Essential Solo Albums by Broadway Performers — Page 2

Anthony Warlow - 'Center Stage' (and another I can't remember the name to - but I own)

Linda Eder - everything

Melissa Errico - Blue Like That (new CD next year!)

does anyone have the bizarre rap anthem I DO THE ROCK ? by tim curry?
i had the LP at one time-- delightfully campy...

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Elaine Paige's "Encore" is just brilliant
Patti LuPone's Matters of the Heart is well done too

threadjack for a minute here b/c this is driving me crazy:

what exactly does "campy" mean? call me stupid, but ive heard this used a lot around the boards and elsewhere and i have no idea what it means. can anyone explain for me?


back on track, i own chenos as i am, and even though its not the best CD i own, its a very relaxing CD thats worth a listen.

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CAMP: A sensibility that revels in artifice, stylization, theatricalization, irony, playfulness, and exaggeration rather than content, as Susan Sontag famously defined the term in her short essay, "Notes on 'Camp.'" According to Sontag, "Camp sensibility is disengaged, depoliticized—or at least apolitical"; however, some postmodernists, feminists, and queer theorists have explored the ways that camp (for example, the drag show) can trouble the belief that gender is "natural" or inherent, and can therefore work against heteronormativity. As Sontag argues, "Not all homosexuals have Camp taste. But homosexuals, by and large, constitute the vanguard—and the most articulate audience—of Camp." By exaggerating sexual characteristics and personality mannerisms, such queer-inflected camp could be said to contend that all behavior is really performative. Camp is also tied to postmodernism. As Sontag puts it, "Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It's not a lamp, but a 'lamp; not a woman, but a 'woman.'" In this way, the term resembles Linda Hutcheon's very similar understanding of parody, which Hutcheon offers as one of the major characteristics of postmodern art. (See the Hutcheon module on parody.) Camp's relationship to kitsch is a close one; camp could be said to be a self-conscious kitsch. As Sontag writes, "Many examples of Camp are things which, from a 'serious' point of view, are either bad art or kitsch," though she also acknowledges that "some art which can be approached as Camp... merits the most serious admiration and study." Sontag also distinguishes between "pure camp," which amounts to a kitsch that takes itself so seriously that we can now see it as hilarious (in other words, the camp sensibility is on the side of the audience not the author of the work), and "Camp which knows itself to be camp" and is, therefore, already making fun of itself.

a little dab'll do ya.


notes on camp

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I'll have to second or third... Patti LuPone's Matters of the Heart and Live albums.

And also add
Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley - Duets
Tami Tappan Damiano - Hot Notes
Barbra Streisand - The Broadway Album

Lea DeLaria has a solo album? Why?

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Lea DeLaria has two solo albums: the aforementioned PLAY IT COOL and DOUBLE STANDARDS, as well as several comedy albums. Both albums are really superb; her vocals are very jazzy and breezy. She interprets Broadway standards like you've never heard them before.

Give it a listen...Trust me, you've NEVER heard "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" like this before!
"Play it Cool" on Amazon

Luba Mason - COLLAGE

A MUST have. Simply amazing.

She is also working on an album of showtunes.. (yay!)

Emily Skinner

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I LOVE "The Ruthie Henshall Album" (out of print, but often on eBay). I also really like Frances Ruffelle's self-titled album as well as "Fragile" (although I think both are sort of an acquired taste...).

I also really like "Blue Like That" (Melissa Errico) and anything by Linda Eder (not so much her newer stuff, though...my favorites are "It's Time" and "No Secret Anymore"). Michael Ball's "Center Stage" is growing on me.

Updated On: 11/29/05 at 05:17 PM