Word: jolson
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...Hollywood musical biography has an illustrious history, but biography has never been its strong suit. The great examples of the genre -- The Jolson Story, Yankee Doodle Dandy -- are marvelous myths: ritualized stories of kids who rise to the top through sheer talent and guts. The journey may take a personal toll (marriages rarely survive), but it is worth it. In the end, we have the music...
Here is this unlikely new country superstar, with his acetylene eyes and chipmunk cheeks, stalking the concert stage, acting up, acting crazy, climbing the rigging and blitzing the crowd with bravura. He's part Jolson and part Jagger, pulling stunts that smack more of the Fillmore than the Opry, and the audience hollers for him, feasts on him, lets itself go nuts with him. Nicely nuts. Mannerly nuts. Country nuts...
...Part Jolson, part Jagger, the nice-guy Oklahoman is an unlikely superstar...
...supply more drama, Cole may have been cooler, but no one can get to the quick of a lyric with the easy emotion of Bennett. The selections range from the pop- heavy The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (1950) through some surprises (a swinging, ebullient 1967 version of Al Jolson's Keep Smiling at Trouble) to 1989's high and handsome When Do the Bells Ring for Me. If the material is lacking, as in Song from "The Oscar," Bennett can raise it with a combination of precise technique and personal commitment. If the song is solid, he'll enhance...
MANDY PATINKIN: MANDY PATINKIN (CBS). The Broadway (Sunday in the Park with George) and movie (Alien Nation) actor lets fly with a fearlessly melodramatic song cycle chosen from sources as various as Stephen Sondheim and Al Jolson. Some of the tunes are a bit florid, but the best (like Anyone Can Whistle) have a delicacy that lingers...