(October 6, 2011 – New York, NY) – The Original Broadway Cast Recording of the new musical “Elf,” the Broadway musical for every ‘Buddy,’ will be released digitally and in stores on November 1, 2011 by Ghostlight Records, in plenty of time for holiday shopping. “Elf” features an all-new score that Variety calls “crowd-rousing” by Tony nominees Matthew Sklar (Music) and Chad Beguelin (Lyrics), and a book by Tony winners Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin. To hear song previews and pre-order the CD, visit
http://sh-k-boom.com/elfthemusical.shtml.
“‘Elf’ is a delectable, glistening gift to anyone who enjoys musical theatre,” said Sheldon Harnick, legendary Broadway lyricist. “For those of you who have yet to see ‘Elf,’ I’m certain that it won’t be long before you have the opportunity. This is a show that is sure to turn up in a good many places every Christmas. But you needn’t wait until Christmas to enjoy the CD; as you’ll hear, ‘Elf’ is a score for all seasons.”
The track list for “Elf” is as follows:
1) Overture
2) Christmastown
3) World's Greatest Dad
4) In The Way
5) Sparklejollytwinklejingley
6) I'll Believe In You
7) In The Way – Reprise
8) Just Like Him
9) A Christmas Song
10) World's Greatest Dad – Reprise
11) Nobody Cares About Santa
12) Never Fall In Love (With An Elf)
13) There Is A Santa Claus
14) The Story Of Buddy The Elf
15) Nobody Cares About Santa – Reprise
16) A Christmas Song – Reprise
17) Finale
The cast album was produced by David Lai and Matthew Sklar, and recorded and mixed by Isaiah Abolin. The CD booklet contains “Elf’s” full album lyrics and special liner notes by Sheldon Harnick.
“Elf” opened on Sunday, November 14th, 2010, at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Previews began Tuesday, November 2nd. The New York Times calls “Elf” “A splashy, peppy, sugar-sprinkled holiday entertainment.” USA Today thinks “Elf” is “Endearingly goofy,” and Entertainment Weekly said about “Elf” that “even the biggest Cotton-Headed-Ninny-Muggins will leave the theatre with a warm festive glow!” Variety declares “‘Elf’ is happy enough for families, savvy enough for city kids and plenty smart for adults!” “Elf” was produced on Broadway by Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures in association with Unique Features.
“Elf” is the hilarious tale of Buddy, a young orphan child who mistakenly crawls into Santa’s bag of gifts and is transported back to the North Pole. Buddy is raised unaware that he is actually a human, until his enormous size and poor toy-making abilities cause him to face the truth. With Santa’s permission, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father and discover his true identity. Faced with the harsh reality that his father is on the naughty list and his step-brother doesn’t even believe in Santa, Buddy is determined to win over his new family and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas. This modern day Christmas classic is sure to make everyone embrace their inner “Elf.”
“Elf’s” original cast and recording features Sebastian Arcelus as ‘Buddy,’ Amy Spanger as ‘Jovie,’ Tony Award nominee Mark Jacoby as ‘Walter,’ Michael Mandell as ‘Store Manager,’ Michael McCormick as ‘Mr. Greenway,’ Valerie Wright as ‘Deb’ and Matthew Gumley as ‘Michael.’ The production also stars Tony Award winner Beth Leavel as ‘Emily,’ and six-time Emmy Award nominee George Wendt as ‘Santa.’
The original cast recording also includes Timothy J. Alex, Callie Carter, Cara Cooper, Lisa Gajda, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Blake Hammond, Stacey Todd Holt, Emily Hsu, Jenny Hill, Nancy Johnston, Marc Kessler, Matt Loehr, Matthew Schechter, Michael James Scott, Noah Weisberg, Lee Wilkins, and Kirsten Wyatt.
Based on the beloved 2003 New Line Cinema hit, “Elf” features a new score by Tony Award nominees Matthew Sklar (Music) and Chad Beguelin (Lyrics) with a book by Tony Award winners Thomas Meehan (“The Producers,” “Hairspray”) and Bob Martin (“The Drowsy Chaperone”). “Elf” is directed and choreographed by Tony nominee Casey Nicholaw (“The Drowsy Chaperone,” “Monty Python’s Spamalot”).
www.ElfMusical.com
About Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures:
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures (Mark Kaufman and Raymond Wu, Executive Vice Presidents) is the live stage play division of Warner Bros. Entertainment and responsible for developing and producing world-class musicals and other stage productions for the Studio. The division currently has multiple licensed properties in production worldwide and more than a dozen other projects in various stages of development, including co-productions with award-winning Broadway and film producers. WBTV’s parent company, Warner Bros. Entertainment, a Time Warner Company, is a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company and a global leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of creative content and their related businesses, across all current and emerging media and platforms. The company stands at the forefront of every aspect of the entertainment industry from feature film, TV and home entertainment production and worldwide distribution to DVD, digital distribution, animation, comic books, licensing and broadcasting.
About Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records:
Sh-K-Boom with its imprint Ghostlight Records has become the leading independent force in Original Broadway Cast Recordings – building a library of over 100 records the last 10 years, featuring the most successful Broadway musicals and solo albums by Broadway’s biggest stars. Founded by Kurt Deutsch and wife Sherie Rene Scott, the label was created by and for the Broadway community and has garnered acclaim not only for their high-quality recordings, but for their innovative marketing techniques and efforts to reach the next generation of Broadway music fans via iTunes, social networking, music videos and more. Ghostlight recently celebrated a major milestone with their release of “The Book of Mormon,” which became the first Broadway cast recording to break into Billboard’s Top 10 (topping out at #3) since the original 1969 release of “Hair,” as well as taking its place as the biggest-selling digital release of a cast recording of all time. Also just released on the label are the OCRs of “Catch Me If You Can,” “Sister Act” and “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” as well as solo albums from some of Broadway’s biggest stars: Sutton Foster, Kelli O’Hara, Alice Ripley, Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico and Ben Vereen. In recent Broadway seasons, Ghostlight has preserved the scores of some of Broadway's most well-known musicals, including the Grammy Award-winning “In the Heights,” plus “Next to Normal,” “Hair,” “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” “Legally Blonde,” “Everyday Rapture,” “Passing Strange,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and “The Drowsy Chaperone.” Coverage of their albums has ranged from Rolling Stone to USA TODAY to The New York Times, from Blender Magazine to Playbill to Billboard, and many more. The company is recognized for reinventing the musical theatre recording landscape, and creating a new type of ‘United Artists’ environment for Broadway producers and artists to participate in the funding and co-ownership of their albums.
###