Music Review: Barbie the Album

Barbie the Album

by various (Music Compact Disc 782.14 Bar & Hoopla)

 

On the same day that the international bombshell film Barbie: The Movie opened in July, the soundtrack album was released, both digitally and in physical formats (vinyl LP and CD). Five of the 17 tracks on Barbie the Album were released as singles for radio and streaming-service play, with several making the Billboard hot singles lists. A secondary, expanded, soundtrack was released as the “Best Weekend Ever” edition, with two additional tracks not previously available.

 

Like the film it accompanies, Barbie the Album is a celebration of female empowerment, with the vast majority of the tracks featuring music written by and/or performed by female artists, including Lizzo, Nicki Minaj and Spice Ice, Billie Eilish, Charlie XCX, Pinkpantheress, Gayle, Ava Max and Dua Lipa. Complimenting all these powerful female performers are a handful of male entries, including the film’s “Ken”, Ryan Gosling singing his plaintive character theme song, “I’m Just Ken” (he also sings the Matchbox 20 hit “Push” on the extended soundtrack), Sam Smith, Dominic Fike, The Kid Laroi and Khalid (among others).

 

The music ranges from peppy bubblegum pop to introspective, but leans more toward the electric and high-energy, including a couple of “dance” numbers. All the songs on this album appear in the film, so this isn’t one of those “songs from and inspired by” albums. If you’ve seen the movie — and at the time of this review’s writing, it was the #13 all time money marker in the U.S. market (and #15 internationally), so you’re hardly alone — each of these energetic tunes will remind you of moments within the film. Tracks that stand out for me are “Pink” by Lizzo (the film’s opening scenes in Barbieworld), “Dance the Night” by Dua Lipa, “Barbie World” by Minaj and Spice, “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, and “Choose Your Fighter” by Ava Max. (I also enjoyed “I’m Just Ken”, but it has a completely different tone than the rest of this upbeat album.)

 

The libraries have the basic album as a CD, and both the basic and extended album versions are available via our Hoopla Digital Music service. I don’t listen to a lot of contemporary music, preferring my old classics from the 1960s through the 1990s, but I’ll have to admit, Barbie the Album ended up being compulsive listening for me!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Compact Disc Review: Music Man - The 2022 Broadway Cast Recording

Music Man: The 2022 Broadway Cast Recording
by Meredith Willson (Compact Disc 782.14 Mus)

I’ve been a huge fan of the actor Hugh Jackman for years, and have really enjoyed his performances in such musical films as Les Miserables and The Greatest Showman. Similarly, I’ve enjoyed what performance by Sutton Foster that I’ve had the chance to see and hear, including her multi-season fun on Younger, and her contributions to soundtrack albums like Young Frankenstein, Anything Goes and The Drowsy Chaperone. But I’ve never had the chance to see either of them live, in person, in a stage show. None-the-less, I had high hopes for enjoying them as the leads in the soundtrack to the 2022 Broadway version of The Music Man, the classic American musical.

 

This soundtrack is fine, on its own, and is particularly rewarding as a two-disc set, which includes a LOT more music than has been on the single-disc releases associated with earlier stage and film productions. And, I actually did enjoy listening to it in the end. Both Jackman and Foster are enthusiastic performers and more-than-capable singers. BUT…and it’s a big but…as someone who grew up listening to the soundtracks to both the 1957 Broadway production and the 1962 feature film version, Jackman and Foster simply do not inhabit the characters of Harold Hill and Marian Paroo like Robert Preston did for both stage and screen, and Barbara Cook and Shirley Jones did for the stage and screen versions. The late Robert Preston simply IS Harold Hill, and Jackman was a mere pretender.

 

For Broadway soundtrack fans, I do still recommend this 2022 version…its got an infection sense of energy, and some of the tracks featuring group performances are outstanding. And if you’ve never heard the songs of The Music Man before, you may end up loving this version. But for someone well-versed in the history of Broadway music, this one ultimately falls a bit short. Its main selling point, for me, is the fact that there’s twice as much music represented as in previous production albums.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to see if you can find the soundtracks to both the 1957 Broadcast Cast Album, and the 1962 movie version of this story. But by all means, avoid the 2003 TV-movie version, starring Matthew Broderick, as it is far inferior to all other versions.)

