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There are so many new holiday releases this year that we'll need more than 12 days of Christmas before we can get to them all... meaning that, we'll do a whole sleighful next week, but here's a headstart with three fine ones, featuring theatre performers, to start the bells jingling....
Now in their second decade of annual albums of songs of the season by casts of Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals, there's always a lot of creativity and care in the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraiser collections. Bursting with bright spirit (and bright theatre talent) and the tradition of injecting into the arrangements and performances the unique flavor of an individual musical's style, subject or sound, the treatments are a treat. Some casts play against type, shining a new light on their versatility for effect or surprise. This year, once again, Carols for a Cure really delivers. The number of tracks is fewer than in past years, but there are plenty of highlights in the reasonably priced 2-CD set. There's something for everyone: for fans of the genre and specific shows, there are those tailor-made "inside"/in-character treatments of holiday standards; for those who truly love holiday music, there are some gorgeous and moving renditions; and to please a Scrooge who's had enough of the glitz and goo, there's plenty of irreverence. Don't look for the big stars to get the big spotlight, as the Christmas light generally shines on others. "This Little Light of Mine," for example, is the contribution for Next to Normal but those normally on stage aren't heard: we get two understudies, Tim Young and Jessica Phillips. It's winningly sung, and the gimmick for this track is that Tim got a cloning machine for Christmas so the two create and sing with copies of their voices to create a group sound. The genuine group sounds of larger gatherings of cast members from shows such as Hair ("Da Pacem Domine") and Mary Poppins ("Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella") bring forth some sweet, fresh, youthful harmonies—as do a dozen of Rosie's Broadway Kids who happily come a-caroling with "Here We Come A-Caroling." For capturing and having fun with shows' distinctive musical qualities, characters and images, Santa's hat is off to arranger-conductor Adam Waite for his imaginatively humorous work on three laugh-out-loud re-imaginings of holiday fare as fair game. The familiar echoes of "Cool" from West Side Story cast a new light on the most innocuous of simple winter ditties for "Cool Jingle Bells" with gang tension/stance galore. More convivial tough-guy shtick and "New Joizy" accents with a bit of the harmonies of The Four Seasons add to the season's sound when The Jersey Boys list the joys they want during "The 12 Days of Christmas," courtesy of a new set of lyrics by the CD series' producer since the beginning, Lynn Pinto, and the cast with one of the "Boys," Russell Fischer, singled out for credit. And from the Off-Broadway boys—or rather, boyz—"Oh, Chanukah" gets a spot-on hilarious synth-pop alteration for Altar Boyz' joys of the Jewish holiday with boy-band sparkle and fuss. The cast members "go for it" in each case, and it's delicious. Though most are group vocal efforts, a few exceptions are also standouts. Accompanied by just a pianist (the aforementioned Adam Waite, overall album musical supervisor, he's also at keyboards for other tracks), there's Terri White turning in the most moving moment on the album, singing alone as the sole representative of Finian's Rainbow. Her "Joy to the World" is riveting and grounded, crystallizing all the exhilaration and devotion surrounding the Savior's birth into one pure but personalized performance. Another change of pace is a zippy instrumental of "We Three Kings," and it only takes a few seconds to know you're in Chicago as that score's trademarks leap out to bring season's greetings to your ear. Along with some gentle traditional moments and old songs reinvented and requiring an open mind (Rock of Ages cast members rocking out raucously in character on "O Holy Night" may be a stretch), there is something newer, from lyricist Jennifer Allen and composer Steve Marzullo, who is also arranger/conductor/pianist as the Mamma Mia! folks switch gears for the more serious "Blizzard of Peace." The whole set of 22 tracks is a blizzard of mostly fine things. I didn't take to the attempt at fun via Avenue Q's school scene with "Ave Maria"—to each his own holiday taste. The album is, as always, highly recommended. I guess we'll have to wait till next year for "O Holy Little Night Music."
