By Andrew Gans
17 Jan 2006

Julia Murney

It’s been a busy season for actress-singer Julia Murney, who made her Broadway debut this past summer in Lennon. Murney, who is best known for her celebrated performance in the Off-Broadway production of The Wild Party, will also release her debut solo recording this spring.

Entitled “I’m Not Waiting,” the CD will be released on the Sh-K-Boom Records label. About the new recording Murney told Playbill.com, “It's a real hodge podge of songs — the whole song list isn't set yet, but there will be something cut from Wild Party as well as a song that Andrew Lippa wrote for me, an original song by Tom Kitt, and then a random assortment ranging from Reba McEntire and John Lennon to Annie Lennox and U2.

“We actually finished doing all the vocal stuff on it just last night, and it was really fun — mostly because of everyone who was working with me these past few weeks . . . . I even got some of my crazy talented friends to come in and sing a little back up stuff for me, so it made me very happy.” Among those who will be heard singing back-up are former Lennon co-stars Mandy Gonzalez, Marcy Harriell, Julie Danao-Salkin and Michael Potts as well as Murney's former Ragtime castmates Michael James Scott and Montego Glover.

Among the song titles on Murney's disc are “When I First Met Him,” the cut Wild Party tune; Tom Kitt’s “Perfect”; and Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You.”

“I’m Not Waiting” is being produced by Andrew Lippa. Joel Moss is the disc’s engineer with assistance by Jan Folkson. Tom Kitt and Stephen Oremus are the music directors.

Julia Murney made her Broadway debut in Lennon. She received a Drama Desk nomination for her work in Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party, and her other theatrical credits include Crimes of the Heart, Time and Again, A Class Act, Cloud 9, Snapshots and Mata Hari. Murney also portrayed Florence in the all-star Chess benefit concert for The Actors' Fund of America and was part of the all-star Children of Eden concert.

On Jan. 30 Murney will be seen opposite Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown in a one-night presentation of Brown’s The Last Five Years. The evening, which will be held at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse, is part of the Marvelous Musical Mondays series presented by Reprise! Broadway's Best.