As
Paul Gambaccini
points out in his liner notes to this collection,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
has been good to the female characters in his
musicals
, often giving them melodic, affecting
ballads
to sing. In turn, several female performers have emerged as musical stars singing those songs, among them
Elaine Paige
,
Patti LuPone
, and
Sarah Brightman
. They, along with many others, are heard here, sometimes in recordings drawn from the cast albums to
Lloyd Webber
's shows. For example,
Yvonne Elliman
, the first
Mary Magdalene
in the 1970 studio cast recording of
Jesus Christ Superstar
, performs
"I Don't Know How to Love Him,"
and
Barbara Dickson
, who scored a British hit with
"Another Suitcase in Another Hall"
from the 1976
Evita
studio cast album, sings it again here. Things get a little more complicated thereafter. The compilers have opted for Broadway's
Betty Buckley
for
"Memory"
from
Cats
, shunting aside
Paige
, who introduced it in the West End.
, who was also the West End's first
(although
Julie Covington
, not included on this disc, originated the role on the 1976 studio cast album), is only included here performing
"Rainbow High"
from that show. This oddity and others on the album may be explained by the apparent need -- since there was an opportunity -- to have
Madonna
sing
"Don't Cry for Me Argentina"
from the movie version of
. That meant both
LuPone
(Broadway's
) had to be given other songs.
might have done a song from
Sunset Boulevard
, a show she opened in London. But her controversial replacement for the Broadway version by
Glenn Close
perhaps scotched that.
Close
sings
's
"With One Look,"
despite its being somewhat beyond her range, while the vocally superior
is given another lesser
song,
"Buenos Aires."
Besides
, the other big star heard here is
Barbra Streisand
, who is rarely included in various artists compilations, singing
"As If We Never Said Goodbye"
and making a tour de force of it. (Some divas are worth accommodating.) Often, however, it is the lesser known songs or performers who impress the most.
Brightman
, who starred in
The Phantom of the Opera
, doesn't get to sing anything from it, but she does sing
"Surrender,"
a song based on a theme from
though not actually done as a vocal number in it. The most welcome surprise, both as a composition and as a performance, is
Minnie Driver
"Learn to Be Lonely,"
a song written for the movie version of
. On the other hand,
Kiri Te Kanawa
's overdone rendition of
"The Heart Is Slow to Learn,"
said to be intended for a sequel to
, does not encourage hopes about such a project. ~ William Ruhlmann