Lady Gaga Lets Her ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Alter Ego Take Over for Companion Album ‘Harlequin’

Alci Rengifo

Stefani Germanotta, who is known to the world as Lady Gaga, has gone through some transitional moments in her career. The pop diva who thundered onto the scene in 2008 with her overly theatrical brand of music and style has been continuing to evolve with more wide-ranging projects. She has found success on the big screen as an actor in major films, and as a singer, she has redefined her range with ventures into the classic American jazz repertoire. Since her great collaboration with Tony Bennett in 2014’s “Cheek to Cheek,” Gaga has proven she was always more than the futuristic pop persona of “The Fame.” Her latest feat as an actor in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” the sequel to the 2019 blockbuster “Joker,” now finds an album companion in Gaga’s “Harlequin.”

In “Joker: Folie à Deux,” Gaga plays Harleen “Lee” Quinzel aka Harley Quinn, the love interest of Arthur Fleck aka the Joker (Joaquin Phoenix). Presented as a semi-musical, the film by Todd Phillips promises to celebrate more of the original film’s themes of madness and loneliness. On the surface, it follows the usual mythology of the Batman world by having the two meet as inmates at Arkham Asylum. Gaga is filling in some notable pop culture shoes as the Joker’s infamous romantic equal, who was first introduced in “Batman: The Animated Series” in the ‘90s. No doubt she is up to the task, following her method acting dives for “A Star Is Born” and “House of Gucci.” Some of Gaga’s own original costumes and get-ups from those early “Bad Romance” days hinted at her potential to inhabit a comic book-inspired plot. 

A week before the film releases, Gaga made a surprise announcement for “Harlequin,” her “Joker: Folie à Deux”companion album produced by fiancé Michael Polansky. It is both an accompaniment to the movie and a personal statement. Per Gaga, the key inspiration was indeed her character in “Folie à Deux,” but also ideas of female empowerment. Fans will have to wait just a bit longer for an official studio album from Gaga, which she assures everyone will mark her return to pop. “Harlequin” is essentially a covers album, featuring her own take on classics, jazz standards and selections from Broadway. Two original songs are included in the brisk, 41-minute recording. Listeners familiar with Gaga’s two albums with Tony Bennett, “Cheek to Cheek” and 2021’s “Love for Sale,” will find much that is familiar in “Harlequin.” It could even double as a companion to Gaga’s recent Las Vegas residency, “Jazz & Piano.” Above all, it is another confirmation of the singer’s versatile skill and range. 

The fun of “Harlequin” is in hearing well-known songs given the Lady Gaga touch. It opens with an energetic “Good Morning” from “Singin’ in the Rain,” which in itself is a sly way of nodding at Hollywood. It is quickly followed by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler’s standard, “Get Happy,” performed by Judy Garland in 1950’s “Summer Stock,” and a soulful “Oh, When the Saints.” Other featured classics include a guitar-driven “World on a String,” which sounds very much like something Harley Quinn would croon behind bars, and “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” from the 1966 Broadway musical “Sweet Charity.” Some of these selections are in the film’s much-hyped musical numbers, such as “That’s Entertainment,” which Gaga could be seen singing outside a courthouse in leaked footage from the set, yet in the film itself it plays in the background during that particular moment as she ascends some steps. “Smile” is nearly a nod to the 2019’s “Joker,” which used the Jimmy Durante version. Gaga gives it a more haunting air. We even get a Gaga only cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “(They Long To Be) Close To You,” which many know from the Carpenters’ 1970 album of the same name. Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s “The Joker,” from the 1964 musical “The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd,” gets a dramatic, nearly rock opera treatment in Gaga’s version of this track, which is performed solely by Joaquin Phoenix in the film, where he sings a more subdued version as the Joker lashing out at the jury witnessing his trial. 

The two originals in the album clearly evoke the dark carnival mood of the franchise. “Folie à Deux” is a twirling ballad while “Happy Mistake,” written with BloodPop, takes on a somber mood with its lyrics evoking loneliness through clown iconography. “I’m acting in this play of / Comedy with tragic words / The audience was smilin’ / Cheerin’ on a scene absurd,” sings Gaga, before becoming more vulnerable in the chorus with, “I feel so crazy / My head is filled with broken mirrors / So many, I can’t look away / I’m in a bad way / If I could fix the broken pieces / Then I’d have a happy mistake.” After such a wrenching moment, “Harlequin” decides to close on an affirming version of “That’s Life,” evoking the spirit of the classic standard written by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon that was made famous by Frank Sinatra. 

“Harlequin” feels done for the fun of it. Fans know Lady Gaga has always had a background in jazz. It is breezy self-indulgence to drop an entire album with returns to standards that have been sung by giants like Sinatra and Garland. For fans, it is a nice detour before her next major delivery. No doubt it will also receive a boost from the crowds that will head to theaters over the weekend for “Joker: Folie à Deux.” The movie itself will have an official soundtrack album and a score album by Oscar-winner Hildur Guðnadóttir. When taking the film into account, “Harlequin” is almost a concept album that is more about listening to Harley Quinn crooning as opposed to Lady Gaga. That is the joke being played here. We are being invited to witness an alter ego strolling between elegance and madness. It is high drama delivered through some great, familiar tunes.

“Harlequin” releases Sept. 27 on Apple Music.