Palmetto Records will release Tony Award winner and two-time Grammy nominee Betty Buckley's latest solo album, Betty Buckley: Ah, Men! The Boys of Broadway, in stores nationwide and online today, Tuesday, August 28, 2012. Inspired by her critically acclaimed 2011 concert at Feinstein's at the Lowes Regency in New York City, Buckley reinterprets classic Broadway songs that were originally made famous by men.
Ah, Men! The Boys of Broadway features men's songs from Broadway shows that Buckley has always wanted to sing, including numbers from Sweeney Todd, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Pippin, The Fantasticks and more. The centerpiece of the new album is "A Hymn to Her," a rewrite of My Fair Lady's "A Hymn to Him" in which Henry Higgins asks "Why Can't a Woman be More Like A Man?" The prolific singer reverses the question in a witty retort complete with musical references to iconic male Broadway roles including Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Harold Hill in A Musical Man and Jean Val Jean in Les Miserables.
Recorded in Los Angeles at the legendary Sound Factory, Ah, Men! The Boys of Broadway features arrangements by Christian Jacob and Eric Stern with Jacobs on piano, Peter Barshay on bass and Matt Betton on drums. "A Hymn to Her" concept and lyrics are by Eric Kornfeld and Eric Stern.
Betty Buckley won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella in Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS. She received a second Tony Award nomination as "Best Actress in a Musical" for her performance as Hesione in Triumph of Love, and an Olivier Award nomination for her critically acclaimed interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway. On television, Buckley starred in the HBO series "Oz" and as Abby Bradford in the hit series "Eight is Enough." She received two Emmy Award nominations for the After-School Specials "Bobby and Sarah" and "Taking a Stand," for which she co-wrote the musical score. Her film career includes M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, Brian de Palma's screen version of Stephen King's novel Carrie, Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies, Roman Polanski's Frantic, Woody Allen's Another Woman and Lawrence Kasden's Wyatt Earp.
Ms. Buckley has recorded sixteen of her own albums, her latest being Bootleg: Board Mixes from the Road which includes a preview track from Ghostlight, her upcoming album produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett to be released by Palmetto in 2013. Her previous album, Quintessence, featuring her ensemble led by jazz great Kenny Werner, was the perfect bookend to Betty Buckley 1967, her first collaboration with T Bone Burnett. She received her second Grammy Award nomination for Stars And The Moon: Betty Buckley Live At The Donmar.
Palmetto Records has been an independent leading voice in music since it was founded in 1990. Through its choice of innovative artists, Palmetto has emerged as a critically-acclaimed and Grammy-nominated label that enables artists to fulfill their creative visions. For more information, please visit: www.palmetto-records.com.
Betty Buckley: Ah, Men! The Boys of Broadway
Track Listing
I Can See It
From The Fantasticks (Music by Harvey Schmidt, Lyrics by Tom Jones)
My Defenses Are Down
From Annie Get Your Gun (Music, Lyrics by Irving Berlin)
Jet Song
From West Side Story (Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim)
Maria
From West Side Story (Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim)
I Won't Dance
From the film Roberta
(Music by Jerome Kern, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harback, Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields)
Venice
From Elegies (Music, Lyrics by William Finn)
Luck Be A Lady
From Guys and Dolls (Music, Lyrics by Frank Loesser)
Song On The Sand
From La Cage Aux Folles (Music, Lyrics by Jerry Herman)
A Hymn to Her
Adapted from the song "A Hymn To Him" from My Fair Lady
(Music arranged by Eric Stern and Lyrics by Eric Kornfeld)
Come Back To Me
From On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (Music by Burton Lane, Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner)
Hey There
From Pajama Game (Music, Lyrics by Richard Adler & Jerry Ross)
Sweeney Todd Suite: Not While I'm Around/Johanna/My Friends
From Sweeney Todd (Music, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim)
Corner of the Sky
From Pippin (Music, Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz)
More I Cannot Wish You
From Guys and Dolls (Music, Lyrics by Frank Loesser)
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