LaChiusa to Celebrate Little Fish CD with Joe's Pub Concert

By Andrew Gans
05 Aug 2008

Michael John LaChiusa
Michael John LaChiusa
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

Composer Michael John LaChiusa will celebrate the long-awaited cast recording of his musical Little Fish with a Sept. 8 concert at Joe's Pub.

In addition to Little Fish, the 9:30 PM concert will also feature music from Bernarda Alba and other LaChiusa scores. Currently scheduled to appear are Alice Ripley and Lea DeLaria, according to the Joe's Pub website.

As previously announced, the cast recording of the Blank Theatre Company's production of Little Fish is due on the Ghostlight Records label Sept. 9. The cast of the Blank Theatre Company run — including Ripley (as Charlotte), Chad Kimball (Marco), Gregory Jbara (Mr. Bunder), Robert Torti (Robert), Dina Morishita (Kathy), German Santiago (John Paul), Samantha Shelton (Cinder) and Brooke Tansley (Anne) — recorded the CD Nov. 12, 2007.

Joel Moss and the label's co-founder and producer, Kurt Deutsch, are producing the disc, which features orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin. The recording is made possible by the Shen Family Foundation.

The recording features conductor David O on keyboards, Geoff Nudell on woodwinds, Kevin Tiernan on guitar, Dominik Hauser on bass, Kurt Walther on percussion and Bruce Coughlin on keyboard 2.

Suggested by the short stories of Deborah Eisenberg, Little Fish, according to press notes, "follows Charlotte [Ripley], a young writer of short stories, [who] confronts her past, present and future in post 9/11 Manhattan. She quits smoking and embarks on a modern day odyssey as she attempts to fill her nicotine-starved days with swimming at the Y." The one-act musical made its debut at Second Stage Theatre.

Michael John LaChiusa penned Send (who are you? I love you), Bernarda Alba, See What I Wanna See, The Highest Yellow, The Wild Party, Marie Christine, Lovers & Friends: (Chautauqua Variations), Little Fish, Hello Again, First Lady Suite, Break/Agnes/Eulogy for Mister Hamm and Chronicle of a Death Foretold. He received Tony nominations for Best Book of a Musical for Chronicle of a Death Foretold (with Graciela Daniele and Jim Lewis), Marie Christine and The Wild Party (with George C. Wolfe) and nominations for Original Score for Marie Christine and The Wild Party.

Joe's Pub is located within the Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street. For tickets, priced $30, visit www.joespub.com.