The release is billed as the first Broadway cast album to appear in vinyl LP form in nearly 20 years.
In the Tony Award-winning show now at the Marquis Theatre, a theatre maven named Man in Chair (played by Bob Martin) holds up the record sleeve of his favorite 33-rpm LP cast album — 1928's The Drowsy Chaperone — and puts a needle on the platter and shares the experience with the audience. The show comes to life around him in his dreary studio apartment.
The "record recreates Man in Chair's experience listening to his cherished cast album and features added scene dialogue, vintage cover artwork, Broadway production photographs, lyrics, liner notes and an included bonus CD of the vinyl record's content," according to Ghostlight.
The performers on the freshly minted LP are listed not as the 2006 troupers but as Golden Age (fictional) players Beatrice Stockwell, Roman Bartelli, Jane Roberts, Ukelele Lil and others. (They are respectively played on Broadway by Tony winner Beth Leavel, Danny Burstein, Sutton Foster and Georgia Engel.)
Since the center of the show is an 80-year-old recording, will the LP release have a tinny, scratchy sound? Ghostlight Records president Deutsch told Playbill.com, "We remastered and remixed for vinyl but didn't put any special vintage sounding effects on it. We really wanted it to be as pristine a collector's item as possible."
The track listing for the limited edition vinyl disc of The Drowsy Chaperone includes:
SIDE ONE
1. Overture – Orchestra
2. "Fancy Dress" - Company
3. "Cold Feets" - Percy Hyman, Cyril Devlin
4. "Show Off" - Jane Roberts, Company
5. "As We Stumble Along" - Beatrice Stockwell
SIDE TWO
1. "I Am Aldolpho" - Roman Bartelli, Beatrice Stockwell
2. "Accident Waiting To Happen" - Percy Hyman, Jane Roberts
3. "Toledo Surprise" - The Tall Brothers, Jack Adler, Sadie Adler, Company
4. "Bride's Lament" – Jane Roberts
5. "Love Is Always Lovely In the End" – Ukelele Lil, Noel Fitzpatrick
6. "I Do, I Do In the Sky" – Gwendoline Hall, Company
The re-mastered collector's item will be available for $50 in the Marquis Theatre lobby and on the Ghostlight Records website. A portion of the proceeds will benefit The Actors' Fund of America.
Advance orders are now being taken at www.GhostlightRecords.com.
The Drowsy Chaperone's complete 22-track Broadway original cast recording, including two additional bonus tracks, is available in stores now and at GhostlightRecords.com.
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The Drowsy Chaperone won five 2006 Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Score, seven Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical, four Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding Score and the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical.
The Drowsy Chaperone began previews April 3, 2006 and opened on May 1, at the Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway.
The musical, which will spawn a London production starring Bob Martin and Elaine Paige, is directed and choreographed by Tony Award nominee Casey Nicholaw (Spamalot), with music and lyrics by Tony Award winners Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and a book by Tony Award winners Bob Martin and Don McKellar.
The Grammy Award-nominated original cast recording is produced by Grammy Award winner and Academy Award nominee Joel Moss, musical director Phil Reno and Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records president Kurt Deutsch.
