Featuring the entire cast and orchestra of the A.C.T. production — conducted by musical director Constantine Kitsopoulos — the release is the first English-language recording of the musical. It is available online at ghostlightrecords.com or in person in the lobby of the A.C.T. David Frost and Tom Lazarus produce.

"Brecht and Weill fans who have clamored for an English-language recording of this incredible show need wait no longer," said A.C.T. artistic director and Happy End director Carey Perloff. "We are indebted to all the great people at Skywalker Sound and Ghostlight Records for helping to make this wonderful piece of musical theatre history available to the world. We believe this recording is a great addition to the musical theatre canon and we hope it inspires fond memories and perhaps even future productions of this thrilling piece. We hope that it will further A.C.T.'s reputation as a champion of innovative and unusual work."

The work began previews June 8, 2006, and opened June 14 at the California company's Geary Theater. The run was originally slated to play through July 9 but was extended to July 16. Perloff staged the work with choreography by John Carrafa.

Broadway's Linda Mugleston (Nine, Into the Woods) starred as the mysterious Lady in Grey ("The Fly") in a cast that also featured Charlotte Cohn (Baz Luhrmann's La Bohème), Peter J. Macon (A.C.T.'s Hecuba, Drowning Crow) and Jack Willis (A.C.T.'s Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Black Rider and Broadway's Julius Caesar).

The ensemble also included Sab Shimono (Broadway's Pacific Overtures) and A.C.T. vets Charles Dean (The Rivals), Rod Gnapp (The Time of Your Life), Steven Anthony Jones (Gem of the Ocean), Joan Harris-Gelb (A Doll's House), René Augesen (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Lianne Marie Dobbs (The Difficulty of Crossing a Field), Jud Williford (The Rivals) as well as Brennan Leath, Celia Shuman, Jackson Davis, Dan Hiatt, Wendy James, Colin Thomson, Drew Hirshfield and Stephanie Saunders. Brecht and Weill penned Happy End in 1929 to follow up their previous hit The Threepenny Opera. The Runyonesque work, set in a mythical gangland Chicago just before the "Roaring Twenties," follows the struggles of a Salvation Army lieutenant Lillian Holiday and a down-and-out mobster Bill Cracker. The action builds toward a dramatic showdown on Christmas Eve.

The complete track listing for the cast recording follows:

Prologue
"The Bilbao Song"
"Lieutenants of the Lord"
"March Ahead"
"The Sailors' Tango"
"Time in a Shot Glass"
"The Sailors' Tango" (Reprise)
"Brother, Give Yourself a Shove"
"Song of the Big Shot"
"Don't Be Afraid"
"In Our Childhood's Bright Endeavor"
"The Liquor Dealer's Dream"
"The Mandalay Song"
"Goddam It"
"Surabaya Johnny"
"Song of the Big Shot" (Reprise)
"Ballad of the Lily of Hell"
"Song of the Big Shot" (Reprise)
"In Our Childhood's Bright Endeavor" (Reprise)
Epilogue
"The Bilbao Song" (Reprise)