 

( official Music Man on Broadway 2022 web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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Music CD Review: MJ: The Musical, based on the life and works of Michael Jackson

MJ: The Musical
based on the music of Michael Jackson (and others) (Compact Disc 782.14 MJ)

 MJ: The Musical is what they call a “jukebox musical” — in which a variety of songs (usually by a single artist or group) are integrated into the plot of an on-stage storyline, often featuring the artist(s) who created or performed the music. But not always, for instance the hit Mamma Mia exclusively featured the music of ABBA but not those performers as characters.

 

MJ: The Musical, however, really does tell the story of Michael Jackson, from his very earliest days performing with The Jackson Five, up through 1992, and the beginning of his Dangerous World tour. The music doesn’t appear in purely chronological order — in fact, the musical opens with Jackson’s hit Beat It, before segueing backwards to the early years.

 

MJ: The Musical has a complicated history. It was originally supposed to open on Broadway in 2020, but was one of many shows impacted by the Broadway closures due to COVID-19. After a recasting of the lead role, which lead to Myles Frost playing the adult Michael Jackson, the show did eventually open in February of 2022 (after two months of previews). Critics have not been kind to the show, but it has been popular with audiences. In the 2022 Tony Awards, the show was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won four: Best Lead Actor for Frost, Best Choreography, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design. Obviously, the show’s soundtrack can’t really show up dance, lighting and sound design effective, but it DOES shine a spotlight on Myles Frost’s incredible singing. He truly “becomes” Michael in this show, and the medleys of Jackson music come across beautifully in this production. There are only a few moments in a few of the songs where it sounds like somebody else singing these highly recognizable songs.

 

I highly recommend listening to this soundtrack, if you’re a Michael Jackson fan, and catch MJ: The Musical when it begins its national tour in 2023 or 2024.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try all the original albums/music by Michael Jackson himself.)

 

( official MJ: The Musical web site ) | ( MJ: The Musical page on the official Michael Jackson web site ) | ( Wikipedia entry on MJ: The Musical )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

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Check out this, and all the other great music resources, at the Polley Music Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & "N" St. in downtown Lincoln. You'll find biographies of musicians, books about music history, instructional books, sheet music, CDs, music-related magazines, and much more. Also check out Polley Music Library Picks, the Polley Music Library's e-mail newsletter, and follow them on Facebook!

Music CD Review: Back to the Future: The Musical - Original Cast Recording by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard

Back to the Future: The Musical – Original Cast Recording
by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard (Compact Disc 782.14 Bac)

The original time-travel film Back to the Future came out in 1985, telling the tale of teenager Marty McFly using the massively-altered Delorean gull-wing car-turned-time-machine by his friend, eccentric scientist Doc Emmet Brown, to travel back to 1955. When trapped there, Marty enlists the assistance of the younger Doc Brown to figure out how to refuel the time machine to return himself to 1985. But first, Marty must help his parents to fall in love — his arrival in 1955 caused their original meeting to go off-track — or he and his two siblings will cease to exist.

 

The original film engendered two immediate sequels in 1989 and 1990, the first of which threw the characters forward from 1985 to 2015, and the second cast them back in time to the Old West. A later animated TV series (2 seasons totally 26 episodes) continued their story. As early as 2004, producer/writer Bob Gale hinted at a desire to turn Back to the Future into a stage musical. In 2012, it was announced that this project was a reality and was aimed for a 2015 premiere (to tie into the time Marty and Doc traveled to in the 2nd film. Delays pushed this project back repeatedly, and it finally premiered in the UK in 2021 (with plays to premiere on Broadway in 2023).

 

This soundtrack features the cast of the 2021 British production, including Olly Dobson as Marty McFly, Roger Bart as Doc Brown, Hugh Coles as George McFly, Rosanna Hyland as Lorraine Baines, Cedric Neal as Goldie Wilson/Marvin Berry, and Aidan Cutler as Biff Tannen. The producers’ goals for this musical were to create mostly all-new songs to retell this popular story. In fact, out of 25 tracks on this CD, only five feature music associated with the movie — Alan Silvestri’s instrumental theme (now given lyrics in “It’s Only a Matter of Time”), “The Power of Love” and “Back in Time” (both pop hits for Huey Lewis from the film’s soundtrack) and “Earth Angel” and “Johnny B. Goode” (performed at the school dance near the end of the story). All other tracks are new tunes, collaborations between original soundtrack composer Silvestri and Glen Ballard. Some are better than others, but there aren’t any real stinkers. Most major characters get a song focused on them and their goals. Doc Brown gets several, including “It Works”, “Future Boy”, “21st Century”, and the marvelous “For the Dreamers”. Marty’s wishy-washy father George gets “My Myopia” and “Put Your Mind to It”. Marty’s suprisingly man-hungry mother (as a teenager) gets “Pretty Baby” and “Something About That Boy”. And, of course, Marty McFly has many moments to shine.

