she sings beautifully!
I was thinking the same thing! Why not Emmy Rossum? She was amazing in Phantom of the opera & could easily be done up like a peasant or a duchess.
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