Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
  Lovely, sweet voice with much personality. July 15, 2008
Kelli O'Hara has a wonderful sweet voice and much personality with a technically well placed voice.
 OK June 16, 2008
I LOVE Kelli Ohara and think her voice is amazing. this CD is mostly pop style with a hushed approach. It disappointingly didn't show nearly what she's capable of. I wanted more variety, and really longed to hear her open up and let that voice go. There are a few interesting arrangements and songs. I actually like the ones she wrote. Harry Connick's vocals were a bit disappointing too. I'm not sure if the B- grade is due to her song selections, or to the arranging or producing, but I think it wasn't Kelli at her best.
I LOVED the arrangement and handling of "Fable" from "Light in the Piazza". Very interesting and sensitive and beautiful.
 Kelli O'Hara-Wonderful! June 13, 2008
This collection of songs is new and refreshing. Having heard Kelli sing on Broadway in Pajama Game, My Fair Lady, South Pacific and others, I was well aware of her talent and passion! These selections by written by Harry Connick, Jr., Billy Joel, Greg Naughton (Kelli's husband) and Kelli, herself, are wonderful. Her voice is crystal clear and her beauty shows through and through. This is a cd that you will enjoy over and over.
A lovely album from a rising star May 22, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
In the past five years, Kelli O'Hara as emerged as one of the most talented stars of musical theater suggesting that we might finally be seeing a soprano heir to the thrones of Barbara Cook and Julie Andrews. After creating a few roles in musicals ranging from the brilliant and underrated (My Life With Albertine), to the dire (Dracula) Kelli's poignant portrayal of Clara Johnson in The Light in the Piazza made her a rising star and subsequent roles in The Pajama Game, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, and Sunday in the Park With George confirmed that status. I've been waiting for Kelli O'Hara's solo album since she announced that it was in the works back when she was doing The Pajama Game. Actually I've been hoping for it ever since I heard The Light in the Piazza OBCR. So does it live up to expectations? Yes and no. When it was announced that Harry Connick Jr. would be the producer I was worried that he would sort of take over and make it his project. That fear was unfounded. Yes, Kelli sings three of his songs, but she also includes one song penned by her husband, Greg Naughton ("The Sun Went Out"), one from her breakthrough musical ("Fable" from Piazza), one that her father requested ("I Have Dreamed"), two she wrote herself, as well as several covers. Of the Harry Connick Jr. songs, the title song "Wonder in the World" (which they sing as a duet) is the best. It's a pop ballad that has sort of a musical theater flavor. Another highlight is Kelli's original song "I Love You The World" as well as a cover of "And So It Goes". Kelli's rendition of Piazza's "Fable" isn't the same as the version Victoria Clark owned onstage. Rather it's a new arrangement by Connick Jr, that according to Kelli is how Clara might hear the song: it's a pretty, soothing, lullaby. It lacks the raw emotion of the stage version but it's in keeping with the mellow feel of the album. Ditto for Kelli's other musical theater covers. It's disappointing that she chose not to use her gorgeous head voice more on songs like "I Have Dreamed" and "Make Someone Happy" but that may have lent an intensity that wasn't appropriate to an album that has more of an easy listening feel. Overall this is a lovely album that I enjoy listening to. It leaves me wanting more which I guess can be seen as both positive and negative. Kelli has a BA in Opera and ample musical theater experience. We hear her jazzy, mellow, pop sound on this album. Hopefully on her next she'll let us see another side of herself. Just a side note: the CD booklet (I use the term loosely) comes with the cover art, some song info, and another picture of Kelli. Considering Kelli is a beautiful woman more photos would have been nice. Considering Kelli involved a lot of people close to her soe liner notes wouldn't have been amiss, and seeing how the album features several original songs, lyrics would have been nice. That's a relatively minor quibble though. The music is the important thing to me.
 Not the kind of material she should be doing. May 22, 2008
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
Let me start by saying that I am a big Kelli O'Hara fan having seen her from the beginning in Sweet Smell of Success, A Life With Albertine, and even Dracula right up to her great successes in Light in the Piazza, Pajame Game, and South Pacific. I know that she is a wonderful singer and has personality to spare, so what is she doing singing this second rate material that anyone can do. She should be relying on her strengths and singing material that she is worthy of. The arrangements on this album are also dull. I was excited to get the album when it was released and sold it three days later as I don't even need it in my collection.
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