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

“A surge of oxygen pours through the original cast albums of “In the Heights” and “Passing Strange,” two musicals that have shown Broadway how to revitalize a somnolent form this season…”

So begins the glowing new New York Times article that focuses on our two recent cast album releases, In the Heights and Passing Strange. (I have to admit that I squealed a little when I saw our gorgeous recording session photos in print!)

Read it here!

- Katie (The Sh-K-Marketing Guru)

In the Heights creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda will appear with co-star Karen Olivo as the special live in-studio guests on MTV’s Mi TRL on MTV TR3s, tomorrow June 17, at 3pm. Tune in!

Congrats go to all the nominees and winners at last night’s Tony Awards, but we want to send big sh-k-shout-outs to the winners who we’ve been lucky enough to work with to create their original cast recordings and solo albums:

IN THE HEIGHTS
Best Musical
Best Score
Best Orchestrations
Best Choreography

PASSING STRANGE
Best Book

PATTI LUPONE
Best Actress in a Musical (Gypsy)

Now it’s on to a new season…stay tuned for what’s next!

Check out Broadway.com’s video with Lin-Manuel Miranda to see where all the magic (and snack eating) happens at In the Heights!

It has been a big week at Ghostlight!

We are proud to announce that the Original Cast Recording for ‘IN THE HEIGHTS‘ will debut at #1 on BILLBOARD’S Cast Album Chart. The double-CD also made it onto Billboard’s TOP 200 ALBUM Chart, entering at #82.

In other chart news, Ghostlight’s OCR for Legally Blonde jumped to #5 on Billboard’s Cast Album chart, more than doubling its sales from the previous week – the result of MTV’s new program Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search For Elle Woods. And Ghostlight’s Passing Strange OCR charts at #14, even with its digital-only availability. Brick and Mortar release for Passing Strange is July 15th.

Check out these great shots of the In the Heights cast at the Virgin Records performance and signing last week, courtesy of Broadway.com’s amazing photog Bruce Glikas:

Check out more photos on Broadway.com and Playbill.com, and get your copy of the cast album on GhostlightRecords.com.

Download special radio-friendly singles of four of our songs from In the Heights, exclusively on iTunes now for $.99 each! Just go to the In The Heights page on iTunes and scroll to the bottom of the track list to find these specially-edited tracks. (Not a digital downloader? Not to worry. The singles will be available for purchase not too far down the road on Sh-K-Boom.com.)

Pre-Order Here.

Plus! COMBO SALE! Buy In the Heights & Passing Strange Together for Just $27.99

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.”

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!