Broadway Records announced today the release of the world premiere studio cast recording of IN THE LIGHT, A Faustian Tale, the new musical with a contemporary spin on the epic Faustus story of greed, power and lust. With a score by Michael Mott, the recording features performances by Jeremy Jordan, Solea Pfeiffer, Ciara Renée, Antonio Cipriano, Bobby Conte Thornton, Anne Fraser Thomas, Aisha Jackson and Zachary James. The album is now available for preorder on BroadwayRecords.com (physical CDs) and iTunes, as well as other major music retailers ahead of a June 25th release. Four instant gratification tracks are now available with iTunes preorders.
IN THE LIGHT, A Faustian Tale features music and lyrics by by Michael Mott (Where The Sky Ends), book by Nathan Wright (Architecting) and Justin Silvestri, orchestrations by Kim Scharnberg (Jekyll & Hyde), and arrangements by Mott and Joshua Zecher-Ross (Be More Chill).
IN THE LIGHT, A Faustian Tale stars Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, Bonnie and Clyde) as “Johann Faustus”, Solea Pfeiffer (Hamilton) as “Gretchen Wagner”, Ciara Renée (Frozen) as “Ana Faustus”, Antonio Cipriano (Jagged Little Pill) as “Valentine Engel”, Bobby Conte Thornton (Company, A Bronx Tale) as “The Traveler”, Anne Fraser Thomas (Hercules) as “Hilda”, Aisha Jackson (Frozen) as “Agnes”, Zachary James (The Addams Family) as “Archbishop Peter”. The recording’s ensemble features Lynn Craig (Lazarus), Derrick Davis (Carousel), Cooper Grodin (Phantom of the Opera tour), Jason Pintar (Titanic tour), Lindsay Rider (“American Idol”) and Karla Shook (Tin Pan Alley).
IN THE LIGHT, A Faustian Tale follows Dr. Johann Faustus, an astronomer, who is accused of blasphemy by the Holy Inquisition. Guided by a mysterious being called the Traveler, he flees to the small town of Hertz. There he meets a young scholarly woman named Gretchen, who shares his goals. Gretchen believes Doctor Faustus can use the town to begin a rebellion against the Inquisition. Together, they create a plan to resist its coming and to overthrow the power of the Church. As their plot proceeds, secrets Gretchen has hidden are discovered and Johann’s ambition is undermined by his own tormented mind. The Traveler urges the two forward and their dysfunctions entangle, leading to disaster for all.
“What started as a seed of an idea with an old friend in high school has organically developed into something much bigger that its creators could have ever thought possible,” said IN THE LIGHT composer Michael Mott. “Through years of development via table readings, presentations and workshops, our little musical originally inspired by Goethe’s Faust and Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, has matured into this gigantic original story about greed, power and lust. It has always been my goal as a composer and lyricist to create the next generation of classic, epic American musical theatre and I believe audiences are hungry for a large, lush, fresh score with timeless yet contemporary sensibilities to be introduced into the musical theatre canon. I could not be more proud of our diverse, insanely talented cast, monstrous orchestra and top class production team that dedicated all of themselves to making sure this recording was the absolute best it could be. After many, many years of development, I am eternally grateful that audiences can now get a taste of IN THE LIGHT, A Faustian Tale through this Highlights Recording.”
“When I was first brought to this project 6 years ago, I struggled to connect with the title character, Johann Faustus,” said book writer Nathan Wright. “As a playwright, I like to think I write from my heart and gut, but I couldn’t find an authentic way into understanding who Johann was. Michael and other collaborators occasionally pointed out similarities between myself and Johann as we were writing, but I didn’t see it. It wasn’t until we began to talk about Johann’s choices as responses to his trauma that I realized what I had been subconsciously creating with my collaborators. I had connected the Inquisition’s vilification of Johann’s life’s work to my own traumatic relationship with religious authority as a Queer man raised Mormon. At first, I was embarrassed by how I hadn’t seen it and others had, but as the work has progressed, I now see that this journey of collaborative effort has been very much a journey of personal healing. I’m so grateful for those who welcomed me to this team 6 years ago, and, as Michael says, the musical has now become its own entity. The work of so many has come together to build a new living piece of art. For me, IN THE LIGHT, A Faustian Tale is ultimately about the healing each of us must do to move through our trauma; it is a job none of us can do alone.”
