PRELUDES, a new musical by DAVE MALLOY, available today from GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS

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Ghostlight Records has released the PRELUDES Original Cast Recording in digital formats and in stores today, January 8, 2016. Produced by LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater’s initiative devoted to producing the work of new artists and engaging new audiences,PRELUDES is a new musical by Dave Malloy, inspired by the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin. The album is produced by Dean Sharenow. The CD jewel-case package contains a 32-page booklet with full lyrics and production photography. Ghostlight previously released the original cast album of Malloy and Chavkin’s musical Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, which is opening on Broadway later this year starring Josh Groban. PRELUDES is available at http://www.sh-k-boom.com/preludes-original-cast-recording.

Commissioned by LCT3, PRELUDES was hailed as “astonishingly moving” by The Huffington Postand praised for its “rhapsodic music” and “glorious singing” by The Hollywood Reporter. According to Variety, “there’s no denying the energy and the passion of [Malloy’s] inventive interpretation.” The cast features Eisa Davis, Gabriel Ebert, Nikki M. James, Joseph Keckler, Chris Sarandon, and Or Matias, on piano.

PRELUDES is a musical fantasia set in the hypnotized mind of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.  After the disastrous premiere of his first symphony, the young Rachmaninoff (played by Gabriel Ebert) suffers from writer’s block. He begins daily sessions with a therapeutic hypnotist (Eisa Davis), in an effort to overcome depression and return to composing.

The world premiere production had sets by Mimi Lien, costumes by Paloma Young, lights by Bradley King, sound by Matt Hubbs, musical direction by Or Matias, and casting by Caparelliotis Casting/Henry Russell Bergstein.  PRELUDES was performed at Lincoln Center Theater’s Claire Tow Theater from May 23 through August 2. 2015.

The LCT3 program is supported by generous grants from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Ford Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Time Warner Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, The Educational Foundation of America, and the J & AR Foundation. PRELUDES was commissioned by LCT with a generous grant from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. The cast recording is supported in part by a special gift from Stephanie and Fred Shuman.

DAVE MALLOY is the winner of an OBIE Award, a Richard Rodgers Award, and a Jonathan Larson Grant.  He is currently starring in his new musical Ghost Quartet at the The McKittrick Hotel.   His other recent shows include Three Pianos, Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage, All Hands, Beardo, The Sewers, Sandwich, Clown Bible, (The 99-cent) Miss Saigon, and Black Wizard/Blue Wizard at the Incubator Arts Project with co-creator/performer Eliza Bent.

RACHEL CHAVKIN is an OBIE Award-winning director and Artistic Director of the Brooklyn-based ensemble The TEAM.  She is currently represented by Small Mouth Sounds at Ars Nova.   Her past credits include The TEAM’s Mission Drift (co-produced by PS 122, Lisbon’s Culturgest, and London’s Almeida Theatre), with music by Heather Christian; Meg Miroshnik’s The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, Lauren Yee’s The Hatmaker’s Wife, James Monaco’s Reception, James Monaco and Jerome Ellis’ Aaron/Marie, Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy and Dave Malloy’s Three Pianos, and Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge (Act II).

“PRELUDES” TRACK LIST          

  1. Your Day
  2. Lilacs
  3. Vocalise
  4. Ho-Ho
  5. Subway
  6. Prelude in G# Minor, Op. 32, No. 12
  7. Tchaikovsky’s Child’s Song
  8. Natalya
  9. Loop
  10. Not Alone
  11. The Prelude
  12. The First Symphony
  13. Vespers
  14. Hypnosis
  15. Mountains/The Second Piano Concerto

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 15 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 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, adding to a catalogue that includes 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 (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