By Steven Suskin
24 Jan 2010

BATMAN: MAYHEM OF THE MUSIC MEISTER! [New Line]
It has taken me a while to get around to the soundtrack of "Mayhem of the Music Meister!," a special musical comedy-style episode of the current "Batman, The Brave and the Bold" animated TV series. This episode featured Neil Patrick Harris as said Music Meister, a villain who's singing can stop civilians (i.e. non-musical theatre people) in their tracks. A funny idea, and done with style; said style being one of great humor. Mr. Harris, whose musical comedy talents are already well appreciated, does a wonderful job. He is joined by Grey DeLisle as his love interest, Black Canary. The songs are by composers Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis, and Kristopher Carter; the lyrics come from Michael Jelenic and James Tucker, all of whom have a good feel for the work at hand. The CD has but eight tracks, clocking in at a mere 19 minutes; that being the case, you might want to purchase it track-by-track, starting with Harris leading "I'm the Music Meister." Fun.

(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.)