Each day, the Bbox team trolls YouTube for the hot clip—sometimes it's a brand-new moment and sometimes it's a throwback to an oldie but goodie. No matter what praise hands are shot up, pearls are clutched and the repeat button is hit.
"Astonishing / The Fire Within Me" from Little Women (Elyse Bell)
Ulterior Motives: It is Little Women composer Jason Howland's birthday. For writing the tune with lyricist Mindi Dickstein - we wish him an "Astonishing" day. And speaking of! We've already rounded up some of our favorite performances of this song, one of Broadway's magical Act 1 Finales. We couldn't help but revisit Jimmy Award competitor Elyse Bell's performance from last year.
Ultimate 🙌 🙌 moment: Elyse posted a video of her performance of two of Jo March's big tunes throughout the musical. We honestly gasped twice. The vocals are absolutely astonishing every ounce of the pun intended. The breath support! The vowel tones! The acting is honest from moment one. The first gasp worthy moment is actually 4:02 - 4:07. She sings "Astonishing"'s crazy high note, pauses, looks at her writing as if her entire future is in those pages and then finishes the song. Elyse! Then ultimate moment two. "The Fire Within Me" has so many smalller, intimate acting and vocal moments but at 8:56 when "Astonishing" swoops right back in and then the orchestra's amazing slight back phrasing/swell at 9:12 (that conductor is A+). Two absolutely stellar, exciting performances.
We hope to see Elyse Bell on Broadway soon with performances like this one!
