Karen is featured in the ensemble (as well as understudying
Alix Korey's Mayor Mathilda Hyde in the Broadway run) of the musical with a
story that's new and hits that are all Elvis. This original cast recording
features the showstopping finale to Act I, "Can't Help Falling in Love" with a
reimagined gospel twist that wouldn't be out of place at the House of
Blues. Other musical favorites include "A Little Less Conversation," "Blue
Suede Shoes," and "Fools Fall In Love," as well as--naturally--the title
track. Along with Karen and Korey, the cast features leads in Cheyenne
Jackson, Jenn Gambatese, Jonathan Hadary, and Leah Hocking (with whom Karen
co-starred in the 2006 revival of The Most Happy Fella at New York City
Opera).
Karen's debut solo album is a recording of her Bistro
Award-winning cabaret performance of the same name. With a mix of
hit-parade standards ("Kiss of Fire," "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me," "An
Occasional Man"), eclectic and sublime conception/direction by Mike
Oster, arrangements by Fred Barton, and the music talents of Jay
Leonhart on bass, James Musto on drums/percussion, and Mike Migliore on
saxophone, it's easy to see where this ultimate Torch Goddess' praise comes
from.
Available at: Amazon.com,
Original
Cast Records, and CDBaby.com. Torch Goddess
can also be purchased by mail; send a check/money order made payable to
Karen Murphy to: Karen Murphy, c/o
Kerin/Goldberg Associates, 155 E 55th Street, New York, NY 10022.
Meanwhile, check out Karen's MySpace for full-length
samples. And check back here for TG's digital release on iTunes!
Torch Goddess Song List:
Stranger in Paradise (Wright and Forrest) Kiss
of Fire (Allen and Hill) The Desperate Hours (Burt
Bacharach) Gotta Have Me Go With You (Arlen and
Gershwin)
Secret Love (Fain and Webster) Occasional Man
(Martin and Blane) Thanks A Lot But No Thanks (Previn, Comden
and Green) Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me (Harry Noble)
High
Noon (Dimitri) How Did He Look (Abner Silver) Cry Me a
River (Arthur Hamilton) Steam Heat (Adler and Ross)
Bye Bye (Theme From Peter Gunn) (Henry Mancini)
Just in Time
(Styne, Comden and Green)
Old friend and former L'Amour the Merrier! co-star Steve
Ross's grand affair of an album is a tribute to Fred Astaire and Cole
Porter. Karen is featured on her friend and performing partner's
recording, and can be heard on the title track (among others). A
swinging affair that evokes the swish of tails and the dapperness of a
top-hat, I Won't Dance makes you want to do just the opposite.
While the album is out of print, it can be found used and is due for a
comeback. In the meantime, samples can be heard on CDBaby. Fans of
Steve Ross's work can also find him in print on the 2002 recording, Most of
Ev'ry Day.
Another Fred Barton/Karen Murphy pairing, the 1998 recording
of Barton's compendium of twenty-five previously unrecorded Wright and Forrest
(Kismet, Song of Norway, Grand Hotel) songs. Barton actually attributes
this project to Karen, one of his (in his words) "favorite divas
extraordinaires" who introduced him to Walter Willison who in turn introduced
Barton to Wright and Forrest themselves. The result is this CD,
re-released in 2003 by Original Cast Records. Karen makes a diva
extraordinaire turn on this disc singing "I've Got a Date With New York."
Other Broadway favorites include Judy Kaye, Lucie Arnaz, Karen Akers,
and Walter Willison and the Concessionaires. For those of you who are
Wright and Forrest fans (and have already heard Karen sing "Stranger in
Paradise" on the opening for Torch Goddess), this is a rare gem.
In a musical spoof that's one part Grease, one part
Forbidden Planet, Karen plays Principal Delilah Strict in a high school teeming
with love, lust, and nuclear zombies. Karen created this role back in the
workshops of Dana P. Rowe's OBIE-winning off-Broadway show and has made Delilah
entirely her own. You can hear her at her zaniest best in songs such as
"Rules, Regulations, and Respect," "It's Alive," "Trio (Case Closed)," "Then
Came Jonny," "Expose," and "The Lid's Been Blown" on this cast
recording. If you're looking for something a little tongue-in cheek a
la the Rocky Horror Show or Reefer Madness: The Musical, this is a great
addition to your collection and worth it for Karen's tracks
alone.
The second installment of this long-running off-Broadway hit
features Karen Murphy at her comic best in this ensemble cast. You can
hear her on such tracks as "Into the Words," "I Ham What I Ham," "The Ballad of
Teeny Todd," and the More Miserable Sequence--apropros for Karen, a Les
Miserables veteran. You can also hear the Les Miserables parody on the
20th Anniversary Collection of the "Best of" Forbidden Broadway tracks, however
this earlier CD has some of Karen's other comic showstoppers in action.