Reality shows. You either love them or hate them. Perhaps the most successful in terms of launching careers have been the BBC's theatre-talent shows, which have over the past few years, found us Marias, Nancys, Josephs and Dorothys. Connie Fisher, Lee Mead, Jodie Prenger and, more recently Danielle Hope have all shot to stardom for winning the coveted roles. But what of the 'also rans'?

Many of them have gone on to understudy the role they didn't get, or in some cases play the role on tour. A step some have also made is to release an album, so I was pleased to receive Helena Blackman's new recording The Sound of Rodgers and Hammerstein this week. Blackman was runner-up in the original show, in the series How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, which searched for a Maria for The Sound of Music, and like many finalists, has gone,on to find increasing success, including a successful run as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and as Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy.

However, in this recording, as the title suggests, she limits her repertoire to the songs of perhaps the greatest ever Broadway writing, partnership, Rodgers and Hammerstein - perhaps expectedly so, seen as it was due to the sound of their music that she reached our TV screens.

The album features 12 tracks from musicals such as Carousel, South Pacific, Oklahoma, and of course The Sound of Music. The album is in the safe musical hands of Mike Dixon, which sort of guarantees it's quality, with orchestrations by Michael Bruce, Simon Hale, Tom Kelly and Chris Walker. The album also features a rarity these days - a 28 piece orchestra.

Why so many arrangers you may ask. And on listening to it, I ask the same question. It's to the credit of the production team that they haven't played safe and stuck to the stock arrangements for all of the numbers. Yes, some are the original charts that you would expect, and these work extremely well. But there are also some excellent reworkings of the classics, and these are a mixed bag.

'I Have Confidence' is given a lighter treatment than in The Sound of Music film score, and this is well complemented by the clarity of Blackman's vocals. 'Love Look Away' from The Flower Drum Song is perhaps the most successful of the new scorings, and it's almost possible to imagine that this song isn't really over 50 years old. The one song on the album that doesn't work for me is 'If I Loved You'. Whilst handled with great skill vocally, the arrangement sounds like a poor attempt at a busk of the rather tricky chord sequences, rather than a clever arrangement.  It is also unfortunately paired in a medley with the beautiful 'Something Wonderful' from The King and I, which makes it stand out even more.

Vocally, it's hard to pick fault with this album. Blackman's voice is a dream, and she makes the numbers on this album sound effortless. There are too many highlights to mention, but 'It Might As Well Be Spring' is a track I found myself coming back to. Then again, I've listed to the whole album several times and am not tiring of it. It will be interesting to see what her next offering is, as I'm certain this is the first album of many.

9

Ian Gude