Stars and the Moon (Live at the Donmar)
WhileStars and the Moondoes open with Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By," followed by Jerome Kern's classic "Just the Way You Look Tonight,"  acclaimed singer-actressBetty Buckleyhere 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 onJames Taylor's "Fire and Rain" and the traditional "Amazing Grace" come across as invitingly fresh.--Paige La Grone