The contracts have been signed and Varese Sarabande will record the Drama Dept.'s recent Off-Broadway production of the Irving Berlin-Moss Hart revue As Thousands Cheer . The recording will be the first cast album ever of the 1933 show. The cast will convene at Manhattan's Clinton Studios on Dec. 7.
If all goes according to schedule, the album would be released in January or February 1999, said spokesperson Colleen Hughes.
Cheer features such classic songs as "Heatwave," "Through a Keyhole," "How's Chances?" and "Supper Time." The Drama Dept. production was the Berlin-Hart revue's first staging since the 1933 Broadway original. It ran at the Greenwich House Theatre June 14-July 18, 1998.
Christopher Ashley directed a cast featuring Paula Newsome, Kevin Chamberlin, Howard McGillan, B.D. Wong, Mary Beth Peil and Judy Kuhn. There had been talk of transferring the show, but those plans were scotched due to prior commitments of three of the cast members.
-- By Robert Simonson