Album Review: Jessica Hendy Is Handy With Words (& Music) On The OCR Of Her One-Woman Musical WALKING WITH BUBBLES

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby’s CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week’s album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from Broadway veteran and Drama Desk Award Nominee Jessica Hendy - she with the CATS pedigree stretching across the original production, its national tour, and the show’s most recent revival, a distinction that is all hers, and when one hears her sing, you understand why Grizabella has paid a lot of her bills. But Bobby is not at his keyboard to type about all that, because JH’s aforementioned Drama Desk Award Nomination came to her just this past summer for her beautifully crafted solo musical performance piece WALKING WITH BUBBLES. It seems strange to call a recording born of a solo performance a Cast Recording but we guess that’s what WWB must be since Jessica was the only “cast” and this musical play was her own story.  Having seen this show, though, Bobby can assure all our rainbow readers that Jessica is more than up to the challenge of presenting her story on her own. Possessed of a clear, bright, clarion voice that is filled with emotion, Hendy (book) and co-creator Brianna Barnes (music & lyrics) have matched Jessica’s voice to seven songs that are hung like jewels throughout Hendy’s monologue, and all combine, track by track, weaving the story of how she became an actress, then a wife, then a mom, then a single mom, and then an actress all over again. In this intimate narrative, Hendy paints the portraits of her lives (plural) one picture at a time, telling of when she was an up-and-coming Broadway aspirant and dedicated New York resident, to achieving her dream, to falling in love and becoming a mother to Beckett - whom she calls Bubbles - to the rollercoaster of emotions and shifting geography that her husband’s struggle with mental illness forced them all to ride. 
 

Now to the album - Hendy & Co. have done splendid work in crafting an OCR that puts the listener into the show using well-thought-out, truncated portions of the book and Barnes’s seven songs. Opening with the joyous JUST SATURDAY, Hendy’s voice is all classic Broadway pop belting this exposition song that puts us all in the picture quite quickly. Her voice is magical, really, and filled with all the real acting moments of this number that tells listeners how she’s returned to NYC with her son, and how they’ve settled in, and, on this Saturday, they are in the park waiting to encounter Bubble’s dad, Adam, now a homeless man. For her, it’s a trial, for Bubbles, it’s just Saturday. Cuts 2 & 3 on the album are a fascinating storytelling combo where the old hymn I SURRENDER ALL provides the musical framework for a moment when mom and son attend church with his mentally ill father. The mess intrudes on the mass and leads to HOW CAN I SURRENDER ALL, in a very clever story navigation from cut 2 to 3. This trip to church is filled with the frustration of another futile attempt at keeping the family a family, in some form, but mental illness won’t allow for normalcy... “I have strength, but I’m not strong,”  she sings, and it is truly heartbreaking. With cut #5, we have Bobby’s fave number on the album. THE MAN I USED TO KNOW is filled with all the drama and power notes of this huge turning point in the story. In the song, tragedy strikes as the explosions start in Adam’s head again. This song captures the struggle all those who love the mentally ill must go through - a real picture of a mother and wife in crisis beyond her ability to handle it alone.
 

The last of the new music on the album is a bonus track of the show’s original title song, WALKING WITH BUBBLES (BONUS TRACK). One never knows why a great song gets cut from a show, but cut it was and Bobby can only guess why. On the recording, Hendy is joined by another voice and one could surmise this is Brianna Barnes helping to rescue her fine song from the wastepaper basket. They duet beautifully, here, wailing and belting the show’s message of a mom lifted up by the love of (and for) her son. We loved WALKING WITH BUBBLES the show and now we truly enjoy this OCR. It is one to return to again and again to take in Jessica Hendy’s nuanced performance and the story of her very personal triumph… And for that, we give the WALKING WITH BUBBLES OCR…

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows - DO Put this one in your collection/stream today.

You Can Jump In The Amazon River & Stream This One: HERE
 

You Can See And Hear Everything About Jessica On Her Webbysite: HERE

CREDITS & THINGS

WALKING WITH BUBBLES opened on April 10, 2023, and closed on September 10, 2023 a respectable 5 month Off-The-Broadway run that netted a Drama Desk Award Nom for Outstanding Solo Performance And was produced by Tom D’Angora, Scott Coulter, and Dame Productions.  The original cast album is being produced by Tom D'Angora, Michael D'Angora, Scott Coulter and Vibecke Dahle Dellapolla. This original cast recording was produced by Tom D'Angora, Michael D'Angora, Scott Coulter, & Vibecke Dahle Dellapolla, recorded at MONOLisa Studios and engineered by music supervisor Jacob Yates, Nick Potacki, and composer Brianna Barnes.  The album was mixed and mastered by Ashton Michael Corey.

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