Here are two attractions currently on Broadway and now on disc. The partially true/partially embellished story of performer Sherie Rene Scott became her stage piece with prominent monologues and memories, but all they decided to capture of Everyday Rapture for the CD are the musical numbers (a group of pre-existing songs). An original score is no longer an everyday thing on Broadway, but The Addams Family has one that has fun with that famed oddball clan that began in comically eerie drawings.

SHERIE RENE SCOTT IN
EVERYDAY RAPTURE
ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST
Ghostlight/ Sh-k-boom Records

Shorn of its context of a woman trying to come to terms with her restrictive religious upbringing advising retiring self-effacement and a desire to strut and shine in the show biz spotlight, the CD of Everyday Rapture may seem more like an everyday vocal album for those not familiar with the stage piece. (Liner notes don't fill in many blanks.) There is some slyness and bemusement or yearning in the vocals of star Sherie Rene Scott that certainly come through and color the interpretations.

The eclectic set of songs—with some likeable old pop-rock songs, ditties from the children's TV program "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," and a few numbers strongly associated with Judy Garland movies—is an odd but tasty tossed musical salad. Scott sings all of the numbers, some with solid and bright backup/harmony vocals by Lindsay Mendez and Betsy Wolfe. A vintage pop "girl group" sound with plenty of feel-good energy bursts forth, but they crackle with lively teamwork "stage" energy rather than homogenized or layered recording studio effects. (The name of the show's remaining cast member, Eamon Foley, has his billing retained but is absent from the album, as he doesn't sing in the show.) There's one potentially puzzling number that does have some spoken material and major changes from the original version: Rather than the sung/spoken special material written for Judy Garland to be an adolescent mooning about movie star Clark Gable ("Dear Mr. Gable")—to be intertwined with the oldie "You Made Me Love You"—the gushing Gable fan letter becomes, instead, words addressed directly to Jesus Christ. At almost five minutes, this is by far the longest track; most are quite short, with 11 of the 17 selections under two-and-a-half-minutes in length and some well under two minutes.

There's a sense of innocence—or loss of it—permeating much of the proceedings. The "Mister Rogers" songs can be more than meets the wide-eyed childhood nostalgia trail; we get extra dashes of either wistfulness or digging for sexual double entendre ("Your body is fancy and so is mine ..." 'Nuff said?) While some vocals are peppy and perky, from the Garland grin of "Get Happy" to the galvanizing girl group glee of the upbeat "Up the Ladder to the Roof," there's pause for reflection, too. Those seeking big Broadway belting or sophisticated showpieces with angst—which this talented performer has provided in the past—won't find a whole lot of that here. This is smaller scale in scope and dynamics.

Two bonus tracks add to the pop balance of the genre scale, on the sincere side, too: "Remember" (Harry Nilsson) and "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" by George Harrison. Sherie proves herself to be something of a vocal chameleon, rather comfortable-sounding in the skin of each style, respectfully/modestly so, never chewing the sheet music playing rock diva or Garland stand-in. Still, there isn't a lot that feels earthshaking or groundbreaking or indelible in her renditions or tempi or the arrangements by Tom Kitt. Nevertheless, they're nicely done and nice to hear and there's some rather goo-free nostalgia that features involved, attractive musical performances with a five-piece band conducted by Carmel Dean, also Broadway-busy with American Idiot.

Everyday Rapture has more than a few elements of musical comfort food with the comfort level turned up via the welcome vocal presence of Sherie Rene Scott, often as comfortable-seeming as that cardigan sweater Mister Rogers used to don as each episode began on TV. But she's more unbuttoned and spicy in her own neighborhood of Broadway.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY
2010 ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST
Decca Broadway

If you were, perhaps understandably, expecting dark, macabre clouds of gloom and doom to dominate the goings-on with the Broadway-ization of The Addams Family, you've miscalculated the forecast. At least on CD, it's more sunny and bright razzle-dazzle musical comedy splash. Sophisticated, subversive, daring and deliciously dark gallows humor? Well, not so much, but there is some of that, plus more mainstream shtick. There are glimmers of dry wit, but think mostly nitwit instead ... still, much is amusing. Andrew Lippa's well-crafted music and lyrics have zing and flair, even if cheery and eerie don't always meld easily. Some songs feel pushed too over the top or a bit desperate or deliberate, but the tone is broad in this Broadway musical. Some hard-sell moments feel too calculated and not calibrated, in material or performance, but much of it works very well indeed.

Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth are ideally cast as the exuberant but sarcastic Gomez and his wife, the glum-as-they-come Morticia. Fretting over their daughter's rejection of the morbid manner of the manor Addams for romantic love or their own ardor, they are hilarious. She nails the loopy cheer-up production number with the "optimistic" reminder that death could well be "Just Around the Corner." She's joined in this by some ultra-lively dancing dearly departed ancestors, relishing a list of possible ways to move from being depressed to being deceased. In addition to his trademark devilish sparkle, Nathan Lane takes a song expressing parental mixed feelings about a child's growing up and makes it moving and universal, with "Happy/Sad" a kind of cousin to Sondheim's "Sorry/Grateful." The cartoon is briefly humanized. Another very effective performance is young Adam Riegler as the boy in the family, impressing with his solo "What If," sweetly singing (and, notably, underplaying by playing it straight) how he'll miss his sister because spraying himself with mace or ripping his own tonsils out just "wouldn't be the same." Of the big group numbers, the vaudevilley "Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love," which is reprised, proves irresistible with its goofy energy and opportunities for various cast members to shine. Some other pieces are a bit more frantic rather than breezily antic, though the plot (described in liner notes) justifies the motivations and reasons. For example, there is a magic serum that changes one's behavior. (This, if nothing else, gives full throttle to Carolee Carmello's powerhouse voice in "Waiting.")

Featuring strings and horns, Mary-Mitchell Campbell conducts orchestrations by Larry Hochman (mostly) and the result is a mix-and-match show-bizzy Halloween party with lots of spirit. And, yes, it's a decent-sized orchestra, thankfully, and sounds swell and full ... and full of nifty comic touches and Broadway pizzazz.

Although the Addamses might profess to preferring not joie de vivre but joie de mourir, the original cast album, produced by its tunesmith, has the former in ample supply. The humor, even when forced, wins out in this happy haunted house.

- Rob Lester

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