FAR FROM HEAVEN with Kelli O'Hara & Isaiah Johnson Gets Cast Recording; Release Set for 11/12

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director, Tim Sanford; Managing Director, Leslie Marcus) has announced that the critically-acclaimed score for their World Premiere production of the new musical FAR FROM HEAVEN has been preserved as an Original Cast Recording and will be released by PS Classics, the label dedicated to the heritage of Broadway and American popular song. FAR FROM HEAVEN features a book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain, The Assembled Parties), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens at PH and on Broadway) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens at PH and on Broadway, The Grapes of Wrath). PS Classics previously recorded and released the Playwrights Horizons productions of My Life With Albertine andGrey Gardens.

The CD release date is set for Tuesday, November 12, and pre-orders are already being accepted at the PS Classics website, www.psclassics.com. Featuring the entire World Premiere cast lead by four-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara, Steven Pasquale and Isaiah Johnson, the album has been produced by 17-time Grammy Award winner Steven Epstein (Once, The Light in the Piazza, Grey Gardens).

FAR FROM HEAVEN opened at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater on June 2, 2013. Originally set to play a limited engagement through Sunday, June 30, the production was extended by popular demand through Sunday, July 7. The production was directed by three-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (Grey Gardens at PH and on Broadway; Rent, Next to Normal, Giant) and choreographed by Alex Sanchez (Giant,Fiorello!). The musical is based on the Focus Features/Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes.

The album features performances by original cast members Ms. O'Hara, Mr. Pasquale, Mr. Johnson, J.B. Adams, Marinda Anderson, Olivier Award nominee Nancy Anderson, Elainey Bass, Obie Award winner Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Justin Scott Brown, Obie Award winner Alma Cuervo, Korey Jackson, Jake Lucas, James Moye, Julianna Rigoglioso, Sarah Jane Shanks, Tess Soltau, Mary Stout and Victor Wallace.

Also featured on the recording are Orchestrations are by Tony Award winner Bruce Coughlin (The Light in the Piazza, Grey Gardens) and Musical Direction by Lawrence Yurman.

FAR FROM HEAVEN featured scenic design by Tony Award nominee Allen Moyer, costume design by five-time Tony Award winner Catherine Zuber, lighting design by Tony Award winner Kenneth Posner, sound design by Nevin Steinberg, projection design by Peter Nigrini, and wig and hair design by David BrIan Brown. Production Stage Manager was Judith Schoenfeld.

Cathy Whitaker (Ms. O'Hara) seems to be the picture-perfect wife and mother in 1957 suburban Connecticut. But roiling beneath the surface, secret longings and forbidden desires cause her world to unravel, with incendiary consequences. With a lush score that is both jazz-inflected and hauntingly lyrical, FAR FROM HEAVEN is a powerful story of romance, betrayal and intolerance, as a woman grapples with her identity in a society on the verge of upheaval.

FAR FROM HEAVEN was commissioned, developed, produced and recorded through the Playwrights Horizons Musicals in Partnership Initiative, with leadership support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Through this initiative, the musical had a Preview Production run at the Williamstown Theatre Festival last summer, also featuring Ms. O'Hara, Mr. Pasquale, Mr. Adams, Ms. Bernstine and Ms. Stout. The program allows Playwrights Horizons to develop new works of musical theater, each in partnership with a Regional theater - wholly within the not-for-profit system. This seven-year program aims to commission at least three new works of musical theater and develop and produce three or four full-scale productions. Each of the musicals will be produced both by one specific Regional partner and at Playwrights Horizons.

Generous support for the FAR FROM HEAVEN production and recording was also provided by The Laurents / Hatcher Foundation, Stacey and Eric Mindich Fund for New Musicals at PH, Joanne and Daniel C. Smith, the Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund and many more.

The original 2002 film, which stars Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert and Patricia Clarkson, earned over 100 awards, honors and nominations. It was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Actress (Ms. Moore), Best Original Screenplay (Todd Haynes), Best Cinematography (Edward Lachman) and Best Original Score (Elmer Bernstein), and was named one of the 10 Best Movies of the Decade byEntertainment Weekly. It was also named Best Film of the Year by the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, Independent Spirit Awards and the Village Voice, among many others. Far From Heaven also earned 4 Golden Globe nominations including Best Screenplay, a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and a bevy of additional awards for leading actress Julianne Moore, including one from the National Board of Review Award and nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and the Golden Globes.

Photos by: Joan Marcus