BWW Exclusive: Broadway's Hugh Panaro Gets an Unexpected Surprise for the New Year (A True Story)

Happy New Year from everyone at BroadwayWorld. Well, here’s a story you won’t find anywhere else after we spoke with Broadway favorite, Hugh Panaro, over the holiday weekend when we heard about the unexpected surprise event that occurred, as we were all ringing in the new year.

In October of 2022, Hugh made his long overdue and eagerly awaited solo debut at 54 Below, often referred to as Broadway’s Living Room and, in this instance, absolutely true. Panaro, along with his Director, Richard Jay-Alexander, and Musical Director, Joseph Thalken, presented a dazzling evening of an extraordinary career of music, selling out two nights and breaking house attendance records. Interestingly, the show was also nominated for two BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards, winners of which will be forthcoming soon.

The show was recorded live on both nights and it was decided that they would release an album and this is where the fun begins, as there were obstacles that at times seemed insurmountable and the release of a recording seemed like a non-starter. First, the contents of the two recorded performances got corrupted in the hard drive and could not be loaded up to another drive. The hard drive had to be sent to a couple places for analysis and this took months. Everyone involved was, pretty much, praying, as were other artists, whose digital recordings were on this same hard drive. The hero here turned out to be Amanda Raymond, who is a Production Manager and Audio Engineer and is a favorite of all artists who play the room. The other hero of the story is Lead Producer of the album, Michael J. Moritz, Jr. another popular guy who mixed the album and, pretty much, saved the day.

The album is produced by Moritz, Richard Jay-Alexander and Hugh Panaro, with Joseph Thalken serving as Associate Producer and Nellie Beavers leading as Executive Producer, having experience with independent releases. Also, on board, was Robbie Rozelle on Package Design, with years of experience and artists in his rich history of releases.

Every time things were moving along, one kind of snag, or another, would put a new delay onto the timeline, making getting a release date and a return booking at 54 Below next to impossible. The team even went through an album title name change at one point, due to other unforeseen circumstances. Hugh told us, “Poor Jennifer Ashley Tepper. She has been so nice to us and stays on us about booking dates and I think we have driven her crazy because we just didn’t know what the next day would bring.”

Well, all the ducks were finally in a row and the artwork was completed, with a cover shot by Stephen Sorokoff and performance shots by Sorokoff and Stephen Mosher, along with Liner Notes by Frank DiLella. They were finally ready to file the assets and request their release date of February 13th. Because things had been delivered and stored, prior to completion, as Nellie Beavers was looking through all the materials, she went on to iTunes to check something and, “surprise, surprise”, everything was UP and AVAILABLE! She went to Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, Pandora and Deezer and, sure enough, there was Hugh’s album, Hugh Panaro: MAN WITHOUT A MASK (LIVE)! “I called Richard and said something like, ‘I have good news and bad news.’ ‘All the assets are filed and …. Everything is already UP!’” “Whaaaat?” says Jay-Alexander, who was hoping for a breezy entry into February and, with Beavers, delivered the news to Hugh. Well, no one was unhappy, but it sure was a NEW YEAR’S SURPRISE and, now, we at BroadwayWorld get to inform our fans and readers that you can hear Hugh’s live album right now.

From Hugh, “I’m not gonna lie and tell you I didn’t go to all the platforms and look around and listen. I’m just in shock that it happened so suddenly and without warning. But I am also thrilled!”

The digi-pacs should be arriving shortly and Hugh Panaro will now have his first ever CD for sale after concerts across the states and around the world. As for his return to 54 Below to celebrate the release …. We’ll let you know after he and Richard Jay-Alexander check-in with Ms. Tepper.

In the meantime, Hugh hopes you enjoy the music, the recording and all the drama that went with it. His first baby is born at the dawn of 2024.

Click here to stream, purchase and share the new album as well as for the upcoming CD release, for those of you who still have CD players and love to read the info that went into it all.

Photos of Hugh in his PJs: Peter Lentz