The musical about aviation pioneers and the human urge to fly was presented at London's Menier Chocolate Factory July 13-Sept. 22, 2007.
The British cast, playing real-life flying pioneers, is led by Sally Ann Triplett (Guys and Dolls, Chicago, Anything Goes), who plays Amelia Earhart; Ian Bartholomew (Into the Woods, Tommy, Dead Funny) as George Putnam; and Michael Jibson (Our House) as Charles Lindbergh. The Wright Brothers are played by Sam Kenyon (Amadeus, Sweeney Todd) and Elliot Levey (His Dark Materials and On Religion).
The album was recorded in London Sept. 24-25, and produced by Chris Walker.
PS Classics co-founder Tommy Krasker told Playbill.com that the running time for the CD is 78 minutes ("one very full disc"), and the track listing is as follows:
1. Take Flight
2. Equilibrium
3. Sky!
4. Like You, Say
5. Throw It to the Wind
6. Solo/Sorry, Mr. Lindbergh
7. Lady in That Aeroplane
8. Lady Lindy
9. What Are We Doing Here?
10. Earthbound
11. Before the Dawn
12. A Part of Me
13. Back of the Line
14. Before the Dawn (reprise)
15. The Funniest Thing
16. (The Farther You Go) Around the World/Papua
17. The Prize/The Landing
18. Finale In a first for the label, one track, "Pffft!," will be made available online only, as a digital download.
Krasker told Playbill.com, "Take Flight is an expansive piece, and we suspected we'd recorded more than we could fit on one disc and would need to do some careful pruning. When we did our final assembly, it was clear that one track would have to go, and this track — in terms of the story-telling — was deemed the least essential. But it's a delightful track, performed with relish by Clive Carter, and so we decided to make it available at all the digital download sites."
The CD will be accompanied by a 32-page booklet "with a six-page color wraparound, complete with essay, synopsis, a chronology of the central characters, production photographs, and full lyrics."
The London Take Flight production reunited director Sam Buntrock, designer David Farley and musical supervisor Caroline Humphris, the creative team behind the Menier's Broadway-bound, multi Olivier-winning revival of Sunday in the Park With George, which was also preserved on disc by PS Classics.
Take Flight is the first musical to be staged since producer Bob Boyett and the Menier's David Babani announced their three-year partnership for presenting Menier productions in the U.S.
Maltby (lyrics) and Shire (music) are the songwriters whose urbane Off-Broadway revues, Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever, are beloved by fans of the form. Cabaret singers have plucked songs from the shows to present in nightspots around the world. Maltby (lyricist of Miss Saigon) and Shire also collaborated on the musicals Baby and Big.
A long-time Sondheim collaborator, Weidman wrote the books for Assassins, Pacific Overtures and Bounce. He also co-created the Tony-winning musical Contact, wrote the book for Big, which featured Maltby and Shire's score, and co-authored the Tony Award-winning 1987 revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes.
Founded in 2000 by Tommy Krasker & Philip Chaffin, and twice Grammy-nominated (for its cast recordings of Assassins and Nine: The Musical), PS Classics' recent releases include the Broadway productions of Grey Gardens and 110 in the Shade, and acclaimed solo discs by Victoria Clark, Lauren Kennedy and Andréa Burns. Xanadu is the label's next Broadway cast album.
For more information, visit www.psclassics.com.
