PS Classics is planning a June 4 release for the disc that includes Yeston's song-cycle "December Songs," as well as a collection of material from his musicals, including "Only With You" (Nine), "I Want to Go to Hollywood" (Grand Hotel), "Shimmy Like They Do in Paree" (Death Takes a Holiday), "New Words" (In the Beginning) and "Bon Soir" (Goya).
Playbill.com has learned that two world-premiere Yeston songs will be featured on the album – one, which the composer has penned for Osnes, as well as a song from a new musical he is currently writing.
Osnes is joined in the studio by musical director/pianist Fred Lassen, as well as the full band from her 54 Below engagement, including Eric Davis on guitar, Peter Donovan on bass, Harry Hassell on winds and Peter Sachon on cello.
"If I Tell You (Songs of Maury Yeston)" is produced by PS Classics co-founder Tommy Krasker, whose association with Yeston began on the original production of Nine in 1982.
The album is currently available for preorder at the label's website, psclassics.com. Visit playbillstore.com to view other theatre-related recordings. Yeston, the Tony Award-winning composer of Nine: The Musical, Grand Hotel, Titanic, Phantom and Death Takes a Holiday, previously told Playbill.com, "I've been waiting almost 30 years to find a brilliant soloist who'd devote a whole album to my work, and I feel like I've found a perfect match with Laura. It was actually after Rebecca Luker's thrilling evening of Kern at 54 Below that Phil Bond, who supervises their presentations, suggested to me that Laura would be the ideal headliner for a show devoted to my songs. I could not have agreed more — in fact, I leaped at the idea — and I was blown away by the resulting performances. I think it was after the first sound check that I called Tommy and said, 'You have to get down here, and then you have to record this!'"
Osnes currently stars in the title role of the Broadway premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her last appearance on Broadway in Bonnie and Clyde, which she also performed at Asolo Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award - Outstanding Lead Female Performance in a Musical). Recent New York/Broadway theatre credits include Pipe Dream at Encores! (which was recorded), a one night only concert of The Sound of Music at Carnegie Hall, the Tony-winning revival of Anything Goes (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Astaire Award nominations), Lincoln Center Theater's South Pacific and (her Broadway debut) the most recent revival of Grease. She made her cabaret debut at the Café Carlyle which resulted in her first solo CD, "Dream A Little Dream: Live at the Carlyle."
