Theater News

Ghostlight Records to Release Digital EP of Music Written by Shaina Taub for Old Hats

Bill Irwin and David Shiner’s vaudeville act recently played off-Broadway at the Signature Center.

Shaina Taub in a scene from Old Hats.
Shaina Taub in a scene from Old Hats.
(© Kevin Thomas Garcia)

Ghostlight Records has announced plans to release a digital EP of world-premiere recordings written by singer/songwriter Shaina Taub for the recent off-Broadway production of Bill Irwin and David Shiner's Old Hats, which ran at Pershing Square Signature Center. The three-track set will be available on April 29.

Songs featured on the EP will be "Lighten Up," "You Never Get Old to Me," and "Might As Well." The songs are produced by Dean Sharenow and arranged by Shaina Taub and Mike Brun, with horn arrangements by Mike Brun.

Created and performed by clowns Irwin and Shiner, with music and lyrics by Taub, Old Hats combined music, technology, movement, magic, and comedy. Taub was featured in the show as its songstress and comic foil to Irwin and Shiner.

"These songs were totally inspired by the clowns," said Taub. "They work with the tension between dark and light, joy and suffering. They find their comedy in the duality of the human experience we all share. So, I chose darker lyrical topics — death, sadness, global warming, wasted time — and juxtaposed them with sunny, catchy, feel-good music. I also wanted to marry an old-school throwback musical sensibility with a very contemporary voice, in the same way the clowns breathe fresh new life into classic forms."