The Smash Cast - The Music Of Smash

Smash Cast – The Music Of Smash
2012, Columbia Records

The NBC television show Smash has been both praised and derided as Glee for adults.  While this is not entirely unfair, on either side of the coin, what often gets missed is that at the heart of the show is a brilliant Broadway score written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman.  Female principals Katharine McPhee (American Idol) and Megan Hilty (Wicked, 9 to 5: The Musical) bring the sort of power and finesse that Glee has never been able to achieve.  The supporting cast, including Broadway veterans Christian Borle (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Legally Blonde, Spamalot); Brian D’Arcy James (Shrek: The Musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Next To Normal); Will Chase and Anne Harada, as well as TV/movie stars Debra Messing (Will & Grace) and Anjelica Huston, is nothing to sneeze at either.  Given the star power and the quality of the musical performances in the show, it was inevitable that a soundtrack would be release eventually.  It’s disappointing; however, that the producers of the album chose to focus on the pop star karaoke numbers from the show rather than on Shaiman/Whitman’s original material.

Don’t get me wrong, the soundtrack includes five original numbers from the increasingly not fictional show Bombshell, but at thirteen tracks for the standard issue and eighteen tracks for the Target exclusive, The Music Of Smash undersells the very heart of the show.  That’s not a knock on the performances on the album, which range from above average to downright brilliant.  The only ‘dog’ (if you will) on the entire the album is the opening track, “Touch Me”.  Written for the show by Bonnie McKee and Ryan Tedder (One Republic), the song is pure pre-programmed electro pop, and sticks out here like a sore thumb.  McPhee’s vocal performance is flawless, but the material is below her, and even her voice can’t lift the song.  Luckily things improve quickly.

The highlights of the album are the songs from Bombshell: “Let Me Be Your Star” (Katharine McPhee & Megan Hilty); “The 20^th Century Fox Mambo” (McPhee); “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (Hilty & Will Chase); “Let’s Be Bad” (Hilty); and “History Is Made At Night” (Hilty & Chase).  These songs support the rumors that Shaiman and Whitman will take the ideas developed in Smash and bring Bombshell to the Broadway stage.  Other highlights from Megan Hilty include the cover of Carrie Underwood’s “Crazy Dreams” and the “Breakaway”.  Katharine McPhee gets the bulk of the pop songs, with “Stand” (with Leslie Odom); Linda Perry’s “Beautiful; and the Bob Hilliard/Mort Garson-penned “Our Day Will Come”. 

McPhee and Hilty don’t get to steal the show entirely, however.  Nick Jonas provides a surprisingly deft cover of “Haven’t Me You Yet”, and the First Lady of Broadway, Bernadette Peters, offers up a brilliant “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”.  The downside is that for a show about the making of a Broadway musical, there’s too much focus on radio-friendly pop music here.  That is the price, perhaps, for providing such a unique look at bringing a show to the Great White Way.  Television is not just about the story of course, but the marketing opportunities that come with it.  Broadway fans will feel that more could have been done with this release, while pop music fans will love the Top-40 focus.

On the whole, The Music Of Smash is very an appealing collection of songs sung by some of the best voices in the pop and Broadway worlds.  Not including a track from Christian Borle is something of a crime, but in the end, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Smash at www.nbc.com/smash. 

Target Deluxe (5 bonus tracks)        iTunes.

     Amazon CD          Amazom MP3     

Please note that the Amazon.com prices listed above are as of the posting date, and may have changed. Wildy's World is not responsible for price changes instituted by Amazon.com.

Sutton Foster – An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle

Sutton Foster – An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle
2011, Ghostlight Records

Good actors can bend themselves to any role.  Great actors wrap a role around themselves like a second skin, becoming both themselves and the other.   For all of the acting classes and workshops one can take, this particular quality is not one that can be learned.  It’s a quality shared by some of the greatest names to grace the stages of the Great White Way:  Patti Lupone.  Bernadette Peters.  Angela Lansbury.  Kristin Chenoweth.  Sutton Foster. 

Sutton Foster made a name for herself as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, winning the 2002 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, as well as similar awards from Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and the Fred Astaire Award for best actress in a musical.  Foster has gone on to roles such as Jo March (Little Women – Tony, Outer Desk and Drama League nominations); Janet Van De Graaf (The Drowsy Chaperone – Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Circle nominations) and Princess Fiona (Shrek The Musical – 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical).  On March 10, 2011, Foster began previews at The Roundabout Theatre for the Cole Porter classic musical Anything Goes.  As if she’s not busy enough, Foster also released her second album, An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle, this week.

