The Mystic Pizza Musical Is Recording a Concept Album

The Mystic Pizza stage musical will record a concept album later this month, with a release date to be announced. Joy Machine Records will put out the release, produced by arranger-orchestrator Carmel Dean and Brian Usifer for Joy Machine and Michael Barra for Lively McCabe Entertainment.

The album will feature performances from the cast of the recent Paper Mill Playhouse staging of the work, including Krystina Alabado, Alaina Anderson, Chachi Delgado, Ben Fankhauser, Jennifer Fouché, Mia Gerachis, Deánna Giulietti, F. Michael Haynie, James Hindman, Michael James, April Josephine, Vincent Michael, Adriana Negron, Louis Pardo, Alyssa M. Simmons, Jake Swain, Zephaniah Wages, and Rachel Kae Wirtz. Casting is by Geoff Josselson Casting.

Inspired by the 1988 film starring Julia Roberts, the musical follows three working-class young women who navigate the complexities of life, love, and family in a small-town pizza joint. A jukebox musical, the work features a score of hits from the '80s and '90s, including "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," and more.

Casey Hushion has led the project as director, including the staging at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse and earlier mountings at Ogunquit Playhouse, La Mirada Center for the Performing Arts, and Riverside Theatre. Music direction is by Kristin Stowell.

The musical is developed by Lively McCabe Entertainment.