Yellow Sound Label releases the original cast album of Bella: An American Tall Tale February 22, preserving the performances of the 2017 Off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons. The album is available for digital purchase and streaming from iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music. Physical copies are available from YellowSoundLabel.com and PlaywrightsHorizons.org.
The Off-Broadway cast, all of whom reunited for the album, includes Ashley D. Kelley (The Wiz) in the title role, Yurel Echezarreta (Aladdin, La Cage aux Folles), Drama Desk Award winner Kenita R. Miller (The Color Purple, Xanadu), Paolo Montalban (Pacific Overtures, The King and I), Gabrielle Reyes (Dreamgirls, Ragtime), Marinda Anderson (A Life, Far From Heaven), Brandon Gill (Holler if Ya Hear Me, Neighbors), Olli Haaskivi (Baghdaddy,I Battled Lenny Ross), Kevin Massey (A Gentleman’s Guide…, Tarzan), Jo’Nathan Michael (Ragtime, Dreamgirls), Britton Smith (Shuffle Along, After Midnight), and NaTasha Yvette Williams (Chicago, Porgy and Bess).
The production was directed by Robert O'Hara (Bootycandy, Slave Play) and choreographed by Camille A. Brown (Choir Boy, Once On This Island).
With a book, music, and lyrics by Kirsten Childs, Bella opened at Playwrights Horizons in June 2017. The production was co-presented with Dallas Theater Center, where the work debuted the previous year. The cast assembled to record the album in late 2017.Set in the 1870s, the musical takes a historical look at a different and untold side of the Wild West. The work follows the epic adventures of Bella, a wanted woman of mythic proportions, as she attempts to escape her scandalous past and find her Buffalo soldier.
The recording also preserves the work's orchestrations by Tony winner Daryl Waters, vocal arrangements by Childs, and music direction and additional arrangements by Rona Siddiqui.