Live albums are always a risk.  Even in an era where genius and technology can make a rough performance sound great after the fact, an artist is totally exposed in a live performance, and particularly in the intimate setting of a cabaret show.  At the same time, the magic that occurs on stage is ever-so-difficult to transfer to an audio recording.  Yet it’s delightful to report that Sutton Foster pulls it all off with unabashed charm on An Evening With Sutton Foster.  Culling songs from her debut album Wish, as well as from her previous work on Broadway, Foster charms with a blend of songs and stories that will entertain you, touch your heart and make you laugh out loud.

The show opens with “I’m Beginning To See The Light”, a Duke Ellington number performed by Foster with the sole accompaniment of ukulele.  It’s a brilliant opening full of showgirl zeal but with an air authenticity that simply cannot be manufactured.  Foster has one of those voices that rings in your mind for ever after hearing it, and is personality plus on stage.  Foster strings together snippets of songs from roles she’s played in a medley of “Not For The Life Of Me” (Thoroughly Modern Millie), “NYC” (Annie) and “Astonishing” (Little Women).  As medleys go this one works better than most, the transitions almost seamless, even if “Not For The Life Of Me” was cut woefully short.  “Up On The Roof” is offered in a sweet and lyric interpretation that’s full of heart and a sense of reminiscence about her early years in New York City.

Foster’s cover of Christine Lavin’s “Air Conditioner” is perhaps even funnier than the original, owing a great deal to the charm and pizzazz of the singer, qualities that wash through your speakers and bathe the listener whole.  Foster changes paces nicely with “Warm All Over”, a sultry and sweet take on the Frank Loesser tune from Most Happy Fella.  Foster rips off the roof (and a boob pad) in “Show Off”, one of the signature numbers from The Drowsy Chaperone.  The roof lands several blocks away, as Foster cranks it up with a powerful, thousand-watt performance; while the boob pad hilariously lands on her brother, Hunter Foster.  The show goes on, but the moment is timeless and thankfully not excised from the recording.

“More To The Story” is a song that was cut from Shrek: The Musical before it came to New York, and you have to wonder why.  After hearing Foster’s performance here you won’t be able to imagine the show without it.  Foster’s performance is full of heart and beauty that moves beyond music into the sublime.  “My Heart Was Set On You” is an amazing tune – a heartbreaker about forbidden love that works out the way everyone expected all along.  An inexorable tragedy in song that finds the heroine still somewhat in love even from the other side of heartbreak.  This is a pure “WOW” moment.  The transition into “Down With Love” (Hooray For What!) is classic, with Foster offering a quirky/sweet performance that is perhaps the perfect spoiler to the heartbreak that preceded it.

Foster pulls off another “WOW” moment on Duke Ellington’s “I Like The Sunshine”, offering a lyric performance full of vulnerability and hope that are palpable.  For a performer who can belt with such aplomb to be able to pull off a number like this is stunning.  A small lottery conducted by Music Director Michael Rafter leads next to a roof-raising performance of “Defying Gravity” (Wicked).  Dare it be said that Foster pulls it off as if she, herself, originated the role.  Foster puts on the faux ingénue qualities of a classic movie moll for “Late Late Show”, before moving into a sweet and lyric version of John Denver’s “Sunshine On My Shoulders”.  Foster gives up the belt here for a light and airy sound that highlights the utter beauty of her voice.  “Anyone Can Whistle/Being Alive” and “”Come The Wild Wild Weather” are both sweet numbers that serve as a bit of a respite for the singer before building to the big finale.  Foster begins the end with The Beatles’ “Here, There And Everywhere”.  Accompanied by banjo alone, Sutton Foster creates one of those pure musical moments that are steeped in an esoteric and timeless beauty that’s about as impossible to describe as it is to create in the first place.  It’s moments like this that concert goers remember all their lives.  As if that weren’t enough, Foster goes over the moon with “And I Am Telling You (I’m Not Going)” from Dreamgirls.  If Foster blew the roof off earlier in the show, this number couldn’t have left a wall standing.

Sutton Foster is what is considered a triple threat on Broadway.  She sings, she dances and she acts.  But sometimes the term triple threat doesn’t even begin to explain what an actor can do.  Foster’s sense of showmanship combines with an utter authenticity that’s built on smarts, humor, a little bit of grit, and a healthy dose of southern charm and sophistication.  Add to that a voice that can lull you into the ether and then blow you away all in the same breath and you have a singular, rare talent who will be remembered for generations.  An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle is a document and testament to talent, charm and grace to one of the leading ladies of the stage.  Sutton Foster shines bright.  An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle can be nothing less than a Wildy’s World Certified Desert Island Disc.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Sutton Foster at http://www.suttonfoster.com/ or on Facebook.  An Evening With Sutton Foster - Live At The Café Carlyle is available from Amazon.com as a  CD or Download.  The album is also available from iTunes.