 

Olly Dobson does a remarkably good job of recapturing the sound of a young Michael J. Fox as Marty. Hugh Coles is eerie in recreating the unique voice of Crispin Glover as George McFly, and both Hyland and Cutler do a good job inhabiting the roles of Lorraine and Biff. The slight disappointment for me was Roger Bart as Doc. I’ve really enjoyed Bart’s vocal performances in other musical soundtracks — he’s terrific as Victor Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein. But he’s very “on again/off again” as Doc.

 

None-the-less, despite some unevenness, I thought that these songs very effectively retold the well-known plot of the film. A few changes were made — swapping plutonium poising instead of Libyan terrorists for Doc’s 1985 death, etc. Just like the film, which mixes genres, this soundtrack bounces between 1950s and 1980s song stylings very effectively. Overall, Back to the Future: The Musical sounds like it would be a terrific show. I hope once it premieres here in the U.S. it is a smash success. Based on descriptions of the technical needs of this show (a flying Delorean car!), it’s unlikely to be a show feasible for community or high school theaters to perform, so catch it on Broadway if you can!

 

(If you enjoy this, obviously, this is tailored to fans of the original film trilogy. I’d also recommend viewing the quirky animated series, also available on DVD from the libraries.)

 

( official Back to the Future: The Musical web site ) | ( official Alan Silvestri web site ) | ( Wikipedia entry for Glen Ballard )

 

Recommended by Scott C.

Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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DVD and CD Review: West Side Story (2021) movie and soundtrack

West Side Story (2021)
(DVD West)

Despite the original West Side Story from 1961 being one of my all-time favorites, I was curious to see what director Steven Spielberg would do in his remake, his first musical film. I, personally, was not disappointed.

Relative unknown Rachel Zegler stars as Maria, and Ansel Elgort is Tony, this film’s Romeo & Juliet (the Shakespearean play which is the basis for the storyline). Ariana Debose is Anita, for which she just won the Academy Award for Supporting Actress, which had also previously been won in 1961 by Rita Moreno in the same role. David Alvarez is Maria’s brother Bernardo, leader of the Puerto Rican street gang the Sharks, and Mike Faist is Riff, Tony’s replacement as the leader of the caucasian street gang the Jets.

 

This version of this explosively emotional film moves around some of the iconic key songs, such as “Gee, Officer Krupke”, “Cool” and “I Feel Pretty”, placing them in moments that fit better into the story continuity than either the 1961 film or the stage musical. On the other hand, I’ll admit that some of the 1961 performances are more powerful. The performances in the 2021 are all good to great, and I love the fact that Rita Moreno, recast as the widow of the local store owner (Valentina) gets to sing “Somewhere” at the end of the film, while I know other fans were disappointed in this change, feeling that it’s really a Maria/Tony song.

 

The look of the film is tremendous, with much of it set among urban decay in a neighborhood that’s in the process of being torn down for gentrification (historically, it later becomes the location of The Lincoln Center performing arts facility). The dance sequences are marvelous, and the chemistry among the cast is incredible. And I appreciated that most of the Puerto Rican characters are actually played by Latinx performers, unlike the earlier film, which uses white actors in embarrassingly heavy makeup. But the 1961 film is a classic for very good reasons. I just happen to think that the 2021 holds up equally well, and the new film was one of my favorite movies of last year. Your mileage may vary…

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the original West Side Story (1961), directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, and starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, George Chakiris, Russ Taymbln and Rita Moreno. You should also catch a stage production of this show if you ever have the chance, as the staged version of this musical differs dramatically from both films. I also highly recommend the soundtrack album to this new 2021 film, which does a very respectful job of recreating the music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, with the addition of “La Borinqueña”, sung in Spanish by the Sharks gang!)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film ) | ( official West Side Story (2021) web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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CD Review: Disney Goes Classical

Disney Goes Classical
by various artists, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Music has been an integral and unforgettable part of the Walt Disney film experience since the studio’s earliest days, particularly in their animated films. Cinema buffs will certainly recall Mickey Mouse’s second appearance in “Steamboat Willie” — Disney’s first “talkie” — in which Mickey whistles whilst piloting the steamboat. Over the years, dozens of Disney’s films have featured innovative and iconic music, and the soundtracks to films such as Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid have been huge bestsellers.

