SPRING AWAKENING Holiday Concert Returns to Joe's Pub 12/29

Ghostlight Records presents, due to popular demand, a second Spring Awakening Christmas Concert, for tonight December 29th, 2008. 

The special event, a Benefit for Safe Place, follows the label's first sold-out Spring Awakening Holiday Show, which took place on December 15th.

These shows are part of Ghostlight's Late-Night Concert Series at Joe's Pub: The Spring Awakening Christmas Concert, #2 December 29th, at 11:30pm, A Benefit for SafePlace.

The 12/29 concert will feature the current cast of the Broadway show "Spring Awakening," as well as original cast member Lilli Cooper, and other special guests. The evening will feature all new arrangements of Holiday songs by "Spring Awakening" vocal arranger Ann Marie Milazzo, and will be musically directed by Jodie Moore.

Tickets are $25, and may be purchased by clicking here.The evening's proceeds will benefit SafePlace, 'a nationwide organization whose Mission is to provide access to immediate help and supportive resources for all young people in crisis through a network of sites sustained by qualified agencies, trained volunteers and businesses.' http://nationalsafeplace.org/aboutus/

Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight presents a weekly concert series at Joe's Pub, every Monday night at 11:30 PM, beginning in September and continuing through December. The label will offer concerts featuring Broadway performers and composers, The Midnight Musicals with concert versions of new and developing productions, and much more. The concert series marks a throwback to the early days of Sh-K-Boom Records, when they offered popular late night concerts in their Sh-K-Boom Room.

Ghostlight has emerged as the standard bearer on the Broadway music scene. Their team is relentless in their efforts to promote the music of the most innovative new voices on Broadway, and to preserve the music of past productions. Ghostlight's recent releases of the OCRs for Tony winners In The Heights and Passing Strange, as well as their single release featuring the winner of MTV's Legally Blonde The Musical competition, have brought the label acclaim for their innovative marketing techniques and their efforts to reach the next generation of Broadway music fans via iTunes, music videos and more. Coverage has ranged from Rolling Stone to USA TODAY to The New York Times, from Blender Magazine to Playbill to Billboard, from AP Radio to NY-1 TV, and much more. Other current releases include the OCR for '13 - The New Broadway Musical,' and a double CD collector's edition of 'Reefer Madness.'

Ghostlight Records capped a dominant year with recent news of a Grammy nomination for their double-CD release of 'In The Heights' (already a Tony Award Winner for Best Musical and Best Score).

The label has seen its release of 'Patti LuPone at Les Mouches' garner significant coverage in recent weeks. USA TODAY ran a 'Listen Up - Playlist Music Pick'; Entertainment Weekly ran a review in their recent double-issue; New York Magazine included the CD in their 'Approval Matrix'; The NY Times conducted a TIMESTALKS Event; The NY Post ran a 'My New York' feature; Tina Brown's The Daily Beast ran a 'Buzz Board' Pick of the Day; Time Out NY's Adam Feldman weighed in, and the magazine included the CD in their Holiday Gift Guide; Newsday ran a review...and there's much more, ranging from The Advocate to Paper Mag, from Playbill to Associated Press, from NY Blade to Gay City News, from NY-1 TV to TheaterMania, and so on. The CD reached #25 on the BILLBOARD HEATSEEKERS CHART, marking the first time in Ms. LuPone's storied career that she's charted on Billboard under her own name, and it making it Ghostlight's highest Heatseeker chart debut-to-date.

On February 17th, Ghostlight will release 'Wish', the solo debut CD by Tony-winner Sutton Foster.

Spring Awakening broke barriers when it opened off Broadway at the Atlantic Theatre and then subsequently moved to Broadway and its home at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

When Spring Awakening closes on January 18, it will have played 859 performances and 29 previews. Its eight 2007 Tony© Awards, including Best Musical, made Spring Awakening one of the biggest Tony winners in the past decade. In addition to the Tony Award wins, Spring Awakening won four Drama Desk Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Awards, and the NY Drama Critics Award for Best Musical, the Drama League award for Distinguished Production of a Musical, and the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, among other notable citations.

September of this year marked yet another milestone for the show, as it was the first Broadway show to be invited by iTunes to record a 'LIVE from SoHo' concert at the Apple Store/Soho, which was released exclusively on iTunes. Also in September, the Spring Awakening companion book, 'Spring Awakening In The Flesh" was released by Simon & Schuster.

Broadway's Spring Awakening is led by Hunter Parrish as Melchior, Alexandra Socha as Wendla and Gerard Canonico as Moritz. The “next generation” of Spring Awakening cast was chosen from across the country; from Texas to New Hampshire, Washington to Georgia and all points in between. With ages that range from mid-late teens through early twenties, the new group is similarly in age to the original cast when they began the journey at the Atlantic.

Spring Awakening features the music of Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Choreography is by Bill T. Jones and it is directed by Michael Mayer.  It is the recipient of 8 2007 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and the Grammy Award.

Spring Awakening’s performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday & Sunday at 7 pm, Wednesday-Saturday at 8 pm, Matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. For information and tickets, call Telecharge.com at 212 239-6200. The musical is playing at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, 230 West 49th Street.

www.springawakening.com

Photo Credit: Amy Shaughnessy