Green Bird composer Elliot Goldenthal and DRG record executive High Fordin will co-produce the cast album for the show on June 5 at the Manhattan Center Studios. Green Bird closed June 4 with its 3 PM performance at the Cort Theatre.

"I'm sad the show is closing but there is life after a show closes in many cases and there are lots of things being planned for Green Bird," DRG's Fordin told Playbill On-Line on May 31. "I don't think it ever really found an audience. It's a very special show and I care as much about it as I do the City Center shows that I do."

Fordin said that the creative magic of Green Bird would be "permanently carved in stone" with the cast recording of the score. The album producers also plan a special 16-page booklet to accompany the CD. "The special booklet will have sketches of all the puppets and masks in Green Bird," Fordin said.

The planning for the cast album had been underway for some time. Last month, composer Elliot Goldenthal spoke with Playbill On-Line and said he was already preparing a half dozens songs for the recording. Goldenthal was particularly enthused about the variation of orchestration he was able to achieve and that the underscoring remained very prominent.

"I think the music stands on its own very happily," Goldenthal said, "but I want to be unobtrusive, because if you do your job as a composer, you try not to have the music get in the way of the dialogue or actions." One key musical challenge for Goldenthal and Fordin will be to translate visually rich stage performances into a viable ensemble recording. "It has to be what it is, meaning a theatrical piece," Goldenthal said. "That's the smart way to go about it. But it's also a whole different thing if you sing on stage and you're not really a singer, because you have to sing under a microscope in the studio, which is a whole different process." The DRG Theatre label cast recording of Green Bird has an Aug. 16 street release date and will be distributed by KOCH.