Tommy Krasker, co-founder of PS Classics with Philip Chaffin, will produce the album with Joel Moss and Maury Yeston. Krasker, Moss and Yeston previously collaborated on the Grammy Award-nominated cast album of Yeston's Titanic. PS Classics is distributed by Image Entertainment, which has given the respected independent label — devoted to Broadway and American pop music — a national profile.
The disc marks the first Broadway cast album for a young label that has expanded in less than three years to release an eclectic array of programming (from obscure Vincent Youmans and Jerome Moross material to discs focusing on Jason Robert Brown, Michael John LaChiusa and more).
Yeston points out that Krasker was assistant music director of the original Broadway production of Nine in 1982 and called PS Classics label "a fiercely independent new recording company."
The disc is expected to be recorded in Manhattan March 31, while Nine is still in previews. Performances begin at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre March 21, with an opening of April 10 planned. No release date has been announced for the cast album, which will be on one CD (an expanded two-CD version of the original 1982 cast album starring Raul Julia will be released on the Sony Classical/Legacy label May 13).
The Roundabout Theatre Company's upcoming production of the Maury Yeston-Arthur Kopit musical is being staged by David Leveaux (The Real Thing). In Nine, Banderas makes his Broadway debut as filmmaker Guido Contini. The lovers and collaborators in his life – all women — are played by a cast that includes Chita Rivera as Liliane La Fleur, Laura Benanti as Claudia, Jane Krakowski as Carla and Mary Stuart Masterson as Luisa. Also positioned to tempt Banderas' Guido are Nell Campbell as Lina Darling, Saundra Santiago as Stephanie Necrophorus and Deidre Goodwin as The Lady of the Spa. The ensemble includes Linda Mugleston, Elena Shaddow, Kristin Marks, Sara Gettelfinger and Kathy Voytko.
Kevin Stites serves as musical director.
Playbill On-Line previously reported PS Classics will release a CD of Yeston's art songs, pop songs and show tunes April 8. "The Maury Yeston Songbook" will include Yeston songs conducted by John McDaniel and sung by Christine Andreas, Brent Barrett, Laura Benanti (who appears in the new Nine), Betty Buckley, Liz Callaway, Philip Chaffin, Robert Cuccioli, Christine Ebersole, Eden Espinosa, Christopher Fitzgerald, Sutton Foster, Michael Holland, Brian d'Arcy James, Howard McGillin, Alice Ripley, and Johnny Rodgers. That album hits stores on April 8.
For more information, visit www.psclassics.com.
