Joe Mantello directed the Second Stage Theatre production of the musical (score by Pasek & Paul, book by Peter Duchan) based on the film of the same name. It allowed for a breakout starring performance by the actress Lindsay Mendez, playing Rose, a homely San Francisco waitress who catches the attention of a callow soldier (played by Derek Klena) heading off to fight in Vietnam.
The production had music direction by Bryan Perri and orchestrations by Michael Starobin. The score's style had one foot in the early '60s and another stepping into the '70s, flirting with folk, pop and rock to tell a coming-of-age story flecked with humor and heartbreak. The album is being produced by Kurt Deutsch and Lawrence Manchester.
The summer 2012 cast also featured Annaleigh Ashford, Becca Ayers, Nick Blaemire, Steven Booth, Dierdre Friel, Adam Halpin, F. Michael Haynie, Derek Klena, James Moye and Josh Segarra.
Here's how the show was billed: "It's Nov. 21, 1963. On the eve of their deployment to a small but growing conflict in Southeast Asia, three young Marines set out for one final boys' night of debauchery, partying, and maybe a little trouble. But when Corporal Eddie Birdlace meets Rose, an awkward and idealistic waitress he enlists to win a cruel bet with his fellow recruits, she rewrites the rules of the game and teaches him the power of compassion."
The Warner Bros. film source had a screenplay by Bob Comfort. Later in 2012, Pasek & Paul, who share music and lyric credit jointly, made their Broadway debut as a team, writing the songs for A Christmas Story, The Musical. Their original songs are featured on Season 2 of the NBC series "Smash." Their song cycle Edges has been seen around the world. They are the recipients of the 2011 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a 2011 Sundance Institute Fellowship, the 2011 ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, the 2011 ASCAP Songwriters Fellowship Award, and a 2007-2008 Dramatists Guild Fellowship. They are the youngest recipients of the Jonathan Larson Award (2007) in the foundation's history. They are graduates of the University of Michigan BFA Musical Theatre program, and are currently at work on a new original musical with playwright Steven Levenson.
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Sh-K-Boom with its imprint Ghostlight Records has built a library of over 120 records in the last 12 years, featuring cast recordings, concerts and solo shows. Ghostlight won the Grammy Award for The Book of Mormon, and released the Broadway cast recording of Newsies, the premiere recording of Carrie, the new Grammy-nominated cast recording of Anything Goes, plus the originl cast recordings of Catch Me If You Can, Sister Act and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, as well as solo albums from Broadway's Sutton Foster, Kelli O'Hara, Alice Ripley, Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico and Ben Vereen. Other titles on Ghostlight including the Grammy Award-winning In the Heights, Next to Normal, Hair, Legally Blonde, Everyday Rapture, Passing Strange, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and The Drowsy Chaperone.
For more information, visit ghostlightecords.com.
Pasek and Paul shared their music with Playbill Video.