Disney Goes Classical features 15 tracks of music from 15 different Disney films, adapted by Dave Arch and Sally Herbert to be performed by a symphony orchestra. You’ll hear well-known songs done in ways you’ve never experienced before. Films whose music are included on this disc are: Mary Poppins, Moana, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Princess and the Frog, Hercules, Pocahontas, Toy Story 2, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, Frozen, Mulan, and Pinocchio.

Personally, I very much enjoyed the majority of these tracks, though I thought the arrangements on a few suffered from some awkward musical choices. None-the-less, the overall collection was very impressive and I’m happy to recommend it. This album will be most appreciated by fans of Disney films, though general classical music aficionados may also find much to enjoy as well.

[Listening to the “classical music” versions of these tunes may put you in the mood to track down the original soundtracks to some of these films, many of which are in the libraries’ collection.]

[ Disney Goes Classical entry on the Disney Wiki ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service 

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Review: Mary Poppins Returns: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Mary Poppins Returns: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
composed by Marc Shaiman, performed by Emily Blunt, Lin Manuel Miranda and more

Creating a sequel to a legendary classic musical is always a daunting project, particularly one that comes 54 years after the original. That was the challenge faced by the creators of Mary Poppins Returns, a 2018 film that is a direct sequel to the original Mary Poppins in 1964. Though the P.L. Travers novels that inspired the original Walt Disney film first saw publication as early as 1934, I would venture to presume that most peoples’ memories of Mary Poppins are of the Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke film, filled with unforgettable tunes such as “A Spoonful of Sugar”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “Feed the Birds”, “Chim Chim Cheree”, “Step in Time” and “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”. That film featured music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, and is, perhaps, one of the most recognizable and memorable movie soundtracks of all time.

For Mary Poppins Returns, the film starred Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack the Lamplighter, Ben Wishaw as Michael Banks and Emily Mortimer and Jane Banks (the two children from the original film), as well as Dick Van Dyke, and many more. The film-makers brought in composer/lyricist Mark Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman. The film is witty, emotionally engaging and visually stimulating, with great performances across the board. But, for me, the key question was — will the soundtrack hold a candle to the quality of the original. In my opinion, the soundtrack to Mary Poppins Returns is excellent, but still not quite up to the “classic” standard set by the music of the Julie Andrews film. There are several marvelous songs, which serve as the anchor for some of the film’s most impressive sequences, including: “Can You Imagine That?”, “The Royal Doulton Music Hall”, “A Cover is Not the Book”, “Turning Turtle”, “Trip a Little Light Fantastic” and “(Underneath the) Lovely London Sky”. But for me, the most memorable song is “The Place Where Lost Things Go”, which was recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda are incredible singers and easily hold their own with the music from this film, though I’ll have to admit that Emily Blunt is no Julie Andrews. Miranda is probably the most…energetic…of the performers, and even gets to have shades of his trademark hip-hop influence in a few moments of his centerpiece songs. Many (most) of the songs are multi-voice pieces (i.e. the full cast), and I wish that there had been more than just one song as a solo for Blunt as Mary Poppins. But it is what it is. I’m also quite pleased that the soundtrack includes not just the vocal tracks, but 11 tracks of instrumental score music from the film. And many of those include ghostly little refrains of the music from the original film, expertly woven into the action of the new film.
If you can’t tell, I do, indeed, love this soundtrack, and strongly recommend it. And if you haven’t seen the film in the theater, it will soon be out on DVD/Blu-Ray and streaming services.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Mary Poppins (Soundtrack from the original film).]

[ official Mary Poppins Returns web site ] | [ official Mark Shaiman web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The New Musical: Original Broadway Cast Recording (on CD)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The New Musical: Original Broadway Cast Recording
by Mark Shaiman & others [Compact Disc 782.14 Cha]

Based on the classic 1964 youth novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by British author Roald Dahl, and its 1971 film adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (which starred the late, great Gene Wilder), this staged musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The New Musical played on London’s West End from 2013 to 2017. A re-worked stage version for American audiences was performed on Broadway from April 2017 to January 2018. This is the soundtrack to the American version, which starred actor Christian Borle as Willy Wonka, and Broadway legend John Rubinstein as Grandpa Joe.

