Fame Become Me Company Records Cast Album Nov. 20

By Andrew Gans
20 Nov 2006

Nicole Parker, Martin Short and Mary Birdsong in Fame Becomes Me.
Nicole Parker, Martin Short and Mary Birdsong in Fame Becomes Me.
Photo by Paul Kolnik

The cast of Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, the new musical at the Jacobs Theatre, heads into the recording studio Nov. 20.

Short, Brooks Ashmanskas, Mary Birdsong, Capathia Jenkins, Nicole Parker and Marc Shaiman will record the show's score at Sear Sound Studio in Manhattan. Ghostlight Records, a division of Sh-K-Boom Records, will release the CD.

Co-star Shaiman said in a statement, "As the producer of the Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me Original Broadway Cast Album, I have the serious goal of taking a group of performers who rely on oversized props and nightly shameless mugging for a laugh, and creating an exciting aural representation of the show. Luckily, I'm equal to the task! And without needing to worry about the bladders of our older audience members, we are even inserting some of the golden material we were forced to cut on our way into New York. More Marty! More Capathia Jenkins! More of those other people in the show! Harkening back to classic radio shows and The Firesign Theatre, Monty Python and National Lampoon comedy albums, our plan is to create a unique cast album that fully represents the style and energy of the show that is currently knockin' 'em dead at The Bernie Jacobs Theatre. Please buy it. Buy two."

Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me was conceived by Tony Award winner Short (Little Me) and Hairspray's Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The production features music by Shaiman (who is also a cast member), lyrics by Wittman and Shaiman and direction by Wittman. Charlie Alterman is the musical director. Wittman and Shaiman's Fame Becomes Me score includes such tunes as "Stepbrother de Jesus," "12 Step Pappy" and "Sniff, Sniff."

Daniel Goldfarb co-wrote the book, and Alan Zweibel is also part of the creative team, providing "additional material."

The structural nature of the long-gestating show is described thusly: "Leading the audience through a breathless 100 minute romp, Short re-enacts such imagined lifetime high points as his birth in 1976; his abusive father, a legendary Saskatchewan song and dance man; his heartbreaking Golden Globe-nominated performance as a mentally challenged concentration camp survivor and even his afterlife in show biz heaven. Along the way, superstars including Sarah Jessica Parker, Liz Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Jodi Foster and Renee Zellweger are conjured nightly along side Short's unforgettable characters Jiminy Glick, Ed Grimley and Irving Cohen."

For more information visit www.martinshortthemusical.com.