By Steven Suskin
05 Jul 2009

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MALCOLM GETS: The Journey Home [PS Classics PS-976]
Malcolm Gets has made a name for himself in contemporary musical theatre, specializing in the category of likable-but-slightly-neurotic leading men. Most notable of these efforts were starring roles in two intimate Broadway musicals, the ill-fated Amour and the what? iller-fated? Story of My Life. On a more satisfying note were appearances in Michael John LaChiusa's Hello Again, as The Writer; the 1997 Encores production of The Boys from Syracuse, as Antipholus of Syracuse (the one who sings all those great songs); and as the Billy Finn-like songwriter at the heart of A New Brain. (He also spent four seasons as a regular in the sitcom "Caroline in the City," one episode of which needless to say brought him a larger audience than Amour, The Story of My Life, Hello Again and A New Brain combined.) PS Classics, which recently released the cast album of Story of My Life, now brings us a solo album from Mr. Gets, "The Journey Home."

Mr. Gets does a fine job here, presenting us with thirteen tracks which are sure to thrill his fans. He is ably abetted by John McDaniel, who serves as conductor, pianist, arranger and orchestrator (and I suppose helped in the song selection as well). I especially like what they do in their livelier numbers: "Everything I've Got," from Rodgers & Hart's By Jupiter; a joint chart of Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" and "It's a Lovely Day Today," with Melissa Errico stepping in for a delightful duet; and an especially enjoyable jaunt through Lionel Bart's "It's a Fine Life" from Oliver! (with Mark Hummel joining Mr. McDaniel on the arrangement). The highlight for me, though, is Mr. Finn's "Anytime" from Elegies. (According to the track listing, this exceptionally touching song was cut from A New Brain — in which it must have been introduced by Mr. Gets. And which, if so, increases my already vast appreciation of the score of A New Brain.)

The title track, "The Journey Home," is a show tune as well — from Bombay Dreams, of all things. A new addition to the repertoire, I suppose you could call it. They wrap in music from Burton Lane's "Look to the Rainbow," by the by; I don't suppose many have mixed Bombay Dreams with Finian's Rainbow, but here it is. (Gets opens the CD with the Finian song, which I suppose justifies it.) Further in the category of rarely heard show tunes is "Long Before I Knew You," a Jule Styne-Betty Comden-Adolph Green ballad which was intended to be the big song hit from Bells Are Ringing until overshadowed by "The Party's Over." Mr. Gets rescues the song for his closing number, and does very nicely by it.

The back of the liner notes, by the way, has a photo of Gets dreaming on the floor, his head resting on some black, 12-inch platters. These, youngsters, are what used to be called long-playing records. LPs, for short. You put them on a turntable and dropped a needle — well, if you really want to know, you can look it up on the web.

CDs assembled by non-profit organizations as fund raisers are generally outside the purview of this column. When people like Ann Hampton Callaway, Michael Cerveris, Norm Lewis, Kelli O'Hara, Adam Pascal, Mandy Patinkin, Anthony Rapp, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Sherie Rene Scott, Duncan Sheik, and Carly Simon see fit to contribute their time and talents, though, we take notice. The album is called Listen [Sh-k-boom 8-3320]; the 15 songs are written by children who stutter; the organization is a group called Our Time, which calls itself "an artistic home for people who stutter." Everett Bradley, who theatregoers might remember as one of the major components of Swing (which played the St. James just before The Producers), is the musical director and appears to have guided the project to fruition. All proceeds from the album go to Our Time; more information about the group can be found at www.ourtimetheatre.org.

(Steven Suskin is author of "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations" as well as "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com)