Featuring the original Broadway company — including Will Chase and Jenn Colella — the Tom Kitt/Amanda Green/David Lindsay-Abaire musical was released May 15. The cast also included Christian Anderson, Jay Klaitz, Rachel Stern, Emily Swallow, Caren Lyn Manuel, Kirsten Wyatt, Anne Warren, Jeb Brown, Jon Patrick Walker, Justin Brill, Andrew C. Call, Matt Caplan, Paul Castree, George Merrick, Tom Plotkin and J.B. Wing.

Holding steady for the twelfth consecutive week, the top three slots on the chart are filled by Decca Broadway's Wicked, followed by Rhino's Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia! (also Decca Broadway). Current Tony Award-nominated musical Spring Awakening and Walt Disney's The Lion King round out the top five.

Along with Wicked and Mamma Mia!, the cast recordings of Monty Python's Spamalot and Avenue Q have remained on Billboard's Top Cast Album Chart for the full 73 weeks since the chart's inception.

Disney also enjoys three other spots on the list with the original London cast recording of Mary Poppins and the original Broadway cast albums of Beauty and the Beast and Tarzan.

The release of Stephen Schwartz's Wicked has topped the chart for 67 of the 73 weeks the chart has been published. The recording has dominated the top spot, only being toppled by the Columbia Records two-disc "Harry On Broadway" release (with Broadway's The Pajama Game revival and selections of Connick, Jr.'s Thou Shalt Not) and The Color Purple for one week each. Jersey Boys also had a four-week run at No. 1 following its big Tony win and reclaimed the top spot the week of Feb. 8. *

Billboard added the Top Cast Albums chart to its listings Jan. 12, 2006. The chart measures sales of albums from stage musicals. Broadway recordings mostly fill the 15-slot table, but cast albums from other locales are also eligible. The addition of the chart to Billboard's 112 charts generates exposure for the genre which does not often chart on the Billboard 200. The Schwartz musical — which opened on Broadway in October 2003 (album released Dec. 16, 2003) — appeared at the top of the first chart.

Billboard can be found on the web at www.billboard.com. Full charts are available by subscription at www.billboard.biz.