HANDS ON A HARDBODY Cast and Creatives Set For Birdland Tonight

Ghostlight Records will celebrate their Original Broadway Cast Recording of the new musical HANDS ON A HARDBODY another special event this month. Green will host the concert Amanda Green and Friends at Birdland Jazz Club (315 West 44th Street) tonight, September 29 at 6:00 PM to celebrate the album's release. Her special guests will include Keith Carradine, Allison Case, Jenn Colella, Van Hughes, Janet Krupin, Kathleen Monteleone, Jim Newman, Jacob Ming-Trent, Jon Rua and William Youmans. The singers will be backed by members of the original Broadway "Pit Crew" for Hardbody, including Musical Director Matt Gallagher on piano, Skip Krevens on pedal steel, Shannon Ford on drums and Skip Ward on bass. Visit www.Birdlandjazz.com for tickets and details.

The new musical HANDS ON A HARDBODY was released 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 by Trey Anastasio (Phish) andAmanda 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 listen to tracks from the album, 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 andKevin Morris. Trey Anastasio produced the album, in addition to contributing his trademark guitar work. Amanda Green serves as co-producer andKurt 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 the Los 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), and William 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.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Human Drama Kind Of Thing

2. If I Had This Truck

3. If She Don't Sleep

4. My Problem Right There

5. Alone With Me

6. Burn That Bridge

7. I'm Gone

8. "uncontrollable laughter"

9. Joy Of The Lord

10. Stronger

11. Hunt With The Big Dogs

12. Hands On A Hardbody

13. Born In Loredo

14. Alone With Me (Reprise)

15. It's A Fix

16. Used To Be

17. It's A Fix (Reprise)

18. God Answered My Prayers

19. Joy Of The Lord (Reprise)

20. Keep Your Hands On It

21. The Tryers [Bonus Track]

ABOUT SH-K-BOOM & Ghostlight Records

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 within the last 13 years, featuring the most successful Broadway musicals and solo albums by Broadway's biggest stars. Ghostlight recently won the Grammy Award for The Book of Mormon, and released the OBCR of Newsies, the premiere recording of Carrie, the new Grammy-nominated cast recording of Anything Goes, plus the OCRs Catch Me If You Can, Sister Act and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, as well as solo albums from some of Broadway's biggest stars: Sutton Foster, Kelli O'Hara, Alice Ripley, Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico and Ben Vereen. Other titles on Ghostlight include the Grammy Award-winning In the Heights, plus Next to Normal, Hair, Legally Blonde, Everyday Rapture, Passing Strange, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and The Drowsy Chaperone. www.sh-k-boom.com.