Although you might know him from playing one the outsized, boisterous characters in The Producers or The Little Mermaid (where he was that fish-loving chef), or camping it up in When Pigs Fly, John Treacy Egan has a tender, serious side singing just as himself in the recording studio. His On Christmas Morning is ingratiating and inviting. It's a satisfying mix of old chestnuts like "The Christmas Song" with more recent fare like the evocative title song by David Foster and Kenny Loggins or "Grown-Up Christmas List" by Foster and Linda Thompson Jenner. The persuasively sung "Open Up Your Heart" (Steven Silverstein/ Barbara Campbell) is a new addition to the canon and John, who comes off here as very sincere, can carry off the very determined plea and the build of its swelling music. His voice has strength and gravitas when called upon, as in the posing of questions about the birth of the Holy Child: "Mary Did You Know?" and "What Child Is This?" He manages to have focused power vocally without losing the sense of religious awe. Turning to a secular question, "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?," the wondering is of personal insecurity in the field of romance but is also steeped in believable drama rather than depending on the bathos of neediness/loneliness or the other extreme, sing-song-y easy fluff. There's an elegance to the endeavor that comes from the dignified piano work and arrangements of David Shenton who, like the singer, can package these Christmas gifts with unabashedly heartfelt intents but not sloppy sentimentality. He uses a small band which also avoids any overly grand strokes—how can you go wrong Christmas-wise with a guitarist named Rudolph (Mr. Vernaz-Colas, quite effective) in the quintet? In the accompaniment and in the singer-actor's phrasing, there is welcome use of little silences to allow an idea or word to sink in or for an effect to be processed. It may be a symptom of having a lot of holiday favorites and not being able to narrow down the list, or the fact that so many such songs address the same limited number of subjects, but the temptation to kill two birds with one stone (translation: medleys of two songs) is given in to on five tracks. They work pretty well, though I think David Pomeranz's hypnotic confidence in the human spirit, "It's in Every One of Us," might have a stronger impact on its own rather than being combo-plattered with "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan. A Santa two-fer and a double dose of snow songs lighten things up when a breather is needed. With intense religious dedication or equally emotion-invested readings on material like "A Place Called Home" (Alan Menken/ Lynn Ahrens, A Christmas Carol), this is not an album for those Scrooges who shirk from genuine expressions of compassion and the human heart. The wonder of Christmas is alive and well. December 13, on a night off from his current assignment as a member of the cast of Bye Bye Birdie, John Treacy Egan goes a bit north to Tarrytown, New York, where he's been taking care of the Cabaret at the Castle series, to be the performer himself.
Don't expect "big." Don't count on too much of the thrillingly theatrical voice with its power and its robustness that spells "heroic!" It's holiday time, after all, and Broadway leading man Brent Barrett is snuggling up by the open fire. Fortunately, this grand vocalist can also be pleasing when he tones things down and sings in your ear. He keeps those home sweet home fires burning with "I'll Be Home for Christmas" in medley with "A Place Called Home." One really gets the sense from the loving way the lyrics are sung that home is indeed where his heart is and was and will be. You can see it in your mind's eye. Staying hearthside, he's settled in, content to welcome Jack Frost nipping at his nose and a fellow named Claus who is coming to town. So, when he's not taking an occasional time-out for more impassioned songs, he's content and cozy. The restraint and clarity that pianist-arranger Christopher Denny has brought to work with various cabaret singers is very present here, keeping things mostly lean and clean but interesting and well shaped. Larry Moore adds orchestrations; just six musicians are on hand, but the piano is usually at the center and heart. Guitar is prominent for an almost ethereal old world "Silent Night," in German and English, with Brent joined by Bernard Blanks, who also wrote the CD's title song. "Christmas Mornings" is one of the most dramatic parts of the album, for me rather melodramatic, and weakened by reliance on near-rhymes as its key lines repeat, and voice and arrangement swell. The lyric tells of memories and undying love and determination. More successful is another serious song that began as a work by the singer and was finished by Blanks and songwriter-director Barry Kleinbort, "A Star to Guide Me," which satisfyingly goes from the personal experience to the wider one, including all people seeking inspiration and help. Not surprisingly, "O Holy Night" is stirring and bigger-voiced than the rest of the set list. A bigger surprise is the treatment of "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," which always has the danger of being an overdose of oversweetened cliche images and a so-simple and perky melody line. But he wins me over with his version that is vigorous and builds and swirls, thanks in part to the musical variety coming from it being blended with "The Christmas Waltz." Combined with "the Christmas Waltz," vocally and instrumental, it gets a new lease on liveliness. From the Broadway musical I Love My Wife, by Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart, comes "Lovers on Christmas Eve," with its begrudging mentions of other holidays that can't measure up to you-know-what. Nice choice, but the lyric's "cute" factor gets played up like an elbow jabbed in your rib whereas I think it could be more effective underplayed. Produced by Bruce Kimmel, the sound is quite marvelous, with excellent balance and mix, everything feeling very present—and as a Christmas present, its pretty sounds make it a pretty good choice. Brent brings his holiday sincerity to Birdland in New York's theatre district for two nights, December 14 and 15, a little holiday from the cynicism he wears in his regular "legal" work nearby onstage in Chicago.
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VARIOUS BROADWAY CAST MEMBERS, etc.
JOHN TREACY EGAN
BRENT BARRETT
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