IN THE LIGHT, A Faustian Tale Track Listing:
1. Prologue – Jeremy Jordan, Zachary James, Solea Pfeiffer, Lindsay Rider, Ciara Renée & Ensemble
2. Let Go of Me – Jeremy Jordan & Ensemble
3. Behind Closed Doors – Aisha Jackson, Anne Fraser Thomas, Solea Pfeiffer, Antonio Cipriano, Ciara Renée & Ensemble
4. More – Bobby Conte Thornton, Jeremy Jordan
5. She’s Not Me – Solea Pfeiffer
6. Tomorrow Begins Today – Antonio Cipriano, Ciara Renée, Jeremy Jordan, Solea Pfeiffer
7. The Man I Know – Ciara Renée
8. Dare To Dream – Solea Pfeiffer, Antonio Cipriano
9. Rise or Fall – Jeremy Jordan, Antonio Cipriano, Lindsay Rider, Bobby Conte Thornton, Solea Pfeiffer, Ciara Renée & Ensemble
10. He Is No Man – Jeremy Jordan & Bobby Conte Thornton
11. Sign, Shake, Spit! – Aisha Jackson, Anne Fraser Thomas, Solea Pfeiffer & Ensemble
12. Catch The Moon – Solea Pfeiffer
13. In The Light – Lindsay Rider, Bobby Conte Thornton, Jeremy Jordan & Ensemble
14. The Man I Know (Reprise) – Ciara Renée, Jeremy Jordan, Zachary James & Solea Pfeiffer
15. Her Embrace – Jeremy Jordan & Ensemble
IN THE LIGHT is produced by Michael Mott, Kim Scharnberg and Joshua Zecher-Ross, and executive produced by Andrea K.W. Brown and Michael Staringer. It is co-produced by Michael Croiter and associate produced by Nathan Wright. The album was edited by Croiter, mixed by Matthias Winter, and mastered by Michael Fossenkemper.
For more information about IN THE LIGHT, A Faustian Tale, visit InTheLightMusical.com or follow on social:
Instagram: @inthelightmusical / Twitter: @inthelightbway / Facebook: Facebook.com/InTheLightBway
Michael Mott (Music & Lyrics) is an internationally acclaimed award winning musical theatre composer/ lyricist, pop songwriter and vocal producer working in NYC. His original musicals include In The Light, A Faustian Tale (book by Nathan Wright and Justin Silvestri) and Mob Wife, A Mafia Comedy (book by Corey Skaggs). Best known for his studio work, Mott has written, produced and recorded full length studio albums of his original theatre, pop and jazz material sung by some of the best vocalists from Broadway, television and film. His discography includes The Only One, Where The Sky Ends, Abandoned Heart, several dance remix EPs, including Gone (feat. Ben Fankhauser), which has hit over 4 million streams on Spotify, Christmas, Will You Stay? (feat. TONY Award Nominee Laura Osnes) and several other stand alone singles. He holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Ithaca College and is an Advanced Member of the BMI Musical Theatre Writers Workshop. MichaelMott.net | @Michael_Mott
Nathan Wright (Book) is a New York based theatre artist. In addition to writing the book for In The Light, A Faustian Tale, Nathan created Manifesto: the Diaghilev Project, a collage theatre piece with director Nadia Foskolou. He directed Charles Gershman’s The Waiting Game which premiered at 59e59 Theatres and subsequently at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, winning Best Over Seas Production. Nathan was a collaborator on the TEAM’s Architecting (directed by Rachel Chavkin, Winner 2008 Edinburgh Fringe First Award, PS 122 and the Public Theatre Under the Radar). His own plays include Peninsula (Winner of the 2013 Fringe Award at NYC Fringe), Naked Fish (Winner 2007 National Playwriting Award,), Lake Full of Iron; Sky Full of Hope (Card Table Theatre, Lawrence, Kansas) Distance (Plan-B Theatre, Salt Lake City), and Homo Rapture (Kenyon College). Additionally, he has translated Russian playwright Katia Rubina’s Family Happiness (O’Neil Playwright’s Center). MFA Columbia University. NathanWrite.com | @nathanwrite
Broadway Records is the leading, Grammy® winning record label dedicated to releasing the most popular and current Broadway cast recordings, as well as preserving legacy musical theatre and theatre vocalists repertoire. Under the leadership of Broadway Records’ president and founder Van Dean, recent releases include: If The Fates Allow: The Hadestown Holiday Album, Lea Salonga Live In Concert with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Breathe with an all-star cast including Tony Award-winners Kelli O’Hara and Brian Stokes Mitchell, the Broadway star-filled concept albums of Little Black Book, In Pieces and Stone Crossed, Legacy: Two Song Cycles by Ahrens and Flaherty, Georgia On My Mind with an all-star Broadway cast, Tony Award-winning revival of The Color Purple, the Tony Award® winning and Grammy® nominated revival of Once On This Island, the Grammy® nominated Matilda The Musical, Fiddler on the Roof (2015 revival) and My Fair Lady (2018 revival), Anastasia, Bandstand, Groundhog Day, The Lightning Thief and NBC’s television events, “The Wiz Live!” and “Peter Pan Live!”. The label’s critically-acclaimed “Live at Feinstein’s/54 Below” series features top Broadway stars including Patti LuPone, Aaron Tveit, Annaleigh Ashford, Norbert Leo Butz, Sierra Boggess, Laura Benanti, Emily Skinner & Alice Ripley, Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp, Micky Dolenz and many others. Broadway Records has partnered with the Black Theatre Coalition to create Black Writers Amplified (to be released in late 2021), an album consisting entirely of new works by Black musical theatre writers. This project to immediately take steps toward significantly increased representation of Black writers in musical theatre and support new voices and emerging Black talent. Broadway Records philanthropic endeavors also include the “Broadway For Orlando: What The World Needs Now is Love”, “We Are The World” by Broadway United and “Broadway Kids Against Bullying: I Have a Voice” music videos and From Broadway With Love benefit concerts for Sandy Hook, Orlando (Emmy Award for Sound) and Parkland. www.BroadwayRecords.com
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