Kerry Butler

I first noticed Kerry Butler in the crazy Off-Broadway musical Bat Boy. She stood out there just as she has in all the shows I’ve seen her in since -- Prodigal, Hairspray and Little Shop of Horrors. For the last year she’s had a starring role on Broadway (and earned a Tony nomination) playing Kira/Clio in the zany musical Xanadu, and she’s every bit as winning as ever. (She also plays Reese on NBC's "Lipstick Jungle," which I’ve never seen.)

In May Ms. Butler released her debut solo recording, Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust, featuring 12 songs from the Disney canon. I didn’t know most of these selections because they are from movies that came out well past my days of going to Disney movies. The thought of an album of that kind of music wasn’t too appealing to me, but because I like the singer so much I gave it a try. While it’s not the kind of music I’d want to listen to often, I really enjoyed most of the selections, thanks to Ms. Butler’s interpretations. She provides a country spin to some and gives others a quirky playfulness.

In her liner notes she explains why she chose this brand of songs. “In thinking of songs that made me smile, or had a theme of hope or optimism that I felt was so important, I kept coming back to songs that were Disney-related. I love so many of the Disney themes -- when I’m sad or stressed, I know I need a dose of Disney.”

She studied hundreds of Disney songs and chose some standards, like “When You Wish Upon a Star,” which is my favorite on the CD because I like that song and love the jaunty arrangement with tuba, strings and ukulele. She picked others for personal reasons -- “Baby Mine” because she sings it to Segi, the daughter she adopted from Ethiopia in 2006, when she puts her to sleep. There’s even the first Disney song ever, “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo,” written by Walt Disney himself. The accompanying musicians and orchestration for all the songs are terrific.

She premieres two Alan Menken songs, “This Only Happens in the Movies,” written for an aborted prequel to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and “Call Me a Princess,” written for an early version of “Aladdin.” The “Princess” song is so funny, especially with Ms. Butler’s impish spin. The refrain is “princesses get their way” and is all about princesses refusing to cook, “that’s not relaxing,” so they “make reservations.” They don’t bother to study, other than to study how to get money out of their fathers, and I loved “other girls work on a law degree, some scrub floors on their hands and knees, I’d rather have a facial, please.” It’s a great spoof of the prima donna mindset.

While I laughed at “Princess,” I was moved by her prayerful singing of "God Help the Outcasts" from "Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was suggested by several fans after Ms. Butler invited them to help pick one song for the recording.

The CD’s title comes from a lyric in Jonathan Brooke’s “I’ll Try,” a song from "Return to Neverland" about losing faith. “To believe in good, even when you see evil in the world, is something I struggle with,” Ms. Butler writes. “That’s what I love about ‘I’ll Try’ -- and about so much of the Disney catalog. It recognizes that it’s hard to have faith, it’s hard sometimes to ‘believe,’ and all you can do is make a choice to try.”

It is my great hope that Kerry Butler will sing for us one day at Broadway Blessing. I asked her for this year, but was told she already had plans for Sept. 8. As for next year, I’ll try.

CIRQUE DREAMS JUNGLE FANTASY

It does not seem humanly possible what these people do in scene after scene. If my grandfather had been in the audience he would have said: “No rheumatism there.” These performers not only don’t have rheumatism, they can’t have bones either -- they must have limbs and spines made of rubber. The woman next to me kept clasping her hands to her face in awe. It’s definitely an amazing show, but amazing can be involving for only so long. With no plot to speak of or character development, and missing the animals of a regular circus, I began to feel I was watching a competition, but without the excitement of the outcome, such as a gold medal.

Cirques productions rely on acrobatic and other feats of the human body rather than animal acts. Created and directed by Neil Goldberg, CIRQUE DREAMS JUNGLE FANTASY features an international cast of 25 soaring aerialists, spine-bending contortionists, acrobats, jugglers and musicians, plus a wonderfully colorful fantastical jungle set, props and more than 150 costumes.

The show has toured the country extensively and now for some reason landed on Broadway. The performers come from Russia, Ukraine, Mongolia and Bulgaria, as well as the United States and Canada. They are the best in the world, chosen from more than 100 audition videos screened each month.

I enjoyed the show -- it’s definitely spectacular and visually stimulating -- but I think it would be more appropriate for Madison Square Garden than the Broadway Theatre, home until recently to The Color Purple. It’s a show to be appreciated by the eyes, but the heart is left empty.


Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy is scheduled for a 10-week run, with a planned closing date of Aug. 24. For more information, visit www.cirguedreamsbroadway.com.

The Hired Man CD

59E59 Theaters has announced that following positive New York notices for the New Perspectives production of The Hired Man at Brits Off Broadway, 1,000 copies of the new original cast recording were rushed to New York due to overwhelming audience demand. The CD is available for purchase for $25 at 59E59 Theaters (59 E. 59th St., between Park and Madison Avenues). 
 
The new CD, recorded as-live in studio, was intended for a soft launch in London later this month. The date has been brought forward following the enthusiastic audience response to the show in New York. 
 
The Hired Man is in a limited run through June 29 at the 2008 Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59 Theaters.  I saw it recently and really liked it (review posted June 12).

I wondered if the show would be recorded because the music, by Howard Goodall, is good and deserved to be captured and shared. I was singing it in my head as I left the theatre and the man in front of me was singing it out loud. My friend Mary said some theatregoers were singing it on a nearby corner as they waited for the light to change and she joined in. And my friend Dudley read my review and sent me an e-mail saying he saw the show years ago and always remembered how powerful the music was.

This certainly isn’t always the case. So many musicals plod along with really limp music. I receive quite a few cast recordings each spring as a Drama Desk voter and donate most of them to the Performing Arts Library because they aren’t worth taking up space on my music shelves. If the producers send me this one, however, I definitely won’t be giving it away. I’ll be listening!
 

At the Start of Your Day

Dear Lord, thank You for the night’s rest You gave
me. I am grateful for the renewed energy and
enthusiasm it has brought. Accept my gratitude for
bringing me to the beginning of this new day. I accept
it as a precious gift from You. May I use it minute by
minute to do Your will. Guide me in every problem I
face, every decision I make this day. Help me to treat
everyone kindly, fairly and thoughtfully. If I should
forget you during this day, please do not forget me.
Amen.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice
and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)


The above prayer is excerpted from Guideposts’ E-booklet, A Prayer for Every Need. For this and other prayers, download A Prayer for Every Need.

The Price of War

Every gun that is made,
every warship launched,
every rocket fired signifies,
in the final sense,
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,
those who are cold and are not clothed.
The world in arms is not spending money
alone,
it is spending the sweat of its laborers,
the genius of its scientists,
the hopes of its children.
This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.
Under the clouds of war
it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Legally Blonde: The Musical (cast recording)

If listening to this doesn’t lift your spirits, I don’t know what will. This CD is a better energy booster than the Red Bull drink Elle Woods lives off of in this oh-so-fabulous Broadway musical.

The lively opening number, “Omigod You Guys,” sets the story in motion as Elle’s sorority sisters exalt in what they think will be the night her longtime boyfriend, Warner, proposes. Instead he dumps her, and Elle embarks on a journey that lets the world -- and herself -- see just what she can be -- “So Much Better.” This is a true can-do musical in the classic sense and the music is an upbeat reflection of that spirit.

You don’t have to have seen the show to appreciate the CD, especially if you’ve seen the movie with Reese Witherspoon and know the story. I’ve been collecting show music since I was in elementary school and known whole scores long before I ever saw the shows. In fact, I’ve been singing the songs to Hair for four decades and still haven’t seen it, although that will change this summer when the Public Theater presents a revival in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater.

Legally Blonde is about self-discovery and empowerment, and these songs celebrate that big time. I love listening to this CD. Check it out. It’s one any musical theatre lover should have.

God will guide you

"The Lord will give you the water for which you thirst.
No longer will your Teacher hide himself,
but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,
While from hehind, a voice shall sound in your ears:
'This is the way; walk in it,'
when you would turn to the right or to the left."

-- Isaiah 30: 20-21