The disc, produced by Joel Moss and Sh-K-Boom founder Kurt Deutsch, features Burke Moses, Christiane Noll and the Encores! concert cast of the acclaimed 2003 revival of the operetta. The troupe (minus Lauren Ward, who was out of the country) and a 34-piece orchestra under the musical direction of Rob Fisher was recorded July 12-13. Ward will indeed be heard on the CD; her session is being scheduled.
The release date will be October, Deutsch told Playbill On-Line. Whereas Sh-K-Boom's mission is to bridge the gap between rock and musical theatre (The Last 5 Years, Debbie Does Dallas, Adam Pascal rock discs), Ghostlight will focus on more traditional musical theatre scores and cabaret work. Deutsch admits the lines between the two divisions blur a little: Sh-K-Boom released the cast album of Michel Legrand's musical comedy, Amour, but if Ghostlight had been created at the time, the disc likely would have ended up under the latter's umbrella.
It will be Sh-K-Boom that releases the cast album of the revised Paul Scott Goodman rock opera Bright Lights, Big City, Deutsch said. The all-star recording is led by Patrick Wilson, who played the troubled antihero of that show when it had a staging at New York Theatre Workshop. Release is expected for early 2005. Songwriter Goodman is not a character in the revised version, Deutsch said.
Rent star Adam Pascal's new rock disc, "Civilian," will be released by Sh-K-Boom in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the other Ghostlight discs emerging in October will be the cast album of the 2004 Irish Repertory Theatre revival of Finian's Rainbow and a studio recording of Tony Award-winner Christine Ebersole's cabaret show, In Your Dreams, with musical director Billy Stritch. Image Entertainment will distribute Ghostlight product.
One of the more popular features currently on the Sh-K Boom website is the free 11-song download offer of the new rock musical, Bare, about teens struggling with their emotions in a Catholic boarding school. Deutsch said he was happy to work with the creators and the producers to make the early recording, but it doesn't necessarily mean an eventual full cast album will appear on Sh-K-Boom. Bare, a Pop Opera gets a commercial Off-Broadway run starting Sept. 22 at Dodger Stages.
A website for Ghostlight Records is expected to go live in the coming months. No specific October date has been announced for Finian's Rainbow, In Your Dreams and The New Moon.
"Ghostlight" refers to the single-bulb lamp left burning on the stage of a theatre after the personnel has left the building.
For more information, visit www.sh-k-boom.com.
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The upcoming New Moon recording is expected to be one of the most complete documents of the show ever recorded.
The 1928 Sigmund Romberg musical, which played City Center March 27-30, 2003, features music by Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel and Laurence Schwab. It boasts such tunes as "Stout-Hearted Men" and "Lover Come Back to Me."
The New Moon played 500 performances in 1928, making it a huge hit for the time. It was also one of the last operettas to succeed on Broadway and one of the final triumphs of Romberg, who also wrote Blossom Time and The Desert Song.
