By Steven Suskin
27 Dec 2009

MARCY & ZINA: The Album [Yellowsound Label YSL 566493]
Zina Goldrich (who writes the music) and Marcy Heisler (who writes the words) need no introduction; rather, they ought not need introduction. They have been writing exciting and classy musical theatre material for 15 years now. Major opportunities have somehow evaded them, again and again (although their exuberant Dear Edwina recently reopened at the DR2 off Union Square). To those of us who have come across their work along the way, the new CD "Marcy & Zina: The Album" is precisely as imagined: a string of one good song after another, with irrepressibly flavorful lyrics set to intelligent and tuneful music.

Their calling card, if they can be said to have a calling card, is something called "Taylor the Latte Boy." A very good song, as it happens, but it speaks precisely to what is so special about these songwriters. Heisler zeros in on the unexpected; anyone else might have written about a waitress, counterman or bartender. Maitre d', even. The latte boy, though, places us in a time and place we don't expect to be; now, here, today. The song is humorous, needless to say; but it is also warm, tender, and bordering on the heartwarming.

So we have warm, clever, tender, funny, which is what Heisler and Goldrich provide again and again. The word pictures are at once unusual but delightful and inevitable; Heisler focuses on the real-world quirks of today and puts them into words. And let's not give all the credit to the lyricist; the composer makes it possible, providing a perfect platform while keeping things musically interesting. "Marcy & Zina" contains 14 songs, with the authors alternating on most of the vocals (and I especially like Ms. Goldrich's performances). Scott Coulter and Jill Abramovitz join in for two tracks each. Orchestrations come from Goldrich, Joe Fiedler and Michael Croiter (who co-produced the album with the songwriters, plays the drums, and served as engineer and editor); they suit the music very nicely, coming from a ten-piece band.

If I have to pick out specific tracks, I suppose I would just say that the songs I keep going back to are the aforementioned latte song; "There's Nothing I Wouldn't Do," a comic-romantic duet; "Menemsha Moon," one of those summer-on-the-beach ballads; and two songs I can't get enough of. "Avoid navel contemplating, floppy haired actors originally from Baltimore who excel at mime, still play Stratego and have issues with their mom," Heisler and Goldrich advise in "Baltimore," and go on from there. Ms. Heisler also gives us what I expect is a new rhyme, pairing Boise (as in Idaho) with Joisie (as in the state across the Hudson). The other song I particularly like, matching "Taylor the Latte Boy," is "Gabriel's List," which is sweet and airy and a pure delight, with a twist.

(Steven Suskin is author of the forthcoming updated and expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com.)