After a busy 2024-25 season on Broadway, the release of the original cast albums and songs from four of the acclaimed musicals will extend their listening pleasure beyond this summer’s closing dates.
Dead Outlaw – Since its founding in 2018, Audible Theater productions have garnered more than 60 Off-Broadway awards nominations and fourteen wins, and its Amazon subsidiary Audible, Inc. is the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, with a catalogue of more than 120 audio theater titles. Among them is the multi-award-winning musical Dead Outlaw, conceived by David Yazbek and directed by David Cromer, with music and lyrics by Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, and a book by Itamar Moses, which tells the bizarre true story of Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw whose corpse became a celebrity. Following its hit Off-Broadway world premiere at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre and multiple award wins, including the 2024 Drama Desk, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical, the production transferred to Broadway’s Longacre Theatre, where it was nominated for seven Tony Awards.
In conjunction with Yellow Sound Label, Lia Vollack Productions, and Sonia Friedman Productions, Audible released the single “Killed a Man in Maine” on June 5. In addition, Dead Outlaw Original Broadway Cast Recording: Part 1, recorded, mixed, and mastered by music supervisor, orchestrator, and arranger Dean Sharenowa – featuring seven songs from the show, performed by the original cast of Andrew Durand, Jeb Brown, Eddie Cooper, Dashiell Eaves, Julia Knitel, Ken Marks, Trent Saunders, and Thom Sesma, accompanied by the band of Rebekah Bruce (music director, piano, organ, and vocals), Erik Della Penna (electric and acoustic guitars, lap steel guitar, mandolin, and vocals), Hank Heaven (electric and acoustic guitars), William B Smylie (electric bass), and Spencer Cohen (drums) – is now also available across all music platforms for streaming or download here, and the entire musical, recorded in Dolby Atmos with immersive sound design, will be available exclusively from Audible this fall, with a pre-order available here.
Gypsy – Inspired by the 1957 memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, the iconic musical, with a book by Tony winner Arthur Laurents, music by Tony and Oscar winner Jule Styne, and lyrics by Tony, Grammy, Oscar, and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Sondheim, made its Broadway debut in 1959, and is now playing its latest revival at the Majestic Theatre through August 17. Starring six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald as the consummate stage mother Rose, the current production, directed by George C. Wolfe, features the large supporting cast of Danny Burstein, Joy Woods, Jordan Tyson, Kevin Csolak, Lesli Margherita, Lili Thomas, Mylinda Hull, Summer Rae Daney and Kyleigh Vickers, Marley Lianne Gomes and Jade Smith, Andrew Kober, James McMenamin, Jacob Ming-Trent, Thomas Silcott, Natalie Wachen, and Tryphena Wade, and the ensemble of Shanel Bailey, Jace Bently, Brandon Burks, Hunter Capellán, Tony d’Alelio, Kellie Jean Hoagland, Sasha Hutchings, Aliah James, Dori Waymer, Zachary Daniel Jones, Ethan Joseph, Krystal Mackie, Cole Newburg, Joe Osheroff, Majo Rivero, Ken Robinson, Sally Shaw, Brendan Sheehan, Jayden Theophile, Jordan Wynn, and Iain Young.
Warner Music Group’s Arts Music and Octoverse Media have just released Gypsy: 2024 Broadway Cast Recording in CD and vinyl editions today, July 25. The CD features an eight-page booklet including production notes and exclusive photography, and the two-LP vinyl/book edition features a hand-numbered, limited-edition 64-page hardback book, which contains thirteen exclusive essays, exclusive production photography, and the complete lyrics of all the songs. To order the CD or vinyl editions (the first 500 copies of which also include a 6 x 11” personally signed color photograph of Audra McDonald in the recording booth), or to hear the album, which is also available in streaming and digital formats, click here.
Floyd Collins – Based on the true story of a cave explorer in 1925 Kentucky, the real-life titular character created a media circus when he became trapped 200 feet underground in the cave he planned to turn into a tourist attraction, reporters and gawkers from across the country assembled, and rescue efforts ultimately failed, bringing an end to both his American dream and his life. Following its world premiere at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia in 1994, and its Off-Broadway debut at Playwrights Horizons in 1996, which won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and garnered an enduring fanbase when the original cast recording was released that year, the 2025 Broadway debut, starring Jeremy Jordan as Floyd Collins, with a supporting cast of Jason Gotay, Sean Allan Krill, Marc Kudisch, Lizzy McAlpine, Wade McCollum, Jessica Molaskey, Taylor Trensch, Cole Vaughan, Clyde Voce, Kevin Bernard, Dwayne Cooper, Jeremy Davis, Charlie Franklin, Kristen Hahn, Happy McPartlin, Kevyn Morrow, Zak Resnick, Justin Showell, and Colin Trudell, closed at Lincoln Center Theater’s Vivian Beaumont Theater on June 22, after being nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Orchestrations, Best Actor in a Musical for Jordan, and Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Trensch.
Featuring a folk- and bluegrass-inspired score by Adam Guettel, additional lyrics by book writer and director Tina Landau, orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin, and music direction by Ted Sperling, the upcoming release of Floyd Collins – Original Broadway Cast Recording has been announced by Center Stage Records – the new label from Broadway Records founder and Grammy and Tony winner Van Dean, dedicated to the preservation of Broadway, London, Off-Broadway, new musicals in development, and theater-related solo albums – with streaming and digital versions available on August 8, and the CD edition on September 5. To pre-order the CD, go online.
Pirates! The Penzance Musical – Center Stage Records has also announced the release of the original Broadway cast album of the new musical reimagining of Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic comic opera of 1879, The Pirates of Penzance, playing a limited engagement on Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Todd Haimes Theatre through July 27. In the jazz- and blues-infused adaptation – conceived by Scott Ellis, Rupert Holmes, Warren Carlyle, and Joseph Joubert, with a cast led by Ramin Karimloo, Jinkx Monsoon, and David Hyde Pierce, supported by Nicholas Barasch, Preston Truman Boyd, and Samantha Williams, and the company of Kelly Belarmino, Maria Briggs, Cicily Daniels, Ninako Donville, Alex Dorf, Rick Faugno, Niani Feelings, Tommy Gedrich, Alex Gibson, Afra Hines, Dan Hoy, Ryo Kamibayashi, Tatiana Lofton, Nathan Lucrezio, Shina Ann Morris, Tyrone L. Robinson, Cooper Stanton, and Bronwyn Tarboton – the famed pirate ship docks in 19th-century New Orleans, sizzling with Caribbean rhythms and French Quarter flair, and follows the adventures of the tongue-twisting Major-General, rabble-rousing Pirate King, and the other legendary characters.
The album is due in streaming and digital formats this summer and the CD is currently available for pre-order on the Center Stage website. Whether you’re a longtime afficionado of the Gilbert and Sullivan original, or a fan of this year’s Broadway version, you’re sure to be delighted by the stellar performances of the hilarious and haunting songs.