Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2024 (Center Stage Records) (3 / 5) Written by Neil Berg and Cary Gitter, this musical tells the story of an unlikely love match between Angie (Marilyn Caserta), an Italian-American art gallery owner, and her Orthodox Jewish neighbor, Seth (Max Wolkowitz), who works at a knish shop run by his sister (Lauren Singerman). Their romance is affected by the pressure Seth receives from his sister not to marry outside the faith, as well as by Marilyn’s on-and-off relationship with a hot artist named Blake (Rory Max Kaplan), and the advice she receives from her grandmother (Diana DiMarzio), whom we eventually learn in the show (but not on the album) is actually the spirit of Marilyn’s deceased relative. Caserta and Wolkowitz are undoubtedly rising stars, and both of them give rich vocal performances that make the listener feel invested in their relationship from the start, but the score does not quite live up to the quality of its performers. While Berg unquestionably knows how to write a soaring love song, there’s very little differentiation in style and tone throughout the score, with most of it oscillating between power ballads and light comic numbers. Two highlights of the album are “Listen to Your Heart,” a climactic quartet that almost but doesn’t quite get lost in a sea of 11 o’clock turns, and “The Knish Song,” notable for its specificity and humor. The lyrics, by Berg and Gitter, are generally charming, although they often deal in false rhymes and are not always well-served by the tempo of the accompanying music. Sadly, this show doesn’t avoid the trap of portraying Jewish characters as inherently anxious and neurotic, and the song “Off the Roof,” in which Angie teaches Seth to discard his troubles, is questionable in its use of stereotypes. As the initially engaging story winds down, it seems to run out of new complications, and listeners may find themselves drifting off towards the end of the album’s comparatively short running time. While The Sabbath Girl is unlikely to make much of a splash beyond its initial Off-Broadway production and this recording, it does have its pleasures. — Charles Kirsch