Brilliant but eccentric “candy man” Willy Wonka realizes that he needs to find a replacement for himself as head of his chocolate factory — someone with a brilliant imagination but a good sense of humanity, who won’t screw up his legacy. He runs a contest, in which any child who finds a Golden Ticket hidden under the wrapper of one of his Wonka Bars will be invited into Wonka’s factory, with a chance at winning “the Grand Prize”. The five children who each find a Golden Ticket are Augustus Gloop, a glutinous slob, Veruca Salt, a Russian heiress with no self control, Violet Beauregarde, a self-obsessed media celebrity (who holds the record for longest continuously chewed wad of bubble gum), Mike Teavee, a TV-and-Internet obsessed loner, who hacked his way to a free Golden Ticket, and our hero, Charlie Bucket, an idealistic waif who idolizes both his Grandpa Joe and Wonka. The children (and their adult companions) get a tour of the Wonka factory they (and the audience) will never forget, and Wonka ultimately finds his worthwhile successor.

The stage musical makes effective use of several of the pieces of music that appeared in the Wilder film, including “The Candy Man”, “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket”, “Pure Imagination”, and the hauntingly creepy “Oompa Loompa Song”. But composer and lyricist Mark Shaiman and Scott Wittman also created numerous new songs for the show. There is poignancy, in “A Letter From Charlie Bucket” and “If Your Father Were Here”, there’s wacky comedy in “Strike That! Reverse That!” and a new longer version of the Ooompa Loompa song, and each of the primary “children” characters has both an introductory song, and a song that is tied to their eventual demise. Along with the fast-paced “Strike That! Reverse That!”, my favorite two tracks are also new: “It Must Be Believed to Be Seen” and “The View From Here” — both are hauntingly beautiful pieces of music, in the midst of an over-the-top candy-coated fantasy of a musical. Christian Borle (“Something Rotten”, “Peter and the Starcatcher” on Broadway, and “Smash” on TV) is absolutely magnificent as Willy Wonka in his performances on this album — I would have loved to have seen him in the role on stage. He channels Gene Wilder’s unforgettable film performance, while still managing to put his own stamp on it. A national touring company will be starting a U.S. tour of this stage musical in late 2018, however it looks like the closest it will come to Lincoln/Omaha is Minneapolis and Denver. So, in the meantime, enjoy listening to this soundtrack CD and keep your fingers crossed that the musical makes it to Lincoln or Omaha or Kansas City!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder. I recommend avoiding the 2005 version starring Johnny Depp.]

 

[ official Charlies and the Chocolate Factory musical web site ] | [ official Roald Dahl web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Anastasia (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (on CD)

Anastasia (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
music by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty

In 1997, Fox Animation and 20th Century Fox released an animated film entitled Anastasia, a fictionalized adventure about the legendary missing Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna from the Romanov family of Russia, who disappeared during the events of the Russian Revolution that overthrew the Russian monarchy and aristocracy, as the rest of her family was executed in 1918. The film, featuring the voices of Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer and Christopher Lloyd (among many others), was a musical and a spectacle, designed to compete with the animated films being produced on an almost annual basis by the Walt Disney Studio.

As a musical, the film featured 17 songs by lyricist Lynn Ahrens, including two highly memorable works, “Once Upon a December” and “Journey to the Past”. The story of the film supposes that Anastasia survived the deaths of the rest of her family, and has lived on the street as an amnesiac, Anya. She gets caught up in a con artist’s plot to have her impersonate the missing Anastasia to collect a potential reward from Anastasia’s grandmother if Anastasia was to return. An unlikely love story is wrapped around the discovery that Anya truly is Anastasia.

in 2017, the beloved animated film was adapted into a stage musical on Broadway, with Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty taking some of the songs from the film, and adding many more new musical numbers for the stage, including “In a Crowd of Thousands”. Some of the more fantastical elements of the film are rendered more realistic for the stage show — eliminating some mysticism and the popular animal character of Bartok the Bat — and the musical Anastasia becomes a true historical epic.

The CD of the soundtrack for the Broadway musical includes 25 tracks, ranging from powerful and emotional, to humorous and wistful. Christy Altomare plays Anya/Anastasia, and Derek Klema plays Dmitri. Both have excellent, beautiful voices and their songs are the most powerful on the album. I hope Anastasia has a long and healthy life as a Broadway hit, but I also hope it tours the U.S. and makes it to Lincoln and/or Omaha, as I would love to see this show!

