Alice Ripley: Don't Forget

Hello, my adoring, beautiful fans! One of the women who has graced the Broadway stage in the last 20 years that has always caught my eyes and ears is Alice Ripley. La Ripley made her big splash in the original Broadway production of Side Show, as the higher belting siamese twin, Violet Hilton. (I secretly understudied in this production. Find out more about my career here!) Before that, she played the role of Betty in Sunset Boulevard. Most people now know her for her Tony Award winning performance as Diana in Next to Normal, the story of a woman who suffers from mental illness...and her family sometimes sings too. Ironically, she and I are often compared for our fearless belting and strange vowels.

Alice Ripley is now often parodied for her mannerisms, but I think it's important to take a look back at her beginnings and remember that she BELTED HER FACE OFF!!! She made singing decisions in Side Show that would have ruined other people after ONE night. In Sunset Boulevard, the show obviously belongs to Norma Desmond (especially when I play it)...but how come in clips of her singing the ingenue role of Betty, I could care less about Norma...especially if it's being played by Glenn Close. If I had been Norma to her Betty (And I almost was!), I would have shot her at the TOP of the show. Get that show stealing, beltress off the stage and get me Judy Kuhn! Here are some of my favorite clips of Alice Ripley in her prime!

     "She's Gone," cut from Side Show. Who can say why they decided to cut this number during previews. It does sort of stop the story in its slow, melodramatic tracks, but COME ON!

Beautiful head voice!!! "Too Much In Love To Care," from Sunset Boulevard

She only appears at the beginning of this video, but listen to her steal the show from Betty Buckley in 30 seconds.