On Friday, February 11, Ghostlight Records – the leading independent force in original Broadway cast recordings, with a library of more than 200 records over the past 20 years, and a mission of continuing to support the new generation of musical theater composers – will release two new albums of groundbreaking shows in digital and streaming formats.
Love in Hate Nation – Set in the 1960s, during a momentous era of change in America, the love story of two young women who meet and form a relationship at the National Reformatory for Girls (aka Nation) culminates in a “revolution in the institution” as they rise up against the boxes society has created for them. With book, music, and lyrics by Joe Iconis, music direction and vocal arrangements by Annastasia Victory, music supervision and orchestrations by Charlie Rosen, and direction by John Simpkins (who worked with Iconis on six previous projects, including Bloodsong of Love, The Black Suits, and The Joe Iconis Christmas Extravaganza, and serves as Head of Musical Theatre at Penn State School of Theatre, where the show was commissioned and developed), the rebellious and romantic musical features Girl Group Wall of Sound harmonies filtered through a punk rock spirit.
Ghostlight’s new recording is based on the show’s 2019 world-premiere production at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ (the same theater that commissioned, developed, and premiered the original 2015 production of the worldwide sensation Be More Chill, by the Tony-nominated Iconis and Joe Tracz, which went on to a sold-out limited engagement Off-Broadway and became the theater’s first production to have a Broadway run). Two River’s cast of Love in Hate Nation featured Sydney Farley, Amina Faye, Jasmine Forsberg, Lauren Marcus, Kelly McIntyre, Lena Skeele, Emerson Mae Smith, Ryan Vona, and Tatiana Wechsler. In addition to the songs they perform from the show, the 20-track album also includes two bonus “B-Sides” – “Jezebel” and a special new version of the album cut “Masochist” by The Smith Twins.
“In terms of passion projects, they don’t get more passionate than Love in Hate Nation,” said Iconis. “I’m beyond proud of this badly-behaved original musical and I couldn’t be more ecstatic or grateful that Ghostlight and Two River Theater have given us the opportunity to record it. I think our chorus line of eight ass-kickin’, diverse, powerhouse women is representative not only of the world we currently live in, but the world we should aspire to live in, and I can’t wait for them to be singing their bloody hearts out over speakers far and wide. Here’s to human beings and musicals and cast albums that don’t fit the mold and here’s to the institutions that support them.”
Ghostlight will also release, on February 11, the original cast album of the new rock musical Space Dogs, now playing a limited engagement through March 6, at MCC Theater – one of NYC’s leading non-profit Off-Broadway companies, with a mission to confront contemporary personal and social issues through the production of world, American, and New York premiere plays and musicals. The show, directed by Ellie Heyman and choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultrie, features music and lyrics by actor, musician, and composer Van Hughes and Brooklyn-based writer and performer Nick Blaemire, who also sing and play all the roles in the production.
Described as a sweeping, kaleidoscopic tale of invention, betrayal, international political intrigue, and the immortal friendship that exists between man and dog, the musical epic tells the mind-blowing and heartbreaking true story of Laika, a stray dog who was subjected to inhumane treatment and death in the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2, and the Chief Designer, the top-secret Russian scientist who sent her into orbit during the Cold War, with no hope for her survival or intention of recovery. The cast recording features a track list of fifteen songs that recount their journey.
For more information on purchasing, downloading, and streaming the new releases, visit the Ghostlight Records website.
