I just discovered this video of her explanation and my friend and I are up at 2am howling with laughter! Thank you, Ms. Uggams for being a professional, a good sport and a beautiful human being. We loved you before but we absolutely adore you now!
"Less than stellar"??? No this IS stellar; it's perfect American art forgery. Do you know how difficult this is to do if you do it this well? Leslie Uggams is busting out all over this performance.
I NEVER SAW THIS BEFORE- THIS IS AWESOMENESS. What a way to talk about it!! laughing and appreciating it for what it is- Professionalism in its most creative, comical and melodious form lol but its so good to see how she embraces the fun of it all. LOVE HER EVEN MORE NOW. lol
In terms of ease of memorization, the lyrics for this song are HORRIBLE! I’ve been in shows in which two weeks in I still struggled to get the lyrics down exactly (Into the Woods, anyone?). What amazes me is that she did not miss a beat. Never once would you have guessed that something like that went wrong. And while she missed the exact words entirely, she hit the scansion on the head and somehow found consonants and vowels to match on the spot. All things considered, that was pretty amazing!
Even speaking as someone who has always found it relatively easy to learn lines, I just had a look at the lyrics to this song and...wow! Not only complex and quick, but fairly tongue-twisty too! Yeah, that's got to be a difficult song to memorise the lyrics for at the best of times, let alone at short notice (which it sounds like this was) and it not being in her repertoire already. In any case, as you say, her recovery was *phenomenal* and what's even more impressive is that what she was singing was a fairly close match for the actual lyrics (really, it's only the fact that she was singing sounds rather than clearly defined words that shows anything is wrong in the slightest). And the fact that she can laugh about it makes it even better. True professionalism on all levels, right there.
Yes, she still performed the hell out of it! And sounded great! Another horrible song for lyrics is "My Mather's Wedding Day" from Brigadoon. I understudied the character that sings that and I went through the lyrics EVERY NIGHT even when the actress was perfectly healthy because I was terrified I'd have to do it and no WAY could I make those lyrics up!! (And once I did have to go on suddenly for the second act once and sang it - I made it through!)
I remember seeing it originally on TV and thought she was just adding a kind of jazz skat. I don’t think anyone really noticed in the audience as she just kept it going. Love her even more that she owns it and has a sense of humor. She’s the best. Saw her in Jerry’s Girls years ago.
I love her! She's so funny, what a great sport! I saw her sing in a touring show of the music of Jerry Herman and I was BLOWN AWAY. She is an incredible performer, amazing singer and above all her interpretation of the lyrics - she's a great actress and just drew you completely in.
...not to mention headed for a Travolta-esque career revival, following up her portrayal of Blind Al in "Deadpool" with playing Lucious Lyon's mama in "Empire"
I saw Leslie in 2011 in her autobiographical musical "Uptown Downtown," and she was spectacular!! Two hours holding the stage and telling her story. Truly a groundbreaking performer since starting at age 6!
"The guy or the cue card?" "YES!" Now if we can only hear the story around Patti LaBelle's infamous "WHERE ARE MY BACKGROUND SINGERS?!" performance, every middle-aged gay man could die happy. Sadly, it won't happen as Patti claims she has no memory of the incident. Tsk, tsk. Own it like Uggams, girl. Own it like Uggams.
Actually she did talk about it on a talk show, I believe it was Jay Leno. It was right after the incident happened and she talked about the whole thing. It used to be on RU-vid for a long time. but then I guess it's been removed? (Maybe Patti did it. Lol). But now for some reason Patti seems to act like it never happened.
Surprised she didn't have the lyrics memorized of this classic, but this does solve the mystery. Ah mazingly awesomenesslike High Lariously awesome. How would we describe things and speak if the words Amazing and awesome didn't exist?!?!
THIS is AH-SUM GREAT, and it's Hilarious! I LOVE this! This woman is AMAZING! And so talented! I first thought that it was Liza singing 'June'! This woman wore that OUT and I didn't even know that it was a problem during the performance! She was GREAT! And Beautiful as Ever! LOVE HER! Thanks for posting it!
The real lyrics that was supposed to be when the cue cards got wet and she scatted was..... "June is bustin' out all over The feelin' is gettin' so intense That the young Virginia creepers Have been huggin' the bejeepers Outta all the mornin' glories on the fence! Because it's June!"
I just thought ""Thank god she sang the right song." Someone has posted Sonny Stitt playing "All God's Rhythm" and titled it "June Is Bustin' Out all Over." Let's get it straight, people!
Come back when you're getting to be over 50 and try remembering the lyrics to a tough song like that while singing it live. This is standard procedure on live TV -- for almost everything.
