Broadway
Julie Andrews's early film successes (The Sound of MusicandMary Poppins) were a mixed blessing. They turned her into a screen star of the greatest magnitude but they also landed her with the image of the bright, nicely spoken nanny with a song for every occasion. In these estuary-voweled times, her crystalline diction might be less fashionable than ever. But years of lampooning have tended to obscure the fact that she is also one of the greatest musical stars of the 20th century, a highly skilled interpreter of lyrics and a fine actress. In 1994, she returned to the recording studio for this polished selection of Richard Rodgers standards, including "The Sound of Music" and "Edelweiss," as well as a sweeping medley of waltzes (written with Oscar Hammerstein and Stephen Sondheim), and some beautiful ballads ("My Funny Valentine" and "If I Loved You"). Inevitably, the voice is darker in places, an unfortunate reminder of future problems that would lead to a musically disastrous throat operation. But the control and phrasing are as sharp as ever, maturity has brought new texture to her reading of the material, and the whole production drips with class.--Piers Ford