“Alexandra Silber sounds simply gorgeous as Maria. Her performance is thoughtful, naturally phrased, tremulous with emotion, and colored with a natural shimmer that sounds lusciousand communicates directly. Silber and Jackson really connect, too; their stretch of dialogue when Maria and Tony meet at the gym is convincing and thoroughly gripping. In “Tonight,” they weave musical-theater magic. Silber eases slowly and tentatively into the beginning, as a young girl might, while Jackson’s more headstrong Tony drives the tempo forward. When they sing in unison, her silken legit soprano and his bright theatrical tenor meet in a sweet spot in the middle, and the deal is sealed. Their transfixing “One Hand, One Heart” is even better: it has historic, ageless weight. The vocals are pure and perfect, and with Tilson Thomas’s supremely controlled pacing, time seems to have stopped.”

“Alexandra Silber is the definitive Maria. Her rich and clear soprano voice is so nice to come home to. It is the pure sound of Classic Modern – ringing and open, free of dull commercial trends. Alexandra’s rendition of “I Feel Pretty” is the jewel in the crown of this exquisite recording. Throughout the scene with her friends at the dress shop – she conveys Maria’s innocence, her simple glee over a new frock, and the blossoming passion she feels for a pretty wonderful boy.”

“There are no weak links in the cast, but Alexandra Silber stands out within an embarrassment of riches. Her pure, crystalline soprano voice could have been made for Maria. Her spoken dialogue and accent are just about perfect. It is not hard to appreciate that she is also an excellent singing actress. The voice is tonally pure and pitch-perfect, and she also has enough power as she operati- cally soars over the ensemble in the electrifying quintet (in my opinion, the highlight of the score).”

“[Cheyenne Jackson’s] performance is well matched, even out- done, by the gorgeous singing of Alexandra Silber (listen to how well they blend on their high As at the end of the Balcony Scene). Silber is an excellent actress, too, conveying the trajectory of Maria’s emotional development with astonishing depth. ”

“Alexandra Silber: The fastest-rising soprano in musical theatre...the firestarter for getting the Broadway world re-acquainted with its ‘legit sound’ — the same crystal clear, open voice that Leonard Bernstein would have heard in his first ‘Maria...”

“Singing with unaffected charm and clarity, two young musical theatre performers, Alexandra Silber and Cheyenne Jackson, embody all the ardour of Maria and Tony’s young love without grandstanding pomposity ... This is a recording that will blow your socks off. 5 STARS.”

“...the equally [to Cheyenne Jackson] attractive Silber: her beautiful, clear soprano was a joy. Silber’s straight, pure high tones are certainly the envy of many an early music soprano, and her ability to add vibrato at the end of phrases in idiomatic Broadway fashion was an additional asset. Much of her performance provided the heart...”

“Alexandra Silber, leading the cast as Lilli Vanessi/Katherine, was the stand-out of the evening, though. Critically acclaimed for her recent performance as Maria in the San Francisco Symphony’s West Side Story, Silber brought a similar range and passion to this part. Her “I Hate Men” had the audience gasping and applauding by turns, her “So In Love” was tender and touching, and the way she threw flowerpots at Davis’s head was truly magnificent.”

“And boy was she hot. American actress Alexandra Silber made her into a force of nature, leaping on chairs or throwing them around, and storming up to the balconies or down among the Prommers. In the song I Hate Men, she started fortissimo and got louder, when she thumped Petruccio in the ribs, you could feel the audience wince. 5 STARS.”

“The bonus is that the principal roles, both played by American artistes, are vividly done... Alexandra Silber matches [Ben Davis as Petruchio] blow for blow as Kate, bringing a feral ferocity to I Hate Men and even invests the climbdown of both Shakespeare’s heroine and the hero’s ex with a certain dignity.”

“Silber (right) was incredible, reaching operatic heights and surely larynx-straining bawling for I Hate Men.”

“Alexandra Silber’s curled-lip venom in Katharine’s I Hate Men was matched by her sultry delivery of Lilli Vanessi’s So in Love.”

“SARA JANE IS FLAWLESSLY PORTRAYED BY THE GIFTED SINGER ALEXANDRA SILBER.

Ms. Pen’s carefully written but unobtrusive music, and Mr. Lodato’s well-sketched portrait of a young woman beginning to question the beliefs she’s been raised with, are certainly nicely integrated; the music and lyrics mirror each other in mood perfectly. Ms. Pen’s music follows the wanderings of Sara Jane’s mind dutifully and with agility. Ms. Silber gives an impressive, confident and musically lustrous performance. Her soprano has a bright, blooming sheen.”

“Also back [from The Kennedy Center production] is the excellent Alexandra Silber as soprano Sophie De Palma, a young singer who hasn’t counted on being required to act. Silber distills an enticingly original character out of Sophie’s at first eager, then increasingly bewildered and desperate interactions with her teacher. When Sophie suddenly gets the approval she has given up on receiving, Silber’s rendering of her not knowing what to do with it is touching and true.”

“Silber vibrantly suggests her character’s awe-struck response to Callas—it’s almost like a religious revelation....”

“...Sara Jane becomes a startling shell of her former self, as the loneliness, confusion, and powerlessness become too strong for her to endure.
Lodato and Pen have written a fascinating character study, with each scene peeling off another layer of the woman’s personality, while the music changes in tone from lighthearted and upbeat to dark and dissonant as time progresses. Director Jack Cummings III guides the first-rate Silber through a remarkably nuanced and gorgeously sung performance that ably conveys the mile-a-minute feelings that rush through Sara Jane’s head with reckless abandon. The piece ends with a stunning rendition of Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” that is so thrillingly performed that you’ll be left on the edge of your seat.”

“Inner Voices, a triptych of solo musicals, contains one highly accomplished piece: the middle panel, Arlington, in which the prodigiously gifted Alexandra Silber plays a soldier’s wife with a dawning sense of her husband’s darkness. The splendid smoothness and control of Silber’s soprano works beautifully against her chatty, lonely character’s disintegrating sense of world order; under Jack Cummings III’s dexterous direction, she does full justice to the vivid and shifting colors of Victor Lodato’s words and Polly Pen’s music.
[...] Inner Voices’ clouds are redeemed by their Silber lining, but her solo might be even stronger on its own.”