The details have yet to be finalized, but it looks like Varese Sarabande will record the Drama Dept.'s recent Off-Broadway production of the Irving Berlin-Moss Hart revue As Thousands Cheer, making it the first cast album ever of the 1933 show.

Varese Sarabande's Bruce Kimmel told Playbill On-Line he planned to enter an undetermined New York City studio sometime in early December, providing the production's cast can be convened. If all goes according to schedule, the album would be released in March 1999.

Cheer features such classic songs as "Heatwave," "Through a Keyhole," "How's Chances?" and "Supper Time." The Drama Dept. production was the Berlin-Hart revue's first staging since the 1933 Broadway original. It ran at the Greenwich House Theatre June 14-July 18, 1998.

Christopher Ashley directed a cast featuring Paula Newsome, Kevin Chamberlin, Howard McGillan, B.D. Wong, Mary Beth Peil and Judy Kuhn. There had been talk of transferring the show, but those plans were scotched due to prior commitments of three of the cast members.

-- By Robert Simonson