Anastasia Barzee has carved out a career in the musical theater that has included several stints as a replacement cast member on Broadway (Miss Saigon, Jekyll & Hyde, Urinetown), a West End show (Napoleon, playing Josephine), and numerous U.S. regional productions and national tours. On disc, she is best known in the U.S. for her appearance on the original studio cast recording of
Irving Berlin's
White Christmas: The Musical, an adaptation of the 1954 movie musical White Christmas, having been a member of the original cast of the initial production in San Francisco, playing the part that
Rosemary Clooney had in the film. Not surprisingly, on her debut solo album,
The Dimming of the Day, she displays a warm high alto that is at times reminiscent of
Clooney. But her song selections suggest a whole different set of female pop influences, mostly from the 1970s, including
Kate Bush,
Linda Thompson,
Rickie Lee Jones, and
Linda Ronstadt. She covers songs written by and/or associated with such singers, including the title song, taken from the repertoire of
Richard & Linda Thompson. With the help of arranger
Gil Goldstein and producer Matt Pierson (both, like her, graduates of the Frost School of Music at Miami University), she has come up with versions of the songs that either lean toward small-band jazz or have eclectic backings. Saxophonist
Steve Wilson is so prominent on
Bush's "The Man with the Child in His Eyes," the Bergman/Bergman/
Legrand evergreen "Summer Me, Winter Me," and the 1950s ballad "Don't Go to Strangers" that he might as well be billed as a duet partner. But then the version of "Lilac Wine" features
Goldstein's accordion in an art song reading.
Barzee's professional training and theater background do not prevent her from giving emotive performances, particularly of
Paul Simon's "American Tune" and
Jones' "Company." She mostly stays away from material from the musical theater, a notable exception being
Andrew Lloyd Webber's relatively obscure "Nothing Like You've Ever Known" (from Song & Dance). But the songs she's chosen from the singer/songwriter realm give her a chance to create characters, and the album suggests nightclub work as another aspect of her career. ~ William Ruhlmann