[Sadly, the libraries do not own the animated film Anastasia, however we do have the soundtrack to that film available on CD!]

[ official Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty web site (creators of the music) ] | [ official Anastasia: The New Broadway Musical web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall

Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall A celebration of the music of Stephen Sondheim [Compact Disc 782.14 Son] 

This two-CD album is a marvelous recording from a live event that took place in June 1992 at Carnegie Hall, in which many of the past stars of songs penned by Stephen Sondheim gathered to perform his music in a concert setting, to pay tribute to the master lyricist. The event was recorded for release as an episode of PBS’ Great Performances, and came out both as a DVD and as this musical CD. The show is a veritable “Who’s Who” of Broadway mega-talents from that era, including Madeline Kahn, Liza Minelli, Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone, Patrick Cassidy, Victor Garber, Bernadette Peters, Glenn Close and more. The songs included are among the best-known pieces of music in Broadway history, epitomized by Sondheim’s fast lyrics and manic pacing.
While some of the individual tracks may not live up to the quality of the Original Cast Recordings of their respective shows, this is still a very fun collection, with live audience reactions to the performances. I recommend this for any Sondheim completists, or if you’re only vaguely familiar with his great body of work and just want a sampler of some of his best pieces.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try any of the soundtracks to individual Sondheim-created stage musicals, including Assassins, Company, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park With George and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Also, this concert was also released on DVD (though the libraries don't own it).]

[ manufacturer’s official Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall ordering page — play samples of all tracks ] | [ official www.sondheim.com web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Shatter Me by Lindsey Stirling on CD

Shatter Me
by Lindsey Stirling [Music Compact Disc 781.66 Sti]

Stirling began gaining recognition as a YouTube artist. She blends her violin compositions with electronic music, as well as different genres such as rap, rock, pop, country, rap, alternative, country and pop. In this way she creates a completely unique sound as an artist.

[ official Lindsey Stirling web site, including her YouTube videos ]

Recommended by Marie P.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Into the Woods: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Deluxe Edition (on CD and Hoopla)

Into the Woods: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Deluxe Edition
by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine [Compact Disc 782.14 Into] 

Into the Woods was a staged musical, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, which opened in San Diego in 1986, then on Broadway in 1987, winning Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book (opposite Broadway juggernaut Phantom of the Opera). After years of successful runs, touring productions, local community theater and high school productions, Hollywood finally produced a motion picture version just within the past couple of years, featuring a cast full of both movie and stage stars. Meryl Streep is The Witch, James Corden and Emily Blunt are The Baker and his wife, Anna Kendrick is Cinderella, Chris Pine is Prince Charming and Johnny Depp is The Wolf — among many, many more.

Over the years, many different soundtrack albums have been released, from various productions — New York, London, revivals, etc. — and the movie version put out two different soundtracks. One was a shorter single-disc album, featuring 20 songs — all the major “hits” from the show — while the Deluxe Edition was a two-disc album featuring 50 tracks, including a ot of the dialog that leads into the individual songs. The cast, overall, does a marvelous job with what is sometimes extremely fast-paced lyrics, often with various singers overlapping each other with their own motifs. The show, which plays around with traditional fairytale tropes and pokes loving fun at long-standing storytelling traditions, still manages to evoke a lot of intense emotion, and the performances here capture that emotion well. The “Opening Prologue”, which sets all the characters’ storylines in motion, is tremendous. Every character has a moment to shine, both with humor and with drama. And by the end of the show, when the entire cast shares verses of “Finale/Children Will Listen”, I challenge you not to have been moved. I know some fans of the staged version are not fans of the movie version, but, personally, I loved the movie and this two-disc soundtrack is one of my favorites! Highly recommended!!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the two-disc soundtrack to the recent filmed version of Les Miserables, starring Hugh Jackman and a cast of other notables.] [ Wikipedia page for the Into the Woods movie soundtrack ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Young Frankenstein: The Musical - CD soundtrack

Young Frankenstein
by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan [Compact Disc 782.14 Young, and Hoopla digital service]

