SOMETHING ROTTEN! Cast Album Hits #1 on Billboard Top Broadway Chart

Ghostlight Records just announced that the Original Broadway Cast Album for Something Rotten!, the new musical comedy nominated for 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical, hit #1 on the Billboard Top Broadway chart its first week in digital release. The album also debuted on the Billboard Top 200 chart at #94, the Billboard Top Current Albums chart at #45, and the Billboard Overall Digital Albums chart at #22. This marks the strongest overall cast album debut since June 2014, and the third-strongest sales week of any cast recording in five years. Something Rotten! is officially available now on iTunes here and other digital formats with a 36-page booklet. The disc will be available in stores and online July 17. The album is produced by Kurt Deutsch, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Karey Kirkpatrick and Kevin McCollum. It is co-produced by Lawrence Manchesterand Phil Reno. The album has special liner notes by Time Out New York theater editor David Cote. To order the album, please visit www.sh-k-boom.com/somethingrotten.

The production, directed and choreographed by Tony Award® winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Aladdin), with music and lyrics by Grammy Award® winner and Tony Award® nominee Wayne Kirkpatrick and Golden Globe and Tony Award® nominee Karey Kirkpatrick and a book by Karey Kirkpatrick and best-selling author and Tony Award®nominee John O'Farrell, officially opened on Broadway on Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at the St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street).

According to David Cote at Time Out New York, Something Rotten! is "Broadway's funniest musical comedy in at least 400 years! Something Rotten! has it all: laugh out loud lyrics, catchy music, jaw dropping sight gags and a powerhouse cast selling punch lines to the ecstatic balcony." In the Chicago Tribune, Chris Jones called "Welcome to the Renaissance" "the best opening number of the season - heck, several seasons!"

From the co-director of The Book of Mormon and the producer of Avenue Q comes something original... something fresh... Something Rotten!, a world-premiere musical comedy about the musical comedy that started it all. Welcome to the '90s - the 1590s - long before the dawn of premium tickets, star casting and reminders to turn off your cell phones. Brothers Nick (d'Arcy James) and Nigel Bottom (Cariani) are desperate to write a hit play but are stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rockstar known as "The Bard" (Borle). When a local soothsayer foretells that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, Nick and Nigel set out to write the world's very first MUSICAL! But amidst the scandalous excitement of Opening Night, the Bottom Brothers realize that reaching the top means being true to thine own self... and all that jazz.

With its heart on its ruffled sleeve and sequins in its soul, Something Rotten! is an uproarious dose of pure Broadway fun and an irresistible ode to musicals - those dazzling creations that entertain us, inspire us, and remind us that everything's better with an exclamation point!

Something Rotten! stars three-time Tony Award® nominee Brian d'Arcy James (Shrek), two-time Tony Award® winner Christian Borle (Peter and the Starcatcher), Tony Award®nominee John Cariani (Fiddler on the Roof), Heidi Blickenstaff ([title of show]), two-time Tony Award® nominee Brad Oscar (The Producers), Kate Reinders (Wicked), Tony Award® nominee Brooks Ashmanskas (Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me), Peter Bartlett (Cinderella), Gerry Vichi (The Drowsy Chaperone) and Michael James Scott (The Book of Mormon).

Something Rotten!'s ensemble also features Elizabeth Earley (Mary Poppins tour), Eric Giancola (The Book of Mormon), Linda Griffin (The Drowsy Chaperone), David Hibbard (Elf), Jenny Hill (Spamalot), Stacey Todd Holt (Rocky), Courtney Iventosch (Wicked tour), Aaron Kaburick (Motown The Musical), Austin Lesch (Violet), Beth Johnson Nicely (Bullets Over Broadway), Aleks Pevec (Aladdin), Angie Schworer (Big Fish), Eric Sciotto (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Brian Shepard (Young Frankenstein),Chelsea Morgan Stock (Sister Act), Ryan VanDenBoom (Annie), Matt Wall (Annie), Marisha Wallace (Aladdin), and Bud Weber (Aladdin).

The award-winning design team of Broadway veterans includes Scott Pask (scenic design), Gregg Barnes (costume design), Jeff Croiter (lighting design), Peter Hylenski (sound design), Josh Marquette (hair design), Phil Reno (music direction / conductor), Glen Kelly (arrangements), Larry Hochman (orchestrations) and casting by Telsey + Company/Bethany Knox, CSA.

"SOMETHING ROTTEN" TRACK LIST

1. Welcome to the Renaissance

2. God, I Hate Shakespeare

3. Right Hand Man

4. God, I Hate Shakespeare (Reprise)

5. A Musical

6. The Black Death

7. I Love the Way

8. Will Power

9. Bottom's Gonna Be on Top

10. Welcome to the Renaissance (Reprise)

11. Hard to Be the Bard

12. It's Eggs!

13. We See the Light

14. To Thine Own Self

15. Right Hand Man (Reprise)

16. Something Rotten! / Make an Omelette

17. To Thine Own Self (Reprise)

18. Finale

Sh-K-Boom with its imprint Ghostlight Records has become the leading independent force in Original Broadway Cast Recordings - building a library of over 150 records in the last 15 years, featuring some of the most successful Broadway musicals and solo albums by Broadway's brightest stars. Founded by Grammy Award winner Kurt Deutsch and three-time Tony Award nominee Sherie Rene Scott, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight has won three Grammy Awards (for The Book of Mormon, In the Heights and Beautiful - The Carole King Musical) and is a frequent nominee, most recently for the OBCR of the 2014 "Best Musical" Tony Award winner A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Other notable recent releases include the 2014 "Best Score" Tony Award winner The Bridges of Madison County, Disney's Newsies, Pippin and Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, adding to a catalogue that includes OBCRs of Next to Normal, Hair, Legally Blonde, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Everyday Rapture, Passing Strange, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Drowsy Chaperone and many more Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. The label has also released solo albums from some of Broadway's biggest names: Patti LuPone, Sherie Rene Scott, Adam Pascal, Sutton Foster, Kelli O'Hara, Alice Ripley, Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico and Ben Vereen. The label also continues to support the new generation of musical theatre composers with their extensive relationships with Michael John LaChiusa (Giant, See What I Wanna See, Little Fish) and Michael Friedman (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Love's Labour's Lost, The Fortress of Solitude), as well as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Kitt, Pasek & Paul, Joe Iconis, Ryan Scott Oliver, Shaina Taub, Dave Malloy, Kerrigan & Lowdermilk and Adam Gwon. The label recently created a new joint publishing venture with Razor & Tie to represent songwriters that fuse theatrical and pop music. Sh-K-Boom Entertainment is a producer of the acclaimed 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

Tickets for Something Rotten! are available online at www.telecharge.com, by calling 212-239-6200, and in person at The St. James Theatre box office (246 West 44th Street). Ticket prices are $15.95 - $142.00.