Music News

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Starring Santino Fontana, to Receive Cast Recording

New York City Center’s Encores! Off-Center presented the Howard Ashman/Alan Menken musical last summer.

Nick Choksi, Marla Louissaint, Santino Fontana, Clark Johnson, James Earl Jones, and Jeff Blumenkrantz in Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
Nick Choksi, Marla Louissaint, Santino Fontana, Clark Johnson, James Earl Jones, and Jeff Blumenkrantz in Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
(© Joan Marcus)

Ghostlight Records has announced plans to record the first-ever cast album of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's musical Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, based on the recent production by the New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center musical theater series.

The first musical written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Little Shop of Horrors), this 1979 show tells the story of Eliot Rosewater (Santino Fontana), a millionaire who drunkenly decides to blow his fortune on the inhabitants of an impoverished town after being inspired by the utopian vision of novelist Kilgore Trout (James Earl Jones). But there are forces who want to put the kibosh on Eliot's philanthropy, like Norman Mushari (Skylar Astin), a lawyer plotting to have Eliot declared insane.

With direction by Michael Mayer and music direction by Chris Fenwick, the cast also included Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award winner James Earl Jones (The Gin Game) as well as Derrick Baskin (Memphis), Jeff Blumenkrantz (Bright Star), Nick Choksi (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), Eddie Cooper (Encores! Little Shop of Horrors), Kevin Del Aguila (Rocky), Clark Johnson, Rebecca Naomi Jones (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Eddie Korbich (A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder), Marla Louissaint, Liz McCartney (Annie), Bonnie Milligan (Kinky Boots), Brynn O'Malley (Honeymoon in Vegas), and Kate Wetherhead (Legally Blonde).