Gene Wilder and Mel Brook’s 1974 film masterpiece Young Frankenstein, starring Wilder, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Peter Boyle and Cloris Leachman, was transformed into a Broadway musical sensation in 2007, enjoying over 480 performances on Broadway before closing in 2009. It then became a popular touring show, and has now become available for local theaters to produce their own versions in regional and community theaters. Anyone familiar with the classic old film knows that there were really only two noteworthy pieces of music (other than the background soundtrack) — the haunting violin piece that calms the monster’s anger, and the show biz standard “Putting on the Ritz”, to which Dr. Frankenstein and The Monster do a soft-shoe routine before things go awry. For this big show, Brooks and Thomas Meehan (who, together, also turned Brooks’ film The Producers into a successful Broadway musical), crafted 21 songs and dance numbers. Playing off of moments both small and large in the film, entire production numbers are built around Frederick’s lecture to his medical students (“The Brain”), fiancee Elizabeth’s odd behavior (“Please Don’t Touch Me”), the familial connect between Frederick and Igor (“Together Again for the First Time”), Frau Blucher’s illicit relationship with Frederick’s grandfather (“He Vas My Boyfriend”), and so much more.

The performances on this original Broadway cast album include Roger Bart as Frederick, Megan Mulally as Elizabeth, Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor, Sutton Foster as Inga, Andrea Martin as Frau Blucher and Sherman Hensley as The Monster. All turn in terrific singing jobs, making me wish I’d seen this cast perform the show. Young Frankenstein will be performed at Lincoln’s own TADA Theatre in the Haymarket the final three weekends in October, in case you’d like to see it performed live. Otherwise, I highly recommend this Broadway soundtrack!

[If you enjoy the goofiness of this musical, you may also wish to try The Producers, also by Mel Brooks.]

[ Wikipedia page for Young Frankenstein: The Musical ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Laughter Therapy CD sets from NPR

Laughter Therapy: Funny for a Living and Laughter Therapy: A Comedy Collection for the Chronically Serious
released by National Public Radio [Compact Disc 817 Nat]

Laughter Therapy is two sets of audio recordings from National Public Radio, featuring interview clips with comedians covering decades of NPR broadcasts. One 3-disc set — Laughter Therapy: Funny for a Living — is hosted by Ophira Eisenberg of NPR’s Ask Me Another, and the other is a 2-disc set — Laughter Therapy: A Comedy Collection for the Chronically Serious — hosted by Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me‘s Peter Sagal. Both sets follow the same formula — interview clips, interspersed with performance snippets from many of today’s and yesterday’s most noteworthy comics. Often, the comic was on tour to promote a “new” (at the time) book or DVD release, so some of many of the interviews cover the content of those books. But, often, the comics and interviewers are just riffing on the life of the comic. Entertainers including in “Funny for a Living” include Lucille Ball, Louis C.K., Sid Caesar, Charlie Chaplin, Billy Crystal, Dick Van Dyke, Jim Gaffigan, Buster Keaton, Groucho Marx, Bob Newhart, Carl Reiner, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Kristen Wiig, Jonathan Winters and more. I really appreciated hearing the voices of both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in their segments! The “…Chronically Serious” volume features Mel Brooks, Drew Carey, Stephen Colbert, Eugene Levy, Martin Mull and Fred Willard, Paula Poundstone, Mo Rocca, Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers and more.

Both sets are highly entertaining — my only complaint is that the snippets for each artist are so short that you’re left wanting more. Fortunately, in the case of many of these comedians, the libraries own their comedy routines on CD, or you can find their bits on YouTube as well!

[If you like this item, you might like these too – See each of the related artists in our catalog — we are likely to have some of their comedy albums available on CD, or through our Hoopla downloadable/streaming service!]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Winter's Crossing by James Galway (on CD)

Winter’s Crossing
by James Galway [Compact Disc 781.62 IreG]

This is a musical CD but it tells a story too. It begins in Ireland with people preparing to leave for America and follows them on their journey; the optimism, the sad goodbye, the time on board the ship, reaching the shore and starting a new life. There is a vocal part at the goodbye which is a letter documenting a firsthand account of someone who was at such a farewell. The rest is just instrumental, but it too is full of emotions that change with the immigrants’ story. I really enjoyed this album and highly recommend it. It comes with a booklet that explains the history and journey of the Irish immigrants which makes the music more meaningful. If you are curious about Irish immigrants of the past or enjoy instrumental music, this album is suburb.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Scottish Tranquility, by Phil Coulter]

[ Winter’s Crossing entry at AllMusic.com ] | [ official James Galway web site ]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Somebody by Connie Dover on CD

Somebody
by Connie Dover [Compact Disc 781.62 ScoD]

