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PS Classics to Record Bucchino's It's Only Life with Molaskey, Creel, Porter and More
By: BWW News Desk Jan. 19, 2006
The show, co-conceived and directed by Daisy Prince (The Last Five Years, Songs for a New World), will feature three veterans of Jason Robert Brown's song cycle Songs for a New World--Brooks Ashmanskas (Gypsy, The Producers), Andrea Burns (The Full Monty), and Jessica Molaskey (Parade)--as well as Gavin Creel (La Cage aux Folles, Thoroughly Modern Millie) and Billy Porter (Ghetto Superstar, Grease). They will "perform a powerfully moving collection of both familiar and new compositions with Bucchino himself at the piano," state press notes. The album will be recorded the week of January 30th in a New York City studio; Tommy Krasker, co-founder of PS Classics with Philip Chaffin, will produce the album.
The recent recipient of the first annual Fred Ebb Award, created to "recognize excellence in musical theatre songwriting," John Bucchino has also been honored with The Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award, The Songwriters' Fellowship Award, The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, The Second Stage Constance Klinsky Award, The Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Commendation Award, The Jonathan Larson Award and The Kleban Award. His songs have been recorded and performed by Judy Collins, Barbara Cook, Michael Feinstein, Art Garfunkel, Patti LuPone, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra MacDonald, Liza Minnelli, The Boston Pops, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, and many others, in venues that include Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Opera, The Hollywood Bowl, The Sydney Opera House, and The White House.
He has written songs for the musicals The Artist at 40, Urban Myths and Lavender Girl, a piece included in an evening of short musicals called 3hree compiled by Harold Prince. He has also written the songs for the Dreamworks animated film Joseph, King of Dreams and has released three CDs: the RCA Victor CD and companion songbook Grateful: The Songs of John Bucchino, Solitude Lessons (another collection of original songs), and On Richard Rodgers' Piano, which features solo piano interpretations of Rodgers songs on the composer's own Steinway. He is currently at work with Harvey Fierstein on a new musical called A Catered Affair.
The Grammy-nominated label PS Classics, founded in 2000, has been profiled in publications such as The New York Times for its diverse line of show albums, solo CDs and songbook recordings. Its cast albums celebrate Broadway (Assassins, Fiddler on the Roof), off-Broadway (Lone Star Love), and regional theatre (Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite). Its solo albums range from jazz (Jessica Molaskey: Make Believe) to pop (Johnny Rodgers: Box of Photographs) to folk (Rebecca Luker: Leaving Home). The composers highlighted range from Jerome Moross and Billy Strayhorn to Maury Yeston and Jason Robert Brown. PS Classics is distributed exclusively by Image Entertainment. Visit www.psclassics.com. For more information on Bucchino, visit www.johnbucchino.com.
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