Ghostlight Records is aiming for a spring release for the Women on the Verge cast recording. Yazbek and Dean Sharenow produce the album, with Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight's Kurt Deutsch as executive producer.
Theatre fans can keep up with the Jan. 19 recording session via the Sh-K-Boom Twitter feed, which is being updated throughout the day. Click here to check it out.
The cast boasted Sherie Rene Scott, Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti and Brian Stokes Mitchell among its leads.
Yazbek, whose musicals include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Full Monty, penned music and lyrics to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which is based on Pedro Almodóvar's Oscar-nominated 1988 film. Yazbek's Tony Award-nominated Scoundrels collaborator, Jeffrey Lane, authored the book to Women on the Verge.
Music Theatre International, which licenses Yazbek's The Full Monty and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, has also picked up Women on the Verge for its catalogue. The cast recording will be a useful tool in tempting theatres to produce the Latin-kissed musical. "MTI is veryexcited to represent this wonderful show. While the Broadway production was able to showcase some of the most talented actors anywhere, the show itself will prove to be the real star in professional theatres, community theatres and universities around the world," MTI President Drew Cohen told Playbill.com.
Among the songs penned for the musical are "Madrid," "Lie to Me," "Lovesick," "Time Stood Still," "Model Behavior," "My Crazy Heart," "The Microphone," "Island," "On the Verge," "Mother's Day," "Invisible" and "Talk to Me."
To sign up for Women on the Verge pre-sale updates from Ghostlight, click here.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown concluded its Broadway run Jan. 2, three weeks shy of the originally scheduled conclusion of its limited run. The musical, directed by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza), played 30 previews and 69 performances at the Belasco Theatre.
Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell (Kiss Me, Kate, Ragtime) played the musical's virile catalyst, Ivan, who set off an emotional rollercoaster that caused the women in his life to toe the line between sanity and mental collapse. His fellow leading men included Tony nominee Danny Burstein (South Pacific) as a flashy taxi driver and Justin Guarini ("American Idol").
The Women on the Verge were played by Tony nominee Scott (Everyday Rapture, The Little Mermaid) as Pepa, the abandoned girlfriend; Tony winner LuPone (Gypsy, Evita) as the scorned ex-wife, Lucia; Tony winner Benanti (Gypsy, In the Next Room) as the high-strung best friend Candela; as well as Tony nominee de'Adre Aziza (Passing Strange), Tony nominee Mary Beth Peil (Nine, Sunday in the Park With George) and Nikka Graff Lanzarone (Seussical).
The Women on the Verge ensemble included Julio Agustin, Alma Cuervo, John Carroll, Murphy Guyer, Rachel Bay Jones, Nina Lafarga, Yanira Marin, Sean McCort, Vivian Nixon, Luis Salgado, Jennifer Maria Sanchez, John Schiappa, Samantha Shafer, Phillip Spaeth, Matthew Steffens and Charlie Sutton.