This nice CD ranks in the middle of other Scottish and Irish music I’ve listened to. The booklet provides information about each song, some are traditional, some are adapted from their original and some Connie Dover wrote herself. All of them are performed by the same singer. If you like Enya’s music, you’ll most likely enjoy this too. I also recommend Phil Coulter’s music and The Corries.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Scottish Tranquility, by Phil Coulter]

[ official Connie Dover web site ]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Unforgettable With Love by Natalie Cole (on CD)

Unforgettable With Love
by Natalie Cole [Compact Disc 781.63 Col]

This 1991 album was the return to recording for Natalie Cole, after several years battling drug addiction. She couldn’t have picked a better project to revive her career, tapping into the deep well of hits by her father, legendary singer Nat King Cole, to create a unique tribute to her dad. Natalie’s full, rich voice is perfect for reinterpreting such Nat King Cole hits as “Mona Lisa”, “Straighten Up and Fly Right” and “Don’t Get Around Much Any More”, as well as a number of his lesser-known but still wonderful songs like “Avalon” and “Non Dimenticar”. However, for me, there’s just one song on this album that makes the entire album worthwhile — using some creative audio editing, Natalie is actually able to sing a duet with her dad on the title track, “Unforgettable”. This duet is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music. A music video was also done of that duet, cutting together imagery of both Coles, and I recommend viewing that on YouTube. Following her passing in 2015, as I sampled her various albums, I kept coming back to this one as a personal favorite, and I still highly recommend it!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try almost another other album by Natalie Cole, particularly Still Unforgettable, and Holly & Ivy, Natalie’s Christmas album.] [ official Natalie Cole web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

The Best of Bowie (on CD)

The Best of Bowie
by David Bowie [Compact Disc 781.66 Bow]

The passing of legendary musician David Bowie had me digging out this 2002 collection, The Best of Bowie, to remember the iconic songs for which he’ll be remembered. This 20-track single-disc collection covers all of his “big hits”, but barely scratches the surface of his incredible, multi-faceted career. Continually reinventing his performing persona, Bowie had the ability to slide from glam rock, to R&B, to punk, to plaintive ballads, to infectious dance club beats, to in-your-face rock & roll, and mastered all those styles. He was highly experimental, and this collection’s only weakness is that it emphasizes the “hits” without including some of his more exotic material. None-the-less, if you’re looking for a broad snapshot of his lengthy career, you can’t go wrong with trying out this particular album.

I’m a happy camper, because my four favorite Bowie selections all made this album: The sad, mournful “Space Oddity” — check out Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s music-video cover of this, filmed aboard the International Space Station in 2013; “Suffragette City”; “Under Pressure” (teamed up with Queen); and “Dancing in the Streets” (an upbeat duet with The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger). This 2002 album was released alongside a 2002 DVD of the same title, which gives viewers the added benefit of seeing the incredible changes in Bowie’s physical appearance over the course of his career.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters, by Sean Egan, The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Star Icons, hosted by Nebraskan Dick Cavett, and Labyrinth, the cult fantasy film on DVD, directed by Jim Henson, in which Bowie acted/sang as The Goblin King!] [ official David Bowie web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you listened to this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
 
New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Holiday Wishes by Idina Menzel (on CD)

Holiday Wishes
by Idina Menzel [Compact Disc 394 Men]

Just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean that you can’t still enjoy some holiday classics, especially when sung by someone as talented as Idina Menzel! I happened upon this collection of holiday songs just after Christmas. I had told my daughter that I had been hearing a song on the radio that was sung in part by Idina Menzel with Michael Buble. My daughter just happens to be a huge fan of Idina Menzel, but not for her incredible performance in Disney’s “Frozen;” she loves to listen to her sing in “Wicked.” I checked out the CD for my daughter, but enjoyed listening to it myself. It is difficult to find holiday CDs with songs performed in a style that stands out from all of the others, but this collection does just that. If you are looking for a CD that is a joy to listen to and makes you want to sing along, then give this a try!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Frozen, the soundtrack, or Christmas by Michael Buble] [ official Idina Menzel web site ]

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Star Wars Reviews on the libraries' BookGuide web pages

With the opening of Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens this week, interest in all things Star Wars is at an all-time high. Your friendly neighborhood librarians are Star Wars fans too, and we've gathered all our Star Wars-related reviews into a single page on our BookGuide readers resources pages.

Click the logo above, or this link, to see an archive of every review, booklist or booktalk booklist that has appeared on BookGuide from 2006 to the present!