HANDS ON A HARDBODY Cast Recording Gets 8/27 Release; Bonus Track Included!

Ghostlight Records will present the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the new musical HANDS ON A HARDBODY both in stores and via online outlets on August 27. The musical features a book by Doug Wright (Pulitzer Prize winner, I Am My Own Wife), lyrics by Amanda Green (Bring It On: The Musical), and music byTrey Anastasio (Phish) and Amanda Green. The show was nominated for three 2013 Tony Awards, including "Best Original Score," and nine 2013 Drama Desk Awards, including "Outstanding Musical," "Outstanding Music" and "Outstanding Lyrics." The album features "The Tryers," a special bonus song that was cut from the show. To pre-order the album, please visit www.sh-k-boom.com/handsonahardbody.html.

HANDS ON A HARDBODY - directed by Neil Pepe (Broadway's Speed-The-Plow) with musical staging by Sergio Trujillo (Memphis, Jersey Boys) - was inspired by true events. It was based on the acclaimed 1997 documentary of the same name that was created by S.R. Bindler and produced by Bindler and Kevin Morris. Trey Anastasio produced the album, in addition to contributing his trademark guitar work. Amanda Green serves as co-producer and Kurt Deutsch as Executive Producer.

For ten hard-luck Texans, a new lease on life is so close they can touch it. Under a scorching sun for days on end, armed with nothing but hope, humor and ambition, they'll fight to keep at least one hand on a brand-new truck in order to win it. In the hilarious, hard-fought contest that is HANDS ON A HARDBODY only one winner can drive away with the American Dream.

When HANDS ON A HARDBODY opened at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre, it was called a "daring new musical" by The New York Times, which noted "the score ranges from gospel to blues to country to slightly rougher-edged rock. None of it sounds like traditional show music: think of Mumford and Sons, not Rodgers and Hammerstein." It was praised by theLos Angeles Times for its "refreshing emotional simplicity" and a score "immediately accessible without sounding canned." Time Magazine raved about the "flavorful country-Western score that is tuneful, well integrated and evocative."

"The Tryers" is a special bonus track that was cut from the stage production. According to Amanda Green, "It's a song I wrote for the characters Benny Perkins and Chris Alvaro to sing after Benny has let go of the truck and lost the competition. We kept reconfiguring the song - who sang what - and Doug Wright rewrote the scene leading up to it many times. I kept whittling and whittling the song down to make the moment tighter - and land with the most impact. We finally got it to a place we were all happy with, but then realized in previews that, as much as we loved the moment - the emotion and sentiment of the song -it was slowing down the story and the action of the musical. So we cut 'The Tryers' and, indeed, the storytelling got tighter and better. Now we're thrilled to have it on the CD as a bonus track!"

The Broadway production of HANDS ON A HARDBODY featured the full cast from the La Jolla Playhouse engagement: Keith Carradine (Tony Award nominations for this show and The Will Rogers Follies), Allison Case (Hair), Hunter Foster (Tony Award nominee, Little Shop of Horrors), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Catch Me If You Can), David Larsen(American Idiot), Jacob Ming-Trent (Shrek The Musical), Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone (Tales of the City), Mary GorDon Murray (Into The Woods), Jim Newman(Curtains), Connie Ray (Next Fall), Jon Rua (In The Heights), Keala Settle (2013 Tony Award nominee for this show), Dale Soules (Hair), Scott Wakefield (Ring of Fire), andWilliam Youmans (Wicked).

HANDS ON A HARDBODY also boasted an award-winning design team including scenic design by Tony Award winner Christine Jones (American Idiot), costume design by Tony Award winner Susan Hilferty (Wicked), lighting design by Tony Award winner Kevin Adams (Spring Awakening), sound design by Tony Award winner Steve Canyon Kennedy(Jersey Boys), orchestrations by Trey Anastasio and Don Hart, and vocal arrangements/musical direction by Carmel Dean (American Idiot).

The La Jolla Playhouse production of HANDS ON A HARDBODY was produced on Broadway by Broadway Across America - Beth Williams, Barbara Whitman/Latitude Link, Dede Harris/Sharon Karmazin, Howard & Janet Kagan, and John & Claire Caudwell, Rough Edged Souls, Joyce Primm Schweickert, Paula Black/Bruce Long, and Off The Aisle Productions/Freitag-Mishkin.

The world premiere production of HANDS ON A HARDBODY opened Saturday, May 12, 2012 at La Jolla Playhouse and played a limited engagement through Sunday, June 17, 2012. HANDS ON A HARDBODY was commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse (Christopher Ashley, Artistic Director & Michael S. Rosenberg, Managing Director). The show opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Thursday, March 21, 2013.