Stars and the Moon: Betty Buckley Live at the Donmar

by Betty Buckley

Overview

There’s more than “Memory” to Betty Buckley. This admired staple of the New York cabaret scene, who first came to fame as a featured member of the original Broadway Cats cast, remains one of the more farsighted performers out there, ever willing to mix more contemporary fare with the classics. On this invigorating live recording, Buckley takes on hardy perennials like Kern and Field’s “Just the Way You Look Tonight” and Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” and “Not a Day Goes By,” as well as exceptional songs by such newer theatrical talents such as Ricky Ian Gordon, Jason Robert Brown, and Adam Guettel. Buckley also interprets James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” and the traditional hymn “Amazing Grace” with the same fervor that she brings to the more theatrical material. A singer who finds herself in the song, Buckley brings equal measures of intensity and expressiveness to this varied and rewarding program.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/11/2001
Label:	UNIVERSAL MUSIC DISTRIBUTION
UPC:	0013431494928
Rank:	21799

Tracks

1. Not a Day Goes By
2. Just the Way You Look Tonight
3. Stars and the Moon
4. Finding Home
5. Answer Me My Love
6. Medley
7. Fire and Rain
8. Medley: Poet's Medley
9. Red Dress
10. Old Friend
11. Send in the Clowns
12. Close to Home
13. Amazing Grace

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Betty Buckley   Primary Artist
Jamey Haddad   Percussion
Tony Marino   Bass
Kenny Werner   Piano

Technical Credits

Ben Rizzi   Mastering,Mixing,Editing,Assembly
Edna St. Vincent Millay   Composer
Lyle Mays   Composer
James Taylor   Composer
Ricky Ian Gordon   Composer
Gerhard Winkler   Composer
Adam Guettel   Composer
Carl Sigman   Composer
Stephen Sondheim   Composer
Paul Wickliffe   Mixing
Jerome Kern   Composer
John Newton   Composer
Joe Castellon   Mixing,Editing,Assembly,Mastering
Kenny Werner   Arranger
Fred Rauch   Composer
Jason Robert Brown   Composer
Dorothy Fields   Composer
Nancy Ford   Composer
Terry Gabis   Audio Engineer
Gretchen Cryer   Composer
Robert Lorenzo Jones   Design
Dorothy Parker   Composer
Roy Morris   Cover Photo
Howard Harrison   Lighting
William Skip Rose   Production Coordination
Emily Dickinson   Composer
Tina Landau   Composer

Editorial Reviews

Recorded as part of the Divas at the Donmar series at the small Donmar Theatre in London, the concert preserved on disc here, assembled from shows performed on August 31 and September 1, 2000, is an interesting mixture of material well-chosen and arranged to complement Betty Buckley's voice. The Broadway star's timbre has an astringent quality, with a breathy vibrato that adds to its penetrating, emotional effect. She works closely with arranger/pianist Kenny Werner, who provides her with instrumental support that often amounts to a duet, echoing the quality of her voice in surprising chords and even dissonance. This is particularly the case in the two performers' take on Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns," which ends the formal set. It's a much-covered standard, of course, but Buckley and Werner practically write a new melody for it that forces the listener to hear it anew. Buckley does much the same thing with other familiar songs in the set, such as the old Nat "King" Cole hit "Answer Me My Love" and James Taylor's signature tune "Fire and Rain." But there is also much unfamiliar material, particularly compositions by up-and-coming theater writer Ricky Ian Gordon, who turns in a musical setting for poems by Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Emily Dickinson, though such other young writers as Jason Robert Brown and Adam Guettel are also represented. Brown's contribution, "Stars and the Moon," is a song that also has been taken up by Audra McDonald, but Buckley is closer to the right age for the character who sings it, reviewing her life with some regret. Another song that plays off her experience is "Old Friend" from I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road, which she sings with special enthusiasm, but the whole set is impressive. ~ William Ruhlmann