The release date for the CD has been bumped from June 13 to June 27, Deutsch confirmed. The cast album was recorded April 16.
At the end of the recording, listeners will hear a bonus track of the full version of the hoary ethnic pastiche "Message From a Nightingale," which figures into the comic show in excerpt form. (The song will not appear in the order it plays in the show; it would spoil the fun to explain further.)
Also added as a bonus track is "I Remember Love," a duet for the butler Underling (played by Edward Hibbert) and Mrs. Tottendale (played by Georgia Engel). The song was cut from the Lisa Lambert-Greg Morrison score prior to Broadway. Underling and Tottendale sing the duet "Love Is Always Lovely" in the show nowadays.
Deutsch, who is producing the cast album with Joel Moss, said some new music was created to accompany the spoken tracks of Man in Chair, played by Tony nominee Bob Martin. The narration tracks are distinct from the song tracks (except for in "Bride's Lament," when Man in Chair is involved in the scene). If fans wanted to, they could program their CD to play only the music tracks, thus getting the 2006 creative team's desired effect — a suggestion of a 1928 cast album of a vintage show written by the (fictive) team of Gable & Stein.
Deutsch also confirmed that Ghostlight will release a vinyl version of the cast album for the collector's market. It will not include narration tracks by Man in Chair. The release date has not been determined. Expect it to be a high-priced, limited edition. Deutsch told Playbill.com the challenge of creating the cast album for the quirky show is representing the experience properly. Too much narration by Bob Martin (as Man in Chair) could spoil the momentum and musical expectations for a listener, too little Bob Martin means you lose the glue of the piece, and its warmth.
"If you don't have Bob in it, you don't have heart," Deutsch observed.
He said listeners can expect a lush, period sound because there are no strings in the orchestra, which is led by Phil Reno, who also handled vocal arrangements. Orchestrations are by Larry Blank. Dance and incidental music arrangements are by Glen Kelly.
The CD version will have 22 tracks. For more information, visit www.ghostlightrecords.com.
*
The Drowsy Chaperone began previews at The Marquis Theatre April 3 toward a May 1 opening.
The Drowsy Chaperone has words and music by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar. Casey Nicholaw (Spamalot) directs and choreographs.
The musical features Danny Burstein, Georgia Engel, Tony Award winner Sutton Foster, Edward Hibbert, Troy Britton Johnson, Eddie Korbich, Garth Kravits, Jason Kravits, Beth Leavel, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Bob Martin, Jennifer Smith, Lenny Wolpe, Andrea Chamberlain, Jay Douglas, Stacia Fernandez, Linda Griffin, Angela Pupello, Kilty Reidy, Joey Sorge and Patrick Wetzel.
The Drowsy Chaperone is produced by Kevin McCollum, Roy Miller, Boyett Ostar, Stephanie McClelland, Barbara Freitag and Jill Furman.
According to the producers, "To chase his blues away, a modern day musical theatre addict known simply as Man in Chair (Martin) drops the needle on his favorite LP — the 1928 musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone. From the crackle of his hi-fi, the uproariously funny musical magically bursts to life on stage, telling the tale of a pampered Broadway starlet (Foster) who wants to give up show business to get married, her producer (Wolpe) who sets out to sabotage the nuptials, her chaperone (Leavel), the debonair groom (Johnson), the dizzy chorine (Smith), the Latin lover (Burstein) and a pair of gangsters who double as pastry chefs (Garth and Jason Kravits). Man in Chair’s infectious love of The Drowsy Chaperone speaks to anyone who has ever been transported by the theatre."
*
Ghostlight Records, created by Sh-K-Boom co-founders Kurt Deutsch and Sherie René Scott, "ensures that music of the theatre by composers old and new will always be enjoyed. Ghostlight Records honors the past while shining a light toward the future." The company was honored with three 2006 Grammy Award nominations for Best Musical Show Album: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hair (The Actors' Fund of America Benefit Recording) and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Other recent recordings include the original cast recording of See What I Wanna See by John Michael LaChiusa and Patti LuPone's The Lady With The Torch. Ghostlight Records is distributed by Razor & Tie Entertainment.
For more information, visit www.drowsychaperone.com.
