Ghostlight Releases BEAUTIFUL, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY Album Commentaries

Ghostlight Records has announced the launch of the new series "Ghostlight Shines On..." presenting exclusive audio commentary on some of its major recordings from Broadway and beyond. The series currently features commentary for two hit albums the label released in 2014: the Broadway smash Beautiful - The Carole King Musical and the beloved score for The Bridges of Madison County, which won 2014 Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations. These track-by-track commentaries discuss the songs, the recording of the albums, the history of the shows, and personal stories behind the music. The Beautiful commentary features legendary songwriters Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, along with select cast members including Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller, Tony Award nominees Anika Larsen and Jarrod Spector, and Jake Epstein. The Bridges of Madison County commentary features three-time Tony Award winning composer Jason Robert Brown and the show's leading lady Kelli O'Hara, who earned her fifth Tony Award nomination for this role.

Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, about the early life and career of the legendary and groundbreaking singer/songwriter, opened on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (124 West 43rd Street) on January 12, 2014, where it continues to break box office records. Like the musical, the Cast Recording of Beautiful features a stunning array of beloved songs written by Gerry Goffin/Carole King and Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil, including "You've Got a Friend," "One Fine Day," "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman," "On Broadway," "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and many more. Beautiful features a book by playwright and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Douglas McGrath, direction by Marc Bruni and choreography by Josh Prince. The complete original cast of Beautiful, all featured on the recording, includes Tony Award-winner Jessie Mueller as 'Carole King,' Jake Epstein as 'Gerry Goffin,' Anika Larsen as 'Cynthia Weil,', Jarrod Spector as 'Barry Mann,' Jeb Brown as 'Don Kirshner,' Tony Award-nominee Liz Larsen as 'Genie Klein', and an ensemble that includes Ashley Blanchet, E. Clayton Cornelious, Joshua Davis, Alysha Deslorieux, Kevin Duda, James Harkness, Carly Hughes, Sara King, Rebecca LaChance, Douglas Lyons, Chris Peluso, Gabrielle Reid, Rashidra Scott, Sara Sheperd, Yasmeen Sulieman, Daniel Torres, Melvin Tunstall and Alan Wiggins.

The Bridges of Madison County is a new romantic musical by the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning team of Marsha Norman ('night Mother, The Color Purple) and Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, Parade), based on one of the most irresistible novels ever written. Five-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara stars with Steven Pasquale in the most romantic musical Broadway has seen in years. Directed by two-time Tony winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza), The Bridges of Madison County is the unforgettable story of two people caught between decision and desire, as a chance encounter becomes a second chance at so much more. According to The New York Times, "Kelli O'Hara confirms her position as one of the most exquisitely expressive stars in mmusical theater." The Associated Press praised the "superb, thrilling score by Jason Robert Brown" and the show was called "gorgeous, powerful and rapturous" by New York Magazine. The show premiered on Broadway early in 2014 and closed in May.

Sh-K-Boom with its imprint Ghostlight Records has become the leading independent force in Original Broadway Cast Recordings - building a library of over 130 records in the last 13 years, featuring the most successful Broadway musicals and solo albums by Broadway's brightest stars. Founded by Kurt Deutsch and Sherie Rene Scott, Ghostlight has won two Grammy Awards (for The Book of Mormon and In the Heights) and is a frequent nominee, most recently for the OBCR of Disney's Newsies and new cast recording of Anything Goes. Other notable recent releases include the 2014 "Best Musical" Tony Award winner A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, The Bridges of Madison County, Pippin and Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, plus The Last Five Years, Giant, Dogfight and the premiere recording of Carrie. The label has also released solo albums from some of Broadway's biggest names: Sutton Foster, Kelli O'Hara, Alice Ripley, Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico and Ben Vereen. Additional titles on Ghostlight include Next to Normal, Hair, Legally Blonde, Everyday Rapture, Passing Strange, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and The Drowsy Chaperone. Sh-K-Boom Entertainment is a producer of the upcoming film version of The Last Five Years, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. www.sh-k-boom.com.