In exactly one month and one day, Lortel nominated composer/lyricist team Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen (The Burnt Part Boys) raised the necessary funds to record the studio cast album of their 2008 Drama Desk Award nominated show Fugitive Songs.
Miller and Tysen have partnered with Yellow Sound Label, who will be releasing the cast album of The Burnt Part Boys this fall, to produce and distribute the album. The studio cast will include Karen Olivo (Tony Award-winner for West Side Story), Joshua Henry (Tony Award nominee for The Scottsboro Boys), Will Chase (Billy Elliot, High Fidelity), Matt Caplan (Spider-Man, Rent), and Alysha Umpress (American Idiot). The recording is scheduled for September in NYC with a December 2011 release.
Fugitive Songs was originally produced Off-Broadway in 2008 by the Dreamlight Theatre Company. The folk-infused contemporary musical theatre score includes many of Miller and Tysen's best-known songs. The album will serve as the definitive recording for fans and for the various regional productions that have popped up across the country since the New York premiere.
Miller and Tysen launched their Kickstarter campaign on June 19, and reached their goal of $12,000 on July 20. The fundraiser ends on August 4, and if $15,000 is raised, Miller and Tysen have promised to make an additional 5-song demo of their new musical, Tuck Everlasting, for anyone who donates $25.
Kickstarter is an innovative online method of funding creative projects. Through rewards and incentives, fans are encouraged to donate what they can to a project, to help meet a goal in specific amount of time.
To Donate:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/65131674/fugitive-songs-studio-cast-album
Chris Miller (music) and Nathan Tysen (lyrics) have written The Burnt Part Boys (book by Mariana Elder, finalist for the American Theatre Critics New Play Award, co-produced Off-Broadway by the Vineyard Theatre and Playwrights Horizons), and The Mysteries of harris Burdick (book by Joe Calarco, world premiere at Barrington Stage Company, Boston Globe Top Ten Pick of 2008). Their song cycle, Fugitive Songs received a 2008 Drama Desk Award Nomination for Outstanding Revue. Television work includes penning songs for PBS' Sesame Street and The New Electric Company. Chris and Nathan apply for many awards and grants, and sometimes even win (Jonathan Larson, Richard Rodgers, Daryl Roth, and Kitty Carlisle Hart). Miller and Tysen began their collaboration together at NYU where they received their MFA's in musical theatre writing. Current projects include an adaptation of the popular novel Tuck Everlasting (book by Claudia Shear, direction by Casey Nicholaw), and two new commissions from Lincoln Center Theater and Playwrights Horizons/Theatreworks Silicon Valley.
For more info go to: www.millerandtysen.com
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos
