Encores! Cast Album of The New Moon Is Recorded

More than a year after the fact, most of the cast and orchestra personnel of the critically acclaimed 2003 City Center Encores! production of the 1928 Sigmund Romberg-Oscar Hammerstein II-Frank Mandel-Laurence Schwab operetta The New Moon gathered at Right Track studios on West 38th Street on Monday and Tuesday, July 12 and 13, to record the show’s cast album.

According to New Moon musical director-conductor Rob Fisher, the show’s principals went out of their way to make themselves available for the recording. “Lauren Ward lives in London now so she’s coming a couple of weeks from now to overdub her part, but all of the other principals have gotten themselves here,” Fisher told TheaterMania during a break in the sessions. “Rodney Gilfry just closed in Doktor Faust at the San Francisco Opera, so he just flew in. Brandon Jovanovich has been up at rehearsals for an opera at Glimmerglass but he came down last night. Burke Moses is in the middle of The Frogs and Peter Benson is in the middle of Wonderful Town.” Also featured in the recording is Christiane Noll as Marianne Beaunoir. The CD will be released on the Ghostlight label, a new imprint of Kurt Deutsch’s Sh-K-Boom company.

There had been some talk of a New Moon cast album being made immediately after the production’s limited run at City Center in March 2003. Why the delay? “It’s taken this long to raise the money,” said Fisher succinctly, “and we’re still doing the recording on a shoestring. Kurt Deutsch and his people are collaborating with us in a complex and wonderful way. They’ll package and distribute the recording, using the grant money that Ted Chapin and Jack Viertel have raised. Nobody’s being paid much to do this but the enthusiasm of the cast is phenomenal. They loved doing the show, they love the music, and they love singing together. We have a 36-piece orchestra — four extra string players than at City Center. We have 24 people in the singing ensemble plus four extra men for ‘Stout-Hearted Men.'”

According to Noah Cornman, vice president of Sh-K-Boom, “We’ll be releasing The New Moon, along with the cast album of the Irish Rep production of Finian’s Rainbow and a studio album by Christine Ebersole with Billy Stritch, on the new Ghostlight label. Most likely, we’ll release all three CDs on the same date, some time in October.” For more information, visit www.sh-k-boom.com.