For the next of the new releases in Broadway Records’s excellent Live At 54 Below series, I’ve been listening to Annaleigh Ashford in her Lost In The Stars concert.

Annaleigh was a new name for me, despite her appearing on Broadway in Kinky Boots, Rent and Wicked. So it was great to hear a new voice, or certainly one I’d not heard much before. Produced by Ashford, Andy Jones, Will Van Dyke, and Derik Lee, the album features Ashford with songwriter and music director Will Van Dyke and the Whiskey 5 band. Lost in the Stars celebrates the classic cabaret with an eclectic mix of music from the disco days of Donna Summer to the haunting melodies of Kurt Weill and Stephen Sondheim to a sing-a-long of Alanis Morrisette.

For me, this recording works because of the excellent band and orchestrations, but the programme is a bit too eclectic. Whilst there are some great standards of the musical theatre (and well performed at that) there are some rather forced pop medleys ('Someone Like You' / 'Crazy' wasn’t needed for me) and some slightly bizarre choices ('Hand In My Pocket' for example).

Programme choices aside, there is much to like here, and I did. The overall flow of the evening is good, as is the production of the album. Analogies clearly has the lungs for these belt pop numbers, but I would like to have seen her show that on some more standard or Broadway tracks. I did enjoy For Good from Wicked, and it was nice to hear this with a fresh arrangement. Will Van Dyke’s arrangements are a real complement to this album, and it’s worth getting it just to hear those. I didn’t really care for the album booklet design this time around, but it’s still informative and detailed.

Worth adding to the collection, but not at the expense of not getting some of the others. A nice to have maybe.

7

Ian Gude