The Broadway and cabaret scene.(Sound Recording Review)

Betty Buckley: Deep in the Heart (Fynsworth Alley 3020621622)

Audra McDonald: Happy Songs (Nonesuch 79645-2) Mandy Patinkin: Sings Sondheim (Nonesuch 7960 [2 discs])

Keely Smith: Keely Swings Basie-Style with Strings (Concord 2138-2)

In this article, we review the latest albums from two of Broadway's reigning divas--one who presided over the past twenty years and another who is likely to triumph for the next decade or two. Complementing their efforts is the inimitable talent of one of the theatre's most individual song stylists, and a legend who is still very much alive.

Two of these vocalists performed live in New York City recently. I had the privilege of seeing Betty Buckley and her musicians at Feinstein's last October. No one has a way with a lyric like Betty. She is inside every song. And with a unique vocal instrument of wide range, always beautiful and sometimes piercing, she punctuates each phrase in a way that doesn't let us escape its meaning.

Described as a special collection of original songs and hymns in tribute to September 11, Betty leads off with her own composition "The Doorway"--written just three weeks before 9/11--in which she offers understanding and acceptance for things we cannot change. She follows with an interpretation of the Rodgers and Hart classic, "With a Song in My Heart," that gives the love song an almost hymn-like quality. (For a more upbeat version, listen to Wesla Whitfield on Highnote HCD 7040.) "Sycamore Trees," by new-wave composer Ricky Ian Gordon, poetically talks about the passage of time. In Kenny Werner's harmonically-interesting arrangement of "Autumn Leaves" (the first pop song I learned to play on the piano)--sung in English and French--we can almost feel the leaves fall by the window on an overcast day.

The last five songs on the album are what we call inspirational. Starting with an instrumental improvisation called "A Loss of Heroes" and ending with a beautiful medley of"For the Beauty of the Earth" and John Lennon's "Imagine," Betty offers prayers (the original composition, "St. Francis Prayer") and anthems ("Bridge Over Troubled Water," "God Bless America"), all in her distinctive and thoughtful style.