Blonde & Brilliant
Today we are taking a listen to the Original London Cast Recording of Jerry Mitchell's sexily studious stunner of a show, LEGALLY BLONDE, and the remarkable score by Laurence O'Keefe (of BAT BOY fame) along with his wife, an accomplished and gifted lyricist in her own right, Neil Benjamin. They are the strongest male/female composing team since Betty Comden and Adolph Green and LEGALLY BLONDE possesses one of the most sharply satirical, witty and effortlessly enjoyable and winning scores in decades, surely as good if not better than any score on Broadway right now. While critics and audiences were less than enraptured with it on Broadway, the MTV telecast and subsequent reality show casting the next Elle Woods - alongside the smash-hit national tours - bodes well for its future in the States. The West End production is ten times the success the show was on Broadway so Elle & Crew have finally arrived - and in style. It's the age of Elle! Plus, A BONUS: A review and link to a new song by another blonde bombshell in her own right, but a bit brainier one than Elle Woods: Nellie McKay! And a link to a download of her new single "Carribean Time"! Top hats off and a salutatory Dickensian "'ello" to Elle and Nellie!
Gay or European?
LEGALLY BLONDE - Original London Cast Recording
SCORE: 8.5/10
LEGALLY BLONDE is one of those scores that should be heralded as a dazzling achievement of craft if only for capturing the verve, vivacity and pizzazz of the movie characters yet imbuing the entire enterprise with a whole new voice and style all its own through music, lyrics, dance and dialogue. The original Broadway production simply danced, dove, leapt and fandango-ed from beginning to end, like a carefully crafted cuckoo clock time bomb. For when in the show, mid-way through Act I, we reach the apotheosis. If Michael Bennett had "Turkey Lurkey Time", Jerry Mitchell has "What You Want". For those that read this column you know that no greater praise could possibly be lavished by this critic, because no other director besides Bob Fosse or Hal Prince is on the level of Michael Bennett. None. Yet, seemingly no other critics got the show or appreciated what Mitchell, O‘Keefe, Benjamin and Co. were trying to do. At all. Are they that out of touch? NEXT TO NORMAL wins a Pulitzer Prize and this show is trash? I think not. Quite the reverse, actually. Whatever the case, the MTV telecast captured the spirit of the show - and, most importantly andf instrumental in its current success: the national zeitgeist - but failed to match the live experience as most TV captures of live stage shows do (with possibly the exception of the recent Live From Lincoln Center: SOUTH PACIFIC). Speaking of trashy, the reality casting show to find the next Elle Woods was a bit prurient but what else can be expected given the trappings of reality TV? After all, those terms - prurient and trashy - are par for the course.
So, the show wasn't a huge Broadway hit, does that mean the score only lives on on the OBC cast album, and on tour? No, not this time. You see, LEGALLY BLONDE is seemingly so much better than what Broadway is offering these days that it took a trip across the Atlantic for this truly miraculous marvel of a score and a whirlwind whiz and big bang of a directed and choreographed hit star-making show for LEGALLY BLONDE to get its full due. The West End has exactly that with Sheridan Smith. She is sublime. Then again, we got Laura Bell Bundy on Broadway, so everyone's a winner. To be fair, the new Elle isn't Ms. Bundy - but, then again, who is? - but, as Jerry Mitchell told me himself in our InDepth InterView a few weeks ago, the score is second to none. And he knows. As is Bundy, and so is the sparkling new original West End cast recording of LEGALLY BLONDE. The new Elle has a world of charms all her own and brings a fresh perspective to the character that neither Ms. Bundy nor Reese Witherspoon, the original Elle Woods in the films, ever did.
This album a perfect compliment to the original Broadway cast recording, which itself was one of the best cast albums of the last ten years. This is surely one of the strongest musical comedy scores this side of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and dare I say Laurence O'Keefe is proving himself to be one of the absolute best Broadway composers in the business. I can't wait to hear what he comes up with next - and the pristine, at times funky and fiery, and perfectly (and perfunctorily) plucky lyrics by Neil Benjamin are a hear for sore ears. Indeed, this score is a hear for sore ears just as seeing the show onstage is a sight for weary eyes. Too bad far too few appreciated it on Broadway, but the future of LEGALLY BLONDE looks blisteringly bright if this perfect distillation of the pure pop confections of the score - along with the rock, rap, reggae, cakewalk, strut, shimmy, etc. - as represented on this album are any indication at all. Any awkwardness or falsity comes in the American accents and a few of the higher harmonies, but it is truly a tip-top toe-tapper with all the fizz of the fantastic Broadway show and subsequent cast recording. So, all in all: Is LEGALLY BLONDE gay, European or just plain fabulous? Whatever the case: bend on over and snap it up!
And so says Elle, "What you want is right in front of you!" And it is.
Number One Nellie
Nellie McKay - "Caribbean Time"
Nellie McKay is in a class of her own as far as singer-songwriters of the twenty-first century are concerned. No one writes more pertly probing musical poetry, piercing in its provocative sarcasm and winsomely wondrous in the melodies that Ms. McKay creates. She knows her way around a lyric or two, too. If you haven't had the pleasure of hearing her previous albums, please do: the particularly awe-inspiringly sublime (from concept to craft) GET AWAY FROM ME, or the astonishingly varied and verisimilitude-infused PRETTY LITTLE HEAD - you really feel her guts, heart and soul on that record - or her alternately searing and heartfelt musings on love, courtship and romance on the RUMOR HAS IT... soundtrack. The follow-up to those, a concept album in its own right titled OBLIGATORY VILLAGERS may be of most interest to Broadway babies because not only was it written during her tenure as Polly in the 2006 Roundabout revival of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's THE THREEPENNY OPERA when she starred as Lucy in Scott Elliot's controversial production co-starring Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper, but also because of the sporadic moments of Broadway-infused brass and choral singing that can be heard on it. It's a bit Broadway, but it's one hundred percent Nellie. All of these accomplishments and without even mentioning the songs for which she is best known! Having been famously used on TV shows like GREY'S ANATOMY and WEEDS and appearing on those shows' soundtrack albums, most know her for the biting and bathos-laden ballads like "David" - but she is capable of so much more. Quirky? I guess, but what a reductive term for someone with this breadth of skill, intelligence, wit and songwriting ability. Nothing can capture the live experience of a Nellie McKay concert but her painstakingly produced albums go a long way in showcasing a true talent with seemingly no peer outside of the odd icon ala Lady Gaga. Nellie McKay is the Lady Gaga of the hipster set and her star will only continue to grow and flourish and shine in the future. She is a musical genius beyond compare in the way she writes.
Nellie McKay's new single "Caribbean Time" off of her forthcoming album is a cursory taste of the treats that await us in the full studio album. What to expect of that? If you know Nellie's albums, you know each song is its own mini masterpiece and almost always vastly different from anything else she has ever composed so who knows what glories await on the full album. One never knows. But, if this track is any indication of the creative station in life that Ms. McKay is now at, let this critic be the first to say that she is on the threshold of a Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Carol King-esque era in her art. Big shoes to fill. This song may just be a fun frippery meant for warm summer nights and cocktails at sunset (preferably someplace tropical) on the surface of it all - and rightfully can be enjoyed as such - but the lyrics contain many more allusions not only literary and political, but also laden with pop-culture prescience that hit painfully close-to-home if you keep up with what's up in the world we live in. Many don't, Nellie does. This is the music of activism - if not this particular song so much as her entire catalogue considered collectively - and action. A call to arms for all of us, especially the Gen Y and Z-ers. She could very well be the voice of a generation. Hear her words, hear her music, hear her sing. Perhaps her songs will inspire you. Isn't that what great art is all about? Yes, Nellie McKay in many, many very veritable ways is the face of the future of pop music in America. That face gives forth faith to those looking for it. Take it, she's offering it for free - not only in the words and music of this free Facebook download, but also in the call to action and the cry for change implicit in the art she creates. For fans that Friend or Like her on Facebook, you can hear "Caribbean Time" for free. What do you have to lose? Nothing. And everything to gain. McKay? Say, "Mmmkay." Right away!
