The Musical Man

From 'Ally' to film 'Lake Placid,' Kelley weaves pop into scripts

Fairly early in his career, when he was writing and producing "Chicago Hope," David E. Kelley revealed his affinity for using popular music to enhance the power of certain scenes.

Back then, he allowed Mandy Patinkin, as Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, to sing his pain rather than just speak it. Since then, most of Kelley's efforts have either encouraged certain cast members to sing or made inventive and memorable use of vintage pop hits on the soundtrack — a practice he continues with his "Lake Placid" horror spoof, opening July 16, which manages to make room for both Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" and Bob Marley and the Wailers' "Is This Love."

But of all the productions crafted by Kelley, the one that uses music the most, without question, is his weekly Fox series, "Ally McBeal." Most of the cast members, it seems, either break into song or hear songs in their heads — and who can even look at Peter MacNicol's John Cage these days without hearing the midnight-deep voice of Barry White?

"There's something about White living within Cage that seemed organically natural," Kelley told me recently on a New York visit, flashing a satisfied smile hours before picking up twin Peabody Awards for "Ally McBeal" and ABC's "The Practice."

Asked whether White lived within HIM, Kelley smiled even more widely — then lowered his voice to an almost inaudible whisper.

"Yes, I listen to Barry White," he confided. "It's probably some unconscious desire on my part to show the world there's more Barry White fans out there than you think.

"I still have the 'Gold' album — though now, of course, it's a CD," Kelley added. "I did not look in the mirror and become him."

Kelley, a soft-spoken white guy and former lawyer, is enough of a Barry White fan to showcase his music (and, in a memorable guest appearance on the occasion of Cage's birthday, White himself). And clearly, the 42-year-old Kelley has enough soul to have wooed and won Michelle Pfeiffer as his wife, and enough enthusiasm and memory regarding the music he loved when he was younger — everything from '60s pop to '70s soul — to make "Ally McBeal" sing in more ways than one.

Kelley says he has no set method for selecting songs or inserting them into his scripts — "I wish I could reduce it to a science, but I can't." Still, on "Ally" the music that he likes can be found everywhere.

Calista Flockhart, as Ally, has fantasized:

About a baby who danced to the "ooga-chaka" strains of Blue Swede's remake of "Hooked on a Feeling."

About the time she was cured by a therapist (Tracey Ullman) who encouraged her to adopt and listen to a privately heard theme song, the Exciters' "Tell Him."

About hearing, and seeing, Al Green sing "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" to her.

Jane Krakowski, as secretary Elaine, choreographs and performs production numbers at the drop of a birthday hat or Christmas wreath. Jesse L. Martin, as Ally's former boyfriend, serenades Ally — and also sings duets with Lisa Nicole Carson, who plays Ally's roommate, Renee.

Lucy Liu, as Ling, often enters a room accompanied by the threatening theme song of the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz." Greg Germann's Fish, getting primed for a sex session with Ling, dances in the mirror to Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild."

Jennifer Holliday, as a choir singer, has shown up on two occasions to sing outrageously politically incorrect Randy Newman songs ("Political Science" and "Short People"). Even Courtney Thorne-Smith's reserved Georgia sang at the local hangout, terribly and hilariously, butchering both "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" and "Son of a Preacher Man."

And most prominently, there's Vonda Shepard, whose original songs and pleasant cover versions are heard in every episode, and whose appearance as the regular "Ally McBeal" bar pianist has rewarded her with million-selling CDs.

Yet when Kelley was developing and casting "Ally McBeal," he was looking for actors, not singers.

"Jane Krakowski, it was on her resume [that she appeared in such Broadway musicals as 'Company'], but it wasn't something we were looking for in Elaine. That's true of Lisa Nicole Carson as well. They were cast on their acting abilities; the fact that they could sing was an asterisk. At that point, I wasn't looking for regulars who could sing.

"In the beginning, the only musical voice on the show was going to be Vonda."

As the show developed, though, so did Kelley's ear for finding musical voices for many characters — whether or not they could carry a tune.

"Jesse L. Martin, who played Greg — he was in 'Rent.' When he was cast, we knew he could sing," Kelley said.

"But for the most part, it was a bit of a fluke — and a fortuitous one."