SH-K-BUZZ from Sh-K-Boom & Ghostlight Records

The live Original Broadway Cast Recording of Passing Strange is now available for download on iTunes! to be taken to the Passing Strange page in Apple’s online store to get the full album or to download your favorite tracks. (But truly, we don’t know how you could choose!)

Or are you already listening to it on a loop like us?! If so, make sure to leave a review on iTunes and let others know how wonderful it is.

We decided to release the album to iTunes first to get the music out to you faster, but CDs are on their way! If you’d prefer to have the album in your hands, the release date has been set for July 15. Stay tuned and we’ll let you know when it’s available to pre-order through Sh-K-Boom.com.

Could it be that MTV has finally caught on to how good Broadway can be? Check out the MTV news article on Passing Strange and In the Heights.

Rock seems to have had an easier transition to the Broadway stage than hip-hop, but that’s changing with “In the Heights,” which led the 2008 Tony Award nominations with 13 nods. “It surprises me that no one has put hip-hop and Latin music into a Broadway musical before me,” “Heights” composer/narrator Lin-Manuel Miranda said. “We really tried to use the music of Washington Heights — salsa, reggaeton, hip-hop — and we use it to tell a story.”

“I think the theater needs rappers and rock bands and techno and everything,” Stew said. “The theater needs every actual music that’s actually happening in the world, you know? Because the audience for the new musical, they’re out there. They listen to music all the time. We live in a music-obsessed society, you know? Stuff like us or ‘Spring Awakening,’ it shouldn’t be an aberration. It shouldn’t be strange. It should be normal.”

Bravo to the Passing Strange ensemble!

“Passing Strange was named Outstanding Musical at the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards, which were presented May 18 in the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center.” - Playbill

Also, congratulations to Stew and Heidi Rodewald for their Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics for Passing Strange!

On May 27, the Passing Strange cast album will be released on iTunes, making it the first Broadway album ever to be released via Apple. The cast CD will hit stores in July.

“She sings with a radiance that is the sound of hope and happiness made manifest, in a voice that could melt the heart of the most unregenerate musical hater.” - CHARLES ISHERWOOD

Read the full article here.

Check out Kelli’s new solo album “Wonder in the World“

World Premiere Music Video Previews Latin/Salsa/Hip-Hop-Infused Original Broadway Cast Recording for “In The Heights”

A World Premiere video for showstopper ‘96,000′ serves as a dynamic preview of the ‘In The Heights’ Original Broadway Cast recording. Nominated for 13 TONY Awards — including Best Musical and Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) — ‘In The Heights’ features Latin, Salsa and Hip-Hop-infused music, conceived and written by emerging superstar Lin-Manuel Miranda. Ghostlight Records will release the OCR on June 3rd, as a 23-track, two-CD package, complete with a 68-page booklet containing cast photos and song lyrics. The exclusive video was shot by Broadway.com.

Here is Broadway.com’s Exclusive video for “96,000″

Footage for the Behind-the-Scenes video was shot at the actual recording sessions for the OCR, on March 23rd and 24th in New York City. The double album was produced by Andres Levin (proclaimed”the master chef of Urban fusion” by The LA Times,) and by Ghostlight President Kurt Deutsch.

Pre-order IN THE HEIGHTS OBCR here!

Robert Viagas interviews Kelli O’Hara and David Yazbek, and has ‘behind the scenes’ coverage of the In the Heights Original Broadway Cast recording sessions!

Kelli’s interview: http://www.playbillradio.com/podcast/podcast.html?item_id=697

Yazbek’s interview: http://www.playbillradio.com/podcast/podcast.html?item_id=664

In the Heights ‘behind the scenes’ coverage of the recording sessions: http://www.playbillradio.com/podcast/podcast.html?item_id=708

“The American Theatre Wing and XM Satellite Radio proudly present an interview with actress Sherie Rene Scott, on their weekly theatrical interview show, “Downstage Center,” on XM’s On Broadway (XM Channel 28).

Scott will appear as the special guest on Friday, May 16 at 6 p.m. The show will repeat on Saturday, May 17 at noon, Sunday, May 18 at 7 p.m., and Wednesday, May 21 at midnight (all times eastern; transmission is simultaneous across the country). The program becomes available as streaming audio and podcast from www.americantheatrewing.org and iTunes beginning Monday afternoon, May 19.”

Read the full story here: http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=27944

Tune in to Sirius over the next few days to hear Tony-winner Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens & 42nd Street) as she spends time with Seth Rudetsky on his weekly show Seth Rudetsky’s Studio A Cabaret and chats about her latest album, Sunday in New York. Go to Sirius.com for more info.

The piece will air:
Fri 5/15 7:00pm ET
Sat 5/17 3:00 pm ET
Sun 5/18 12:00 pm ET
Weds 5/21 5:00 pm ET