LaChanze, Finley, de Haas, Etc. Set for 'Bubbly Girl' CD

Ghostlight Records and Playwrights Horizons have announced the release of the World Premiere Recording of the musical The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin. 

The show premiered in 2000 at Playwrights Horizons - the acclaimed launching pad for works such as Driving Miss Daisy, Sunday In The Park with George and Grey Gardens - and garnered strong reviews for its  score by Kirsten Childs and performances by LaChanze, Felicia Finley, Darius DeHaas and more. The original production never received a cast album, but through the combined preservation efforts of Playwrights Horizons and Ghostlight Records, the first recording will be available for purchase and download in stores and online, and at www.ghostlightrecords.com on April 3, 2007.

"The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin is a unique and extraordinary coming-of-age musical memoir about an African-American in a white world. The sounds of pop, jazz and Motown fuse together in the infectious tracks as we follow Viveca 'Bubbly' Stanton from the turbulent 1960's through her hometown of Los Angeles to New York City in the 1990's. It's the tale of a young woman's tumultuous journey towards self-acceptance in the face of conflicting messages about gender, race and relationships," state press materials.

The recording features original cast members LaChanze as Viveca (the 2006 Tony Award winner for Best Actress in The Color Purple, Once On This Island, which originated at Playwrights Horizons and for which she received a Tony nomination), Jerry Dixon (Once On This Island, Five Guys Named Moe, tick...tick...BOOM!, Avenue X), Felicia Finley (Broadway's The Wedding Singer, Aida, Smokey Joe's Cafe), Darius de Haas (Broadway's Marie Christine, Rent, Carousel), Jonathan Dokuchitz (Broadway's Hairspray, The Boys from Syracuse, The Who's Tommy), Cheryl Alexander (Broadway's Dreamgirls, Once On This Island and Sophisticated Ladies), Duane Boutte (Playwrights Horizons' The Heliotrope Bouquet and Carousel at Lincoln Center), Robert Jason Jackson (Off-Broadway's Running Man), Natalie Venetia Belcon (Broadway's Avenue Q, Off-Broadway's And The World Goes 'Round) and Angel Desai (Company, Stop Kiss and Henry VII at the Public.) 

Joining the cast for this recording are Adriane Lenox (Tony Award winner for Doubt and also Caroline, or Change and Kiss Me, Kate on Broadway) and Shayna Steele (Broadway's Hairspray, Jesus Christ Superstar and Rent). The album was produced by Grammy-Award winner Joel Moss and Curtis Moore, with Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight President and co-founder Kurt Deutsch as executive producer.

The original production of the show was developed through Playwrights Horizons' noted New Theater Wing Program.  For her book, music and lyrics, Kirsten Childs was honored with the prestigious Jonathan Larson Foundation Award, The Edward Kleban Award for Lyrics and The Richard Rodgers Production and Development Awards. The musical - which was nominated for three Drama Desk Awards - was choreographed by Tony Award nominee A.C. Ciulla and directed by Emmy Award winner Wilfredo Medina.

Childs is an alumna of NYU's Musical Theater Playwriting Program. Her show Miracle Brothers, which debuted at the Vineyard Theatre, won the Meet The Composer and Kitty Carlisle Hart Musical Theatre Awards.  Her concert version of Rumpelstiltskin was seen at the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center and her adaptation of the Harold Arlen/Truman Capote musical House Of Flowers was seen at City Center Encores! Her other works include Wasted at the George Street Playhouse and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (Amazing Grace) at Theatreworks USA.

Visit www.sh-k-boom.com or www.playwrightshorizons.org for more information.

Photo of LaChanze by Ben Strothmann