Search - Johnny Mathis, Betty Buckley, Nell Carter :: Mathis on Broadway

Vocal Brilliance--Just Not Enough Of It!

I. Gross Georg | Edmond, Oklahoma USA | 05/10/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I realize that Broadway songs are of necessity very short, given the original venue for which they are performed. Gotta tell ya, though, a 33-minute CD in this day and age is practically a sin. There was room for at least 9 more songs on here! It's almost as if CBS was planning to release this on LP format. An ironic thought ten years after the last Mathis LP, Mathis sings Ellington, was also his longest CD recording to date at 57 minutes! Tsk. When will they ever learn to stop wasting the consumer's money?But oh, well. If you can't praise what you want, praise what you've got. I love the choices that were made on this CD. Mathis chose well his singing partners, acquiring seasoned Tony Award-winning Broadway veterans to help him out on a couple of them. Nell Carter is from the musical "Ain't Misbehavin'", even though folks my age probably remember her better as Joey Lawrence's mother-surrogate on the TV show Gimme A Break. Betty Buckley has done more Broadway than I can think of; like Ms. Carter, she became popular on TV, and people still remember her from the Eight is Enough TV series. But Ms. Buckley was, if I'm not mistaken, the original Grisabella in "Cats", and she may have also played Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (before Glenn Close did). Seasons of Love is a wonderful, wonderful song, a thought-provoking song, and Nell Carter enhances the song beautifully. The medley with Betty Buckley to me gets mixed reviews. I much prefer Our Children, because the dual parts are so exquisitely blended. Life is a Bowl of Cherries is one of those songs that you think you're just absolutely going to hate, but surprisingly enough, I found it very charming! In fact, I say the Forever Plaid guys give Take 6 a good run for their money! But my favorite song has to go to the Lion King's They Live In You...it is such a powerful song, and there is such personal meaning in it for me, and Mathis complements the South African singers wonderfully. I was so impressed at how well Mathis handled the South African expressions in the song, too; I've tried studying African languages and the pronunciation is very, very difficult! Is there nothing Mathis can't handle? Not on this CD.Getting back to the length, this same thing happened with the Better Together duets album...they left off so many viable contenders for this concept. How about a few more Andrew Lloyd Webber songs? Think of it...just imagine Mathis and Betty Buckley together again on Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Unexpected Song" from Song and Dance, or they could have dueted for "Love Changes Everything" from Aspects of Love! What about Mathis alone singing "High Flying, Adored" from Evita, or maybe even "I Am the Starlight" from Starlight Express? Surely they would have fallen into the twenty-year time frame. I think these songs would have been great additions AND they would have beefed this recording up considerably.Mathis on Broadway features a healthy Johnny Mathis with a voice as I haven't heard him in a long, long time. He sounds wonderful! And this is one CD that DIDN'T have to "grow on me"! Sadly, I cannot give five stars to a recording this short. It's criminal, these things cost too much. I give 5 stars for Mathis' performance, 2 stars for the fact that this should have been marketed (and priced) as a CD extended play single with extra tracks! That totals 7, divide by 2 to get 3.5, which rounds up to four stars."

Exellent Mathis ,Hes done it again.

Vincent | Scotland | 04/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The latest Johnny Mathis album "On Broadway" has to be among his best ever recordings. His voice is beautiful and as usual he glides through each song effortlessly and is in total control. The orchestration is just perfect alowing Mathis voice to come through as it should for us all to listen with sheer pleasure. His voice reminds me of his earlier recordings in the early 60s as if hes gone back to good old orchestrations and not too much of this modern synth stuff. Everysong is perfectly sung and he has chosen well his duet partners who each compliment his voice. The most outstanding songs have to be "all I ask of you", "children will listen/our children" and "seasons of love". My only critisism is that I wish there where more songs. Heres hoping he does (like Striesand) a return to broadway album because he certainly can sing them and wow he is the best."

Good News (Mathis), Bad News (Sony Music)

Greg | New York City | 05/02/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Grrrr. Has a major artist, in the past decade or so, released a CD at such a high price point which is as short as this one (some 33 minutes!)? What, is Sony limiting Mathis' controlled composition royalty fees to a certain number of songs per release? Johnny needs to take his golf club and teach those Sony execs a thing or two. On the plus side, Mathis is in glorious soaring voice here; this endearing, unassuming, generous, nice man continues to get better with age (as opposed to certain other Broadway divas whose voices are stridently heading south). It's a diverse, current set, and it's great to hear Betty Buckley in a big budget setting with Mathis (though there is the worst digital editing gaffe imaginable at 3:43 in the Buckley/Mathis track; did anyone listen to the final result)? Even "Seasons of Love", which I think has a pretty clunky melody and rhythm kicks here. We love you, Johnny, despite the brevity here."