Latest review:
TALKIN BROADWAY SOUND ADVICE: TOP
TEN CAST ALBUMS of 2008 1-14-09 http://www.talkinbroadway.com/sound/january1409.html
After ringing in a new year, what cast albums released during the
previous year are still ringing in our ears? Some are disappointments,
mere curiosities, or items diverting enough for a "glad I heard it"
reaction, but not something we pull off a shelf or play list more than
once in a blue moon. Others are the "keepers"—the ones that continue
to stand out from the pack and pack a theatrical punch that doesn't
lose too much of its impact on repeated listenings. Here are those top
ten cast albums released for the first time in the calendar year of
2008
THE
LITTLE MERMAID
STUDIO CAST (GUIDE VOCALS) AND KARAOKE TRACKS
Stage-Stars Records
Much as I've admired the albums of musical theatre scores put out by
Stage-Stars Records, I never really thought I'd have them on a Top Ten
list besting out original scores performed by more experienced
performers and full orchestras. But bear with me. Though the stated
purpose and marketing intention of this company is to present karaoke
instrumental tracks and what's called "guide vocals" for the learning
of songs and accompaniment for little productions and rehearsals, the
singers they hire are often excellent. Whereas some of their albums
are unevenly cast, this one is tops all around. They've outdone
themselves and the youthfulness and enthusiasm of much of the cast
works in favor of the youth appeal of the material.
Musical director Jason Wynn (who also neatly
takes on the role of Flotsam) has managed to take the sparkly and
varied score about sea creature comforts and "scale" it down for the
learning-friendly clear accompaniment tracks and still retain the
heart and joy and dynamism. Christina Bianco in the title role is
appealingly girlish and full of wonder—just spot on. Like several
others on the album, she's someone whose work I've admired in New York
City cabaret shows over the last year or two.
The coup of the casting is the
company having enticed the bundle of caustic, sarcastic dynamite,
Sharon McNight, cabaret award-winning performer and Tony
nominee/Theatre World Award winner (for Starmites). The sassy
and outrageous strutting performer is ideal for the showy role of the
evil-but-hilarious Ursula, all cackling laugh and crackling energy.
She bites into it like the juicy plum role it is and scores a major
home run, making me laugh out loud at lines I know by heart as if they
were freshly ad-libbed asides. Billy Ernst makes an endearing
prince, and cabaret singing comedian Booth Daniels (of the team Booth
and Pat) shows his vocals and theatrical chops as he chops up the
seafood blithely and slightly sadistically as the chef in "Les
Poissons." Stage Stars regular Kristopher Monroe is at his musical
comedy best, turning in an especially fully realized and bubbly
fun-filled, pun-filled numbers ("Positoovity" and "Human Stuff," a
couple of the terrific new songs written for the stage version).
Like other shows in their growing library, the
package contains a disc of the vocals (with personality-plus
renditions that still keep one "on track" by attending to musical
values and tempi) in addition to a second disc with just the
instrumental accompaniments. In singer-friendly keys, the guides are
generally clear and should suit the many wannabe little mermaids in
school, community theatre and backyard and basement productions. A
surprising choice, admittedly, I enjoy this rendition for its
freshness and spunk and professionalism as much as I do the grand and
glorious Broadway or movie versions.
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Sharon McNight at the Metropolitan Room
Written by
Jay Jeffries
Sharon
McNight may well be the funniest woman in the world! Judging from the
gales of laughter emanating from the Metropolitan Room last night, I think
that’s a safe
 assumption
to make. In a delirious hour and forty minute show, she generates a
cacophony of chuckles, giggles, guffaws, whoops and downright belly
laughs. And that’s not all, folks!
“Gone, But
Not Forgotten” is
Sharon’s madcap tribute to the
songstress/comediennes who are not longer with us but whose fame lives on
and on. Remember Judy Canova, the Ozark Nightingale? Well, Sharon
McNight summons her up singing “The Wabash Blues,” complete with yodels.
She begins with “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone,” an apt theme
for the evening, and a tribute to the late great Ethel Waters.
Along the
way, she manages to channel Madelaine Kahn channeling Dietrich singing Mel
Brooks’ loony “I’m Tired” from “Blazing Saddles.” And later, hardly
exhausted after tributes to Betty Hutton singing “Rumble, Rumble” and
Ethel Merman singing “Some People” (complete with Merman’s trademark high
C), she conjures up “Tired,’ the song which brought fame to Pearl Bailey.
But there’s
nothing tired about Sharon McNight. Blessed with a pair of saucer eyes and
a cupid’s bow mouth that keeps straying to the side of her face, she is a
veritable bundle of electric energy. She knocks off Patsy Cline’s “Sweet
Dreams” and “I Fall To Pieces,” and scats her way through Martha Raye’s
jazz version of “Old Man River.” Now that’s something you won’t hear
anyone else do in a cabaret act these days!
Before the
evening is over, we’ve also been treated to Sophie Tucker belting “The Man
I Love,” Hildegarde warbling “Darling, Je Vous Aime Boucoup” in her
fractured French, and a brilliant imitation of Bette Davis, almost on key,
croaking Frank Loesser’s “They’re Either Too Young Or Too Old” complete
with a punch bowl-sized martini glass and garnished with a gargantuan
olive. All of this, of course, with the right amount of memory-invoking
patter and outlandish ad libs.
Think you
had enough? Think you’ve already laughed until your sides are splitting?
Get ready! Sharon begins singing the plaintive verse to “Over The Rainbow”
and segues into the entire Munchkin scene from “The Wizard Of Oz” where
she manages to portray Judy Garland, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton and
an entire cast of Munchkins, houses falling on witches, broomsticks flying
through the air, waltz clog steps, and side quips in quick succession.
It’s an amazing feat and she still isn’t tired!
Last night
she closed with “Bacon,” a zany homage to her favorite food, but I’m so
tempted to return to hear her sing Noel Coward’s bittersweet “If Love Were
All.”
Sharon is California-based so,
when you get a chance to see her in The Big Apple, run, do not walk to
wherever she is playing. She is the consummate cabaret comedienne at the
peak of her game.
The
wonderful Ian Herman is
Sharon's musical director and
accompanist
April 26,
2008
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