A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas - Kristin Chenoweth

[IMG:L]Sony BMG Masterworks
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What happens if you cross-breed a Barbie doll and a kewpie doll and breathe bubbly life into the mix? You get Kristin Chenoweth, the diminutive actress with the giant talent, versatile enough to play a character of any age, from cradle to retirement home—and, best of all, put us in the presence not of impersonation but living.

Now she comes to us with a Christmas album of 12 tracks, some of them arranged and conducted by Jonathan Tunick, others by Robbie Buchanan. There are about a dozen instrumentalists and a couple of backup singers, plus one track with John Pizzarelli. A nice complement, but modest compared to the number of persons Kristin thanks. If they were all musicians (which they are not, ranging from makeup artists and hair stylists to family and friends), they could constitute an augmented symphony orchestra. When Kristin thanks, thankfulness overflows and we become part of those friends.

You might wonder: This is a CD, not a DVD, so why a makeup artist and a hair stylist? (A photographer, yes, because there are cute pictures on and in the album.) Well, because Ms. Chenoweth espouses perfection; if she were a chest of drawers, the invisible back that goes against the wall would be just as finished as the front. One does not haggle or penny-pinch with perfection.

Next, you may wonder: Why an album entitled A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas released in October? Because when Ms. Chenoweth performs, it is always Christmas, whatever the month. You can feel her coming gift-laden down the chimney like Santa Claus, and emerge in any of the white outfits she wears in the pictures as immaculate as the driven snow.

But what about the songs? The first thing to note is that there is no “White Christmas” or any of the old chestnuts. You probably know a couple of them, though not all that well, and will be pleasantly surprised by the others.

Before addressing the individual songs, what about Kristin Chenoweth’s voice?

Usually it is the fresh, artlessly artful outpouring of a precocious little girl, sometimes with a touch of impishness—the devil in Shirley Temple perhaps. But that doesn’t quite do it. When she sings “The Christmas Waltz,” for instance, she is fully grown-up, but with a pussycat blandishment, nuzzling as much as singing.

The same goes for “Do You Hear What I Hear?” where she also gets expert male backup. Here she is both crystalline and velvety, somewhere midway between girlish and womanly, and as inviting as one can decorously be.

Then, in “Sleigh Ride/Marshmallow World,” she is joined by John Pizzarelli on vocals, and the two of them make as cozy a couple—sophisticated rather than just mellow—as you have ever imagined yourself being in.

In Joe Raposo’s “Song,” with expert female backup, as again in “Silver Bells,” you hear Kristin the kid from Oklahoma singing with the warmth we associate with the American heartland, whether or not the heartland actually professes it. A down-home quality prevails, as of a family sing-along around the Christmas tree. Then, in “Come and Ring Those Bells,” we get Kristin the country singer, trading in her operatic training for Grand Old Opry.

“What Child Is This” is a text fitted to “Greensleeves,” in which Kristin achieves an almost unearthly purity; the singing has an irresistible, unvarnished forthrightness, which has made her the darling of several Broadway shows.

“Home on Christmas Day” and “Born on Christmas Day” strike me as relatively undistinguished items, which even the singer’s simple and straightforward approach cannot wholly rescue. But the twelfth and final track, “Sleep Well Little Children/What a Wonderful World,” has a charm and intimacy that will not be gainsaid, and exudes a blissful tranquility. As on most tracks, the arrangement and playing do this disc proud. Its October release has the further virtue of making your Christmas gift-shopping a good deal easier.