Posted 2007-08-05 20:52:48: Amazon.com Editoral Review: While Stars and the Moon does open with Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By," followed by Jerome Kern's classic "Just the Way You Look Tonight," acclaimed singer-actress Betty Buckley here departs from the expected format of Broadway standards. She is accompanied on this live performance in 2000 at London's celebrated Donmar by a band of jazzmen, whose central voice ideally pairs Buckley with arranger-pianist Kenny Werner. Under these optimal conditions, the remarkably talented Buckley sings from inside this somewhat surprising collection of tunes, delivering them with heart, soul, and beautifully imperfect grace. The warm, craggy, emotive tones of her instrument are well preserved in the recording. "Poet's Medley" fashions the lyric from bits of Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Emily Dickinson, and Buckley's turns on James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" and the traditional "Amazing Grace" come across as invitingly fresh. --Paige La Grone
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