But the recently Grammied bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding represented well in front of a big crowd that looked specifically motivated to see a particular performer, instead of generally motivated to be at the Newport Jazz Festival.
In fact, the more appropriate comparison may be to the Tony Award-winning show "Fela!" The show actually rotates its lead performers — instead of having a single marquee attraction — because the lead role requires the actor to "sing, play instruments, climb ladders and narrate," according to the show's producer, Stephen Hendel.
"Many playwrights are writing things for three performers instead of eight, and if you are a composer, you may be writing for a chamber group rather than a symphony," he said.
Because the five-gymnast rule favors all-around performers instead of event specialists, some gymnasts good enough to win a medal on an individual event could be left home.
He paid bigger bonuses to the best performers instead of handing them out based on group performance, as Amgen had done.
The group will trim down to four performers instead of its usual six or seven to present its amalgam of black and Jewish music.
Others said that all the main characters should have been played by black performers and that Mr. Robinson played favorites in selecting performers instead of holding general auditions.
A tumbling section in which men leap and twist through stacked hoops is updated via hip-hop music and more casual, urban gear for the performers, instead of the sparkly spandex get-ups they mostly favor.
Ms. Johansson returns to Broadway this season in Tennessee Williams's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and it will be interesting to see if she forestalls an ovation during her first scene as the tirelessly sexy Maggie the Cat. Honestly, it only seems like good manners to hold your applause, please, ladies and gentlemen, and let a performer be a character instead of a star.
His surgeon at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston fashioned a shield for his vocal cords — as if he were Pavarotti, Mr. Prine joked, instead of a performer who talked more than sang.
One of the advantages of being a songwriter instead of a performer is that, while artists have a hard time recovering their reputation when a record bombs, the only time the public pays attention to who wrote a song is when it's a hit.
