Ghostlight Records Announces Sept. 23rd Release of HIMSELF AND NORA
Ghostlight Records has announced release of HIMSELF AND NORA – the 2016 Off-Broadway Cast Recording, Live from the Minetta Lane Theatre, NYC – a new musical with book, music, and lyrics by Jonathan Brielle. The album will be available from iTunes and other digital formats Friday, September 23, with physical copies online and in stores Friday, October 7. To pre-order the album, which includes includes a color booklet with production photography, please visit sh-k-boom.com/himself-and-nora.
HIMSELF AND NORA follows one of the world’s great romances. James Joyce, among the most provocative and influential writers of all time, had his creativity, imagination, and desire transformed by Nora Barnacle. She was the country girl from Galway whose burning sexuality and acerbic wit inspired his genius. Ripped from pages of their intimate life together and informed by their Irish roots, the show reveals the private life of one of modern literature’s most controversial figures and illustrates the untold story of Joyce’s lifelong love and muse Nora. HIMSELF AND NORA opens a window into an unconventional and passionate love affair which changed literature forever.
“We’re excited that HIMSELF AND NORA is one of the rare cast albums recorded live in the theater,” says the show’s creator Jonathan Brielle. “The listener can truly enjoy the organic spirit of this ensemble piece. This method captures the chemistry of the performers in real time, instead of trying to recreate it in the studio. Plus, the production’s special sound design is a key element that let us preserve the audience experience for posterity.”
The recording features Matt Bogart (Jersey Boys, Miss Saigon) as James Joyce and Whitney Bashor (The Bridges of Madison County) as Nora Barnacle, in addition to Michael McCormick, Zachary Prince and Lianne Marie Dobbs.
HIMSELF AND NORA, which opened on June 6, 2016 at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City, was directed by Michael Bush, choreographed by Kelli Barclay, and produced by Cherie King with R. Erin Craig serving as executive producer. It featured scenic design by Paul Tate dePoo III, costume design by Amy Clark, lighting design by Jason Lyons, sound design by Keith Caggiano and hair/wig design by J. Jared Janas. James Sampliner served as musical director with Jonathan Brielle providing orchestrations and arrangments. Brielle also produced the album.
When this production opened Off-Broadway it was hailed as “smart, lively and tuneful” by The Huffington Post, “one of the hottest shows of the season” by BroadwayWorld, and “a rare breed, a truly romantic musical” from WBAI Radio. The Knockturnal praised “Jonathan Brielle’s upbeat, contemporary musical score which ranges from jig-inducing Irish step music to wistful, crowd-pleasing ballads.” On Stage Blog said “Matt Bogart has an engaging voice that soars through the register with delightful ease and impressive strength.” According to BroadwayBox, “Whitney Bashor’s performance is worth the price of admission.”
Developmental productions of HIMSELF AND NORA were presented by the Old Globe Theatre; Hamilton Stage and the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF). Additional developmental work was done with the James Joyce Center in Dublin, Ireland.
More information is available at www.HimselfandNoraMusical.com.
JONATHAN BRIELLE wrote the music and lyrics for Broadway’s Foxfire with Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, and Keith Carradine. Many of his scores were performed Off-Broadway as Composer in Residence of Circle Repertory Company. His regional credits include Nightmare Alley (book, music. lyrics) at Geffen Playhouse, Gil Cates Director, and NYMF; and Forty Naked Women, A Monkey and Me (book, music, lyrics) at the Eugene O’Neill Conference. Las Vegas credits include Enter The Night (book, music, lyrics), which played for 12 years at the Stardust Hotel; MadHattan (book, music, lyrics) at the New York, New York Hotel. He served as Executive Music Supervisor for the Rugrats, Live! US Tour and Music Producer for the Goosebumps, Live! US Tour. He wrote music and lyrics for TV’s “Wonderama” and serves as Musical Director for the national television show beginning this year. Brielle has served as Executive Vice President of the Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF), creating programs for federally funded schools in New York, Newark, Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta. He was a writer/producer in Residence of the Johnny Mercer Writers’ Colony at Goodspeed Musicals and helps oversee the JMF Songwriting Project at Northwestern University. Jonathan is the former National Projects Director of the Songwriters Guild of America.
“HIMSELF AND NORA” TRACK LIST
- Overture
- Himself and Nora
- Land of Erin
- Kiss
- Compatriots in Lust
- River Liffey
- Stand Fast
- Stand Fast (Reprise)
- Let’s Have a Drink
- Twists and Turns
- What Better Thing To Do
- Pound and Weaver
- I Say, “Yes!”
- The Grand Himself
- Land of Erin (Reprise)
- The Children of Mister Joyce
- Without a Man (Lucky)
- Always in Love
- I Do
- Twists and Turns (Reprise)
- What Better Thing To Do (Reprise)
- Touch Kiss
- Finale/River Liffey
ABOUT SH-K-BOOM & GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS
Sh-K-Boom with its imprint Ghostlight Records has become the leading independent force in Original Broadway Cast Recordings – building a library of over 150 records in the last 16 years, featuring some of the most successful Broadway musicals and solo albums by Broadway’s brightest stars. Founded by Grammy Award winner Kurt Deutsch, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight has won three Grammy Awards (for The Book of Mormon, In the Heights and Beautiful – The Carole King Musical) and is a frequent nominee, most recently for the OBCR of the 2015 “Best Musical” Tony Award nominee Something Rotten! Other notable recent releases include the 2016 “Best Musical” Tony Award nominee Bright Star by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, the 2016 “Best Musical Revival” Tony Award nominee She Loves Me, the 2014 “Best Musical” Tony Award winner A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, the 2014 “Best Score” Tony Award winner The Bridges of Madison County, Disney’s Newsies, Pippin and Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Other highlights of the catalogue include OBCRs of Next to Normal, Hair, Legally Blonde, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Everyday Rapture, Passing Strange, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Drowsy Chaperone and many more Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. The label has also released solo albums from some of Broadway’s biggest names: Patti LuPone, Sherie Rene Scott, Adam Pascal, Sutton Foster, Kelli O’Hara, Alice Ripley, Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico and Ben Vereen. The label continues to support the new generation of musical theatre composers with their extensive relationships with Michael John LaChiusa (First Daughter Suite, Giant, See What I Wanna See, Little Fish) and Michael Friedman (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Fortress of Solitude), as well as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Kitt, Pasek & Paul, Joe Iconis, Ryan Scott Oliver, Shaina Taub, Dave Malloy, Kerrigan & Lowdermilk and Adam Gwon. The label recently created a new joint publishing venture with Razor & Tie to represent songwriters that fuse theatrical and pop music. Sh-K-Boom Entertainment is a producer of the acclaimed film version of The Last Five Years, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. www.sh-k-boom.com