A Quote by Stephen Sondheim

I've always preferred actors who sing to singers who act in all the shows I've done. — © Stephen Sondheim
I've always preferred actors who sing to singers who act in all the shows I've done.
So many singers want to act, and so many actors try to sing.
My advice to singers is always the same: 'Don't sing the song, sing the lyric.'
I started as a director, but I was too bored with actors. I preferred to act.
Often you get wonderful singers who maybe aren't as strong as actors, or you get wonderful actors who can't sing very well.
Singers have a lot in common with actors because you have to dig deep into a song and show the audience what you are feeling as you sing.
There are a lot of singers who cannot sing to save their lives. We have to accept it, but thank God there is such a thing as live shows. It's only when people are faced with live shows that the world gets to know how good or how bad they are.
We shouldn't confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, "My character this, and my character that." Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don't have to explain it to me.
A lot of the new people they choose on shows like 'American Idol' and things like that - I don't ever hear lead singers. They always seem to choose to pick people that are great singers, fabulous singers, but they've never got the voice that makes a great lead singer.
You have singers that are trained, and then you have natural singers: people that, in my opinion, were just born to sing. And hopefully, I am one of them.
Singers always have an advantage. You know, everyone can connect to a song in a way that they cannot do to a basketball act or a magician act or whatever.
When I started, my teachers told me that I had to sing Mozart, Mozart, Mozart. I said, No, I want to sing all the other stuff. If you do not push yourself, you will stay the same. Maybe some singers are happy with that, but I have to move, I have to do something new always.
When I started, my teachers told me that I had to sing 'Mozart, Mozart, Mozart.' I said, 'No, I want to sing all the other stuff.' If you do not push yourself, you will stay the same. Maybe some singers are happy with that, but I have to move, I have to do something new always.
Frank [Sinatra] sang to you, not at you, like so many pop singers today. Even singers of standards. I never wanted to be a singer that sings at somebody. I've always wanted to sing to somebody. I would have gotten that subliminally from Frank many years ago. Hank Williams did that, too. He sang to you.
I love to sing. I don't think it's strange for singers to act, or painters to sculpt. I don't want to ever feel like I'm cornered into one expression of creativity because I'm successful at making films or being an actor. I guess it's best to not paint yourself into that corner.
Singing doesn't have to mean that you sound like Stevie Wonder. I love to sing. I'm not the greatest singer in the world. But, a lot of my favorite singers aren't the greatest singers in the world.
Well first of all, I'm a singer. I sing since I talk. So the great ballad singers, the people that sang with so much feeling, jazz, blues, all those singers, they were songs that I listened to, records that my mom played for me, and then later I bought.
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