Blonde Spot

Anyone who’s seen the musical Legally Blonde may still be singing “Omigod, You Guys,” the show’s insanely catchy, Valley-girl-speak opening number — and the same fate may await anyone who listens to the show’s original cast recording, which will be released by Ghostlight Records on July 17. The so-bouncy-it-hurts chorus is still ringing in my ears days after playing the CD for the first time (not to mention a good two-and-a-half months after seeing the show on Broadway!)

Indeed, what the CD reinforces is the rare gift that the show’s composer-lyricists, Nell Benjamin and Lawrence O’Keefe, have for writing up-tempo numbers, such as the disco-influenced “What You Want,” the first-act closer “So Much Better” — which nicely spotlights the prodigious talents of leading lady Laura Bell Bundy as lawyer-to-be Elle Woods — and the slightly controversial but still amusing “There! Right There! (aka “Gay or European.”) It doesn’t take much more than one or two hearings to find these songs utterly hummable, if not completely irresistible.

What does stop from Legally Blonde from being a great score, on the other hand, is the pair’s lesser skill in crafting ballads and character songs. Librettist Heather Hach, working in large part from the screenplay of the film of the same name, has done the heavy lifting in creating credible characters, and the defining songs given to them by Benjamin and O’Keefe simply don’t measure up to her work — or the rest of the score.

Indeed, without the singular talents of the big-voiced Orfeh as beautician Paulette, Christian Borle as nice-guy Emmett, and Michael Rupert as the shark-like lawyer Callahan, numbers such as “Ireland,” “Chip on My Shoulder,” and “Blood in the Water,” would sound even more second-rate than they are. And the less said about Bundy’s misbegotten 11-o-clock number, “Legally Blonde,” the better . However, the up-tempo “Legally Blonde Remix” that immediately follows — and which provides the only good vocal moments for the powerful Kate Shindle — isn’t half-bad. Judge for yourself.

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If you only know Laura Bell Bundy from Legally Blonde or Hairspray — or even from her stint on the daytime drama Guiding Light — you’ll probably be surprised to learn there’s more than a little Dolly Parton inside of her. That down-home side comes through loud and clear on her self-produced CD Longing for a Place Already Gone (LABRecords). Bundy, who has also co-written many of the album’s 14 tunes — including “Texas,” “Lovin’ and Lyin’,” and “The C Word” (and the word happens to be… chocolate!) — will display her Nashville-ready talent at Birdland on Mondays, July 23 and 30 and August 20, so c’mon down y’all, you hear!

Another singer showing a new side of herself is R&B star Deborah Cox on Destination Moon (Decca), a tribute album to the late, great Dinah Washington, who died at the age of 39 of a drug overdose. Cox, who spent six months on Broadway in the title role of Aida, has a strong, pleasing sound, but it lacks Washington’s distinctiveness. As a result, such Washington signature numbers as “What a Difference a Day Makes” lack the necessary punch — and tackling super-standards like “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “Look to the Rainbow” is a tall order for anyone. Still, the CD provides an hour of easy listening, and acts as a reminder of a great talent we lost far too early.

Far more successful, both as tribute album and overall listening experience, is British jazz singer Claire Martin’s latest outing He Never Mentioned Love (Linn), subtitled “Remembering Shirley Horn.” In fact, Martin has even co-penned “Slowly but Shirley,” in honor of her late friend, the legendary singer-pianist. Martin, who recently earned plaudits for her two-week stint at the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room, has a rich, smoky, and expressive voice, reminiscent of Diana Krall, which she uses to fine effect on both ballads and swingier tunes. I was particularly enchanted with her take on Bernard Ingher’s “Everything Must Change,” and pleasantly surprised by her upbeat spin on Leon Russell’s classic “A Song for You.” Her rendition of “The Music That Makes Me Dance” (from Funny Girl) starts out well, but she and her talented musicians eventually drag out the song far too long. Jazz fanciers may think otherwise.

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Of all the recent City Center Encores! productions, Face the Music (DRG) was at the bottom of my list for recordings — and my mind hasn’t been changed by the show’s CD. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Face the Music when I saw it; it’s that all the things I did enjoy about the production — Judy Kaye and Walter Bobbie’s exquisite comic timing, Jeffry Denman and Meredith Patterson’s gorgeous Astaire-and-Rodgers dances, and Eddie Korbich and Mylinda Hull’s amazing hoofing — simply can’t be captured on a CD.

Whether or not Irving Berlin really was American music, as Jerome Kern famously stated, not everything he penned was 24-karat gold. And this 1932 revue-cum-musical is 10-karat at best. The songs range from instantly forgettable to slightly memorable, with the romantic “(Castles in Spain) On a Roof in Manhattan” being my favorite cut. The talented Felicia Finley does a great job with the satiric “Torch Song,” except it comes across a bit more seriously than intended. And the fact that the always-fabulous Kaye only has one big number, the Act I closer “If You Believe,” is a far bigger crime than the one committed by the show’s